GIRL STOWAWAY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 January 1943, Page 4

GIRL STOWAWAY

DOMINION TO CANADA SUDDEN IMPULSE. . HID ABOARD AT LYTTELTON. A New Zealand girl was attending a sailors’ fancy dress party at Lyttelton one night when she had a sudden impulse to go to Canada. A Canadian merchant vessel was in port, so, still wearing an Irish folk dancing costume, she seized a rope dangling over the side and climbed on board just before sailing time. Telling the story of her stowaway adventure, she said that what she remembered most was the look of surprise and alarm on the captain’s face when she was shown into his cabin. “He looked as if he had seen a ghost,” she said. HID IN A HOLD. The girl said she heard Canadian sailors at the dance talking about Canada, and she had a sudden impulse to go there. “I ran alongside the ship about a quarter to midnight,” she said. “There was a policeman by the gangway, so I looked for a rope. I don’t know how I reached the deck without being seen. The policeman shone his torch in my direction several times, and two or three of the crew passed as I was climbing the rope. But I made it.” She hid in a hold until the following midnight, when she called out to a sailor and was taken to the captain. By this time she was ill, but the captain was kind to her and let her lie down in the saloon. A little later she became so ill that she was sent to the ship’s hospital, where she spent a considerable part of the trip. DESIRE TO STAY ABROAD. “I was never so well looked after in my life,” she said. “Breakfast was brought to me by the third engineer, and when I was well enough they allowed me to spend my evenings in. the smoke-room with the officers. I entertained them by singing songs and giving imitations of Shirley _ Temple, Bobby Breen and a baby crying.” Since arriving in Vancouver the girl’ has been in the care of the immigration authorities. On condition that she reported to them daily, they found her accommodation at the Y.W.C.A. In peacetime she might be deported, but under present conditions it is doubtful if she can be sent home. She do is not want to go home and is hoping to take up war work in Vancouver.