TOUR IN EAST

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 October 1939, Page 7

TOUR IN EAST

IMPRESSIONS OF MASTERTON RESIDENT UTMOST COURTESY RECEIVED FROM JAPANESE. APPALLING POVERTY SEEN IN HONG KONG. Experiences and impressions of a tour of the East undertaken by Messrs W. Drummond and W. Jobson, of Masterton. were related to a "Times-Age" representative by Mr Drummond, who stated that throughout a period of 17 days spent in Japan the utmost courtesy was extended to him and to Mr Jobson.

Mr Drummond, who left Wellington on June 9, said he reached Hong Kong about the middle of July, in mid-sum-mer. What struck him most in Hong Kong was the appalling extent of poverty to be seen in the city. There wort fine buildings, housing financial and business concerns, on the waterfront, but every third person seen was a beggar, holding out his or her hands and muttering something unintelligible in Chinese. At night, tens of thousands, even little children, were to be /seen sleeping on the pavements, in gutters or on window sills. On the wharves whole families lived under the cranes and on at least two occasions, Mr Drummond said he saw Chinese fishing out of the water, by means of a handkerchief or a net tied on the end of a stick, scraps and leavings which a steward on a boat had just thrown overboard. He took pity on one woman he saw, who approached him, accompanied by five small children and held out her hands. He gave her a dollar and she bowed and bowed again upon receiving such a gift. In a minute about 150 others had surrounded him and the gathering attracted the attention of a policeman, who told Mr Drummond never to give money to people in Hong Kong, as it only made trouble and there were charitable institutions which attended to the poor. A Customs officer told him that he had really seen Hong Kong at its worst as far as poverty was concerned, on account of the many refugees from Canton and the surrounding districts. Mr Drummond spent 31 days in Shanghai at the end of July. The Japanese, he said, were in full charge. The Chief Post Office, which was comparable with the Wellington Post Office, had the front portion, facing the Japanese Concession, barricaded with barbed wire and it _was necessary to make a detour of about a quarter-of a mile, to gain admittance. The bridges over the Yangtzekiang River were guarded, at one end by Japanese and at the other by the British. The British guard did not interfere with anyone, but the Japanese guard would not allow any Chinese to pass unless they had a pass signed by two business men in Shanghai. Chinese subjects had to show their passes some paces from the Japanese and bow. If they did not they were Fit over the head with a stick. All parcels were examined. Mr Drummond said he had no trouble at all with the Japanese while he was in Shanghai. Business in the city was ! very bad. No one was allowed to leave the immediate precincts of the city.

In Japan itself, where 17 days were spent, Mr Drummond said the Japanese he encountered were most courteous and considerate. They never interfered with him in any way whatever. In Yokohama he was Mopped by a Customs officer who asked him what he had in his baggage. He explained that it was his personal belongings and offered to open his bag to show the official, but the latter declined, freely accepting his explanation. In Kobe Mr Drummend saw a procession passing through the streets. There were fully 8,000 to 10,000 people in it, carrying banners, singing and shouting. He asked a Japanese official what it was all about and was told that it was an anti-British demonstration but the official explained: “We have nothing against the British people. We will do anything to help you in any way we can. We don’t like the King" (meaning the Government). On two occasions in Japan he saw cases in which British subjects did not like the idea of Japanese Customs officers interfering with their baggage. One man refused to allow an inspection and was pushed into a shed, where no doubt his belongings were examined. In Moji, where all the hospital bases were located to receive casualties from China, for a period of two hours one day, Mr Drummond said, he saw stretcher cases coming in one after the other. There seemed to be little doubt that the Japanese were not disclosing a lot of their losses. At the various Japanese ports he visited, he said he was not impressed with the physique of the Japanese recruits, who were not up to the standard that he had expected would have ruled. The Chinese seemed very confident of winning the war and the Japanese appeared to be equally confident.