大象传媒

It was tea-time and the temperature was well into the nineties. My Mother and I decided to cool off in one of the cinemas which had air-conditioning. Father met us afterwards and said that he had just heard Mr Chamberlain on the 大象传媒. We were at War. Parents didn鈥檛 speak on the journey home and for once, neither did I. I knew of the horrors that China had suffered since the main Japanese invasion of early 1937 and wondered if England might now suffer too.
The tiny international Settlement of Shanghai, which was our home and where the Chinese population had nearly doubled with refugees from the North, was first bombed on August14th 1937. After that we were in a state of siege as the Japanese did their best to take the city over and get rid of us. It took them another 5 years, when the remaining residents were interned in 1942. (My brother-in-law was one of them, but as the Japanese had found out that he had been relaying information to the 大象传媒, he was put in the notorious Haipong Road jail with the police and other 鈥楯apanese informers鈥�. He would never talk about it afterwards, except that he managed to hade his transmitter amongst the rotting hay bales of the defunct Culty dairy before being arrested).
In January 1940, my Mother was summoned Home to England as my brother was very ill at boarding school. I would have to go with her. The only ship available was a small Japanese one leaving in February for Nagasaki, 24 hours sailing across the Yellow Sea. From there we were to make our own way somehow to England. We were the only foreigners on board, so kept very quiet on the rough journey and waited until lat to disembark. Customs emptied absolutely everything out of our luggage until the boat train for Kobe had left, then they laughed and said 鈥渙kay鈥� while gesturing to us to repack. We took our time and made them wait.
We managed to find a picture-book tea-house with elderly ladies to serve us and wondered if they came they came from the same Japanese race as the men whom we had come across 鈥� and I had come across quite a few over the past years, including being chased by soldiers with over-long bayonets at the end of their rifles, but that is another story.
The night train was slow and stopped everywhere, including Hiroshima where we walked around the short while and bought a Japanese picnic lunch to eat on the train. Kobe was freezing cold and we could not pin down any shipping agent for news about a ship to Vancouver, but after a week we embarked on the Hikawa Maru, a large passenger liner which had 5 foreign passengers and a few Japanese. From beautiful Vancouver we crossed Canada by train to Montreal. I had seen snow, but nothing like this. It took 2 weeks to discover that there was no hope of a ship to England, so we trained down to New York. After another fortnight our money was running out and we were just about to go to the Shell Co. (my Father鈥檚 employers) to ask them to advance us some cash when the shipping agent said 鈥淗ere are your tickets, you leave from berth 9. Don鈥檛 tell anyone, don鈥檛 leave them about anywhere and don鈥檛 pay your hotel bill until the minute you leave鈥�.
We had seen all the sights of New York, at least, all that we were really interested in, except the Empire State Building, then the highest in the world. Mother declined to go up so I went on my own-right up to the very top. I was alone until a group of people came tumbling out of the lift with their tour guide-I tagged along. 鈥淎nd finally,鈥� he said 鈥淭here鈥檚 a sight you don鈥檛 see every day; the five biggest ships in the world lying next to each other. You will notice that the largest is painted battleship grey, which is because she is to be used for military transport. It is the Queen Elizabeth, just out from England and visiting our fair city on her trials.鈥� I prayed that there were no Germans in the tour.
That night we sailed from brightly lit New York. Not long after passing the shining Statue of Liberty we began to zigzag into a vast expanse of blackness, all on our own. Just because everyone would have liked the weather to be rough to discourage U-boats, it was calm, oily calm, and we live in all our clothing. We were ordered to keep our life-belts with us always-the lifebelts were made of hard cork ands if we had to jump into the sea it was reported that one of the blocks of cork on front would knock us out with a smart blow to the chin so we wouldn鈥檛 feel how cold the sea was. I was 16 years old and rather prim, but I learnt the latest dances after Mother had retired to bed. My partners were young men from the Argentine who were going to England 鈥渢o join in the fun,鈥� they said.
After 8 days an aircraft suddenly appears out of the clouds and we hurriedly tied on our life-belts, but ship鈥檚 officers were sent around to say it was our escort to Liverpool.
It was 5 o鈥檆lock, the Customs man said 鈥淵ou haven鈥檛 anything to declare, have you madam?鈥� and put his pass squiggles on our entire luggage before I had time to read Mother鈥檚 list of might be liable for duty. He left. It was pitch dark. We had no idea how to work the telephone. We were lost-until an ARP man on a bicycle came to our rescue and led us to a hotel.
We could have stayed at home in Shanghai as brother was back in school. I was horrified that Mother has quietly organised that I should enter boarding school. I hated the discipline and was glad to lave when the government took it over as a hospital. Father and 2nd sister arrived and we went to live just North of London and watched the bombing of the city from our window and listened to the distinctive thrum, thrum of the Germen bombers as they turned for home above us. I was then sent to Kerr-Sanders secretarial college, newly evacuated to Stanway House in Gloucestershire. It was so cold our hands and feet were soon covered in chilblains, but it was worth it. I enjoyed practically every minute and learnt a lot about the English countryside as well as how to be a good secretary.
My first job was with de Havilland鈥檚, but the man I was assigned o had such a thick Scottish accent (I had never heard any Scottish accent before) I had to keep asking him to repeat everything he said-slowly. This did not endear me to him and I think that he was glad when I took up an offer to work at the Chinese Embassy. A few months later I was due to be called up so I applied for a job at the Foreign office. I moved to London and began a most satisfying and satisfying few years with Signals Intelligence. One evening a week I helped a friend at the New Zealand Club to find accommodation fro NZ forces on leave in London and another evening doing the same for Commonwealth (then Empire) troops.
We survived fire-bombs, V1s V2s when I was told that I was to go to Chungking (Chonqing). I could not go as a civilian, but in FANY uniform. I spent a very strange fortnight. I suppose polishing the staircase and washing floors is good for one鈥檚 discipline for future training, but it did nothing for me. The other girls were a wonderful lot and I did learn to read a map properly and how to protect a broken arm, but not how to treat a bullet wound. VE Day arrived. I went to work feeling like death as I had had inoculation for every disease under the sun all at one go as I to fly to China in 3 days time. Two of us went to the pub for supper. As steak was being served as a special treat there was a queue and after half an hours wait supping gin and ersatz (substitute) limes I had to be guided to a chair. Half a dozen chips and a spoonful of yellowy mushy peas added to the enjoyment of the 2-inch square steak and I felt much better until a tiny notice on top an ornate mirror was pointed out to me, it read; 鈥楬orse meat served here鈥�.

We wended our way across Trafalgar Square and up The Mall, every one grabbing everyone else to join in the dancing and singing. I spent that hour screaming 鈥渕ind my arm鈥� and must have been the only one there who wished they were somewhere else. We reached the Palace railings and I put my aching arm through them with a relief. Unfortunately it was my left arm and we were on the right of the palace, so I faced up Constitution Hill and had difficulty in turning to face the Royal Family on the balcony.
Hurn Airport. We sat in the Dakota to wait for an important bod to turn up. A camouflaged car screeched to a halt and a high-ranking RAF officer scrabbled up the steep little ladder, tripped over the entrance and fell into the cabin. The pilot looked as if he should still be in school.
After a not unadventurous 3 days, we landed at Karachi. I then went by sea-plane to Calcutta, butt alas it broke down and we were stranded half-way across India. After another 3 days and a fright from a Krite (a small, but deadly poisonous snake), a spare part arrived by train and we were able to set off again.
A week later I flew over 鈥楾he Hump鈥� to China鈥檚 war-time capital, the mountain city of Chungking. The river had risen so high that we had to land somewhere in the surrounding hills instead of on the river island airstrip. The city was full of caves which had been taken over by shops and families and smelt of gin, caused by the exhausts of the buses which, because of the shortage of petrol, had sometimes to use the local wine instead.
The atom bomb brought an end to the war, but Chungking was so battered and worn out that there was little energy left for much celebrating. There was just an almighty sigh of relief. My job was soon finished and the following October I got Dengue fever, was returned to Calcutta and, on recovery, flown to Colombo to catch a troop ship returning to England. There, on board, I met an SOE Sub-Lt. from Force 36 in Tricomalee and we were married the following Christmas Eve. The Admiralty promised not to send him out East again, so 10 days later they sent him to Malta and I didn鈥檛 see him again for 7 months. We celebrate our 60th wedding anniversary this year.

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