EVACUATION OF SHANGHAI

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22478, 12 August 1938, Page 10

EVACUATION OF SHANGHAI

Commemorative Plaque On Ship PRESENT FROM DUTCH .* REFUGEES (FftESS ASSOCIATION TEI.fOBAM.) AUCKLAND, August 11. Commemorating the gallant part played by the ship in the historic evacuation of refugees from Shanghai on August 17 last, a bronze plaque in the smoking-room of the South Pacific Line’s passenger steamer Tasman is a proudlytreasured battle honour. The Tasman, which arrived at Auckland on her first visit to the Dominion, was previously in the Royal Packet Navigation Company’s service from the Orient to Java and South Africa, and saw a considerable amount of the hostilities on the China A brief inscription in Dutch on the plaque recalls the part played by the Tasman in the war zone. It reads: “In remembrance of the evacuation of Dutch women and children from Sh When a \he U Brhish and American warships and other foreign shipping were speedily removing their nationals from the growing holocaust of Shanghai the Tasman was entrusted with the transport of the Dutch and Hungarians to Hong Kong. With bombs falling on both sides ol the Whangpoo river and shells screaming overhead, the work of rescue was undertaken under great difficulties, and heavy ram intensified the wardships. . , , . Chinese aeroplanes were flying overhead in formation and Chinese and Japanese warships were firing furiously as the Tasman moved down the river. She ran the gauntlet of the gunfire, shells falling on all sides. After the Tasman had reached Hong Kong with the refugees the Dutch nationals, to mark their gratitude to the ship, presented the plaque.