Refugees Try To Escape

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29831, 25 May 1962, Page 9

Refugees Try To Escape

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter— Copyright) HONG KONG, May 21. Refugees from China are leaving tell-tale trails in the New Territories in the blue khaki jerseys and trousers, plastic travelling bags and rubber shoes that they discard to escape detection by the Hong Kong police and the British Army, a Reuter correspondent reported today.

The correspondent’s report Mid:— I even saw a three-foot long plait of hair on the ground which a Chinese peasant woman must have cut off, with great reluctance, but also with great foresight. She knew that her hairstyle would give her away as a new arrival from China.

A couple of yards from the Bailey bridge at Sheung Shui, two mile* from the frontier, I picked up a. faded blue jersey inside a pig-sty. In its three pockets, I found some People’s yuan notes and coins, two packets of cigarettes, a box of matches, and packets and tins of medicinal balm and ointment

The cigarettes and matches were manufactured in Canton, the medicine in Hong Kong. Man Returning

Just then, a Chinese aged about 30 walked past me towards the bridge—and to China. He was under sft, had unkempt hair, a pair of Euro-pean-style trousers that were too long for him, and a white shirt buttoned up to the collar. I called to him and asked him where be was going. He hesitated, then told me he was from Waiyeung district, where he was a cadre (Communist official) who supervised over a group of 40 in their farming and other work.

He had come to Hong Kong to find a relative three days ago. The police had not caught him and he had found his way to Sheung Shut. There, he found his relative had died and he knew no people here, “So I am going back to China,” he said.

I asked why he came to Hong Kong in the first place. He said: "Hunger.” He told me his ration was sometimes 270 z of rice a day, sometimes 360 z.

I asked the man if the Communist Chinese authorities would accept him back and he said “Yes.”

Trucks carrying illegal immigrants to the border passed by, but police in them took no notice of him. Children nearby picked up bags of bread and barley which fell from the trucks and gave them to him. At first he refused, saying that he was not hungry, and that he had begged a meal from a shop in Sheung Shui. In the end, he accepted. I also gave him the yuan notes, cigarettes and matches. He refused the medicinal ointment and the discarded jersey.

Stopped by Police Then he walked on his way, and the two policemen on the bridge stopped him and bundled him into a small concrete sentry box. The case of the refugee who refused to stay was puzzling to them and I heard one ’phone headquarters to ask for Instructions.

Meanwhile, the man with his baggy trousers and thoroughly nonchalent air, in true "Charlie Chaplin" fashion, opened the door and walked away. The policemen had to force him into the box again. Most refugees, however, do come to Hong Kong to try to stay. Below the hill* of China, where the refugees come down, I saw a heartbreaking scene. A young Chinese father had gone there to look for his refugee wife and child, his mother and his brother-in-law and son. He found them, but they were already in the custody of British soldiers who had flushed them out from the bush.

The young wife screamed with grief, the young husband wept openly. Only the old mother kept her composure and comforted both. A British soldier from Ridley, Staffordshire, in jungle green and carrying a rifle, told me: "We have our orders but it’s heart-breaking. We were taking them away when the man (the father) came up. They refuse to move and we are waiting to give them to the police." Later. Chinese policemen came up. They told the man he might be able to plead for his wife's stay. Villagers’ Advice But on their way, villagers and people who were there looking for friends and relatives advised him to take the child away while there wss still time. His wife could make a second attempt. The man asked hi* mother to look after his wife. Then, weeping, he picked up the child, about five years old. and disappeared. The brother-in-law had in the meantime been given a new suit of Hong Kong peas-ant-style clothes and changing into them, he mingled with the crowd that had collected. The police took the wife, mother and the broth-er-in-law's child away. Many Chinese in the colony have formed themselves into private relief and aid groups and send men out into the New Territories to give food, clothes and other necessities to the illegal immigrants. I saw a group helping five people to change their clothes. Suddenly, British soldiers converged on the spot The group told the refugees to hide in the bushes, but the soldiers, gently but firmly flushed them out with their rifles. There was a general murmer of disapproval from by. slanders as the soldier* led ■ boy, then In succession three girls, out of the bush.