CHINESE HELD ENGINEER

Press, Issue 29236, 21 June 1960, Page 17

CHINESE HELD ENGINEER

Forced To Sign Documents

(New Zeatana Press Association DUNEDIN, June 20.

Forcibly removed from his ship at Shanghai and interrogated for more than seven hours by Chinese Communist police officers was the unpleasant experience of Mr Erling Naess, chief engineer on the 4000-ton Nor* wegian vessel Varild, at present in the Port of Otago. Mr Naess said his experience, arose after an incident involving a Chinese member of the crew. Four Chinese policemen boarded the ship at Shanghai, and “requested” Mr Naess to go ashore for inquiries. They became so insistent that eventually he went with them to a police station on shore. There they interrogated him for seven hours, and denied him the right to see the Norwegian consul and an interpreter. Documents were placed before him. “I was told that unless I signed them, I would not be allowed to rejoin my ship, which was to sail with the next tide,” he said. Finally, anxious for his wife, Mrs Margrethe Naess, who travels with him, be took the risk and signed the papers. ‘1 didn’t know what I was signing—they were all in Chinese, and I was not allowed an interpreter,” Mr Naess said. He was then taken back to the ship, and he sailed without further incident However, after the home company of the vessel was informed of the events, he was told to make arrangements to return to Norway, as the vessel was due to return to Shanghai from New Zealand ports, and he might be threatened again with detention in the hands of the Communists. The company has arranged to fly Mr and Mrs Naess direct to Norway from Auckland.