’Quake — N.Z. man went back to bed

Press, 4 August 1976, Page 2

’Quake — N.Z. man went back to bed

t NZPA Staff Correspondent ; Tokyo! lj Mr Rama Durie, the I administration officer at the! New Zealand Embassy in, Peking, went back to bed ' and had a good sleep after ‘the Tangshan earthquake severely jolted the Chinese; (capital last week. “I’m fairly fatalistic about; ■earthquakes, having ex-1 perienced quite a few in! New Zealand,” he said after! i.he arrived in Tokyo from, Peking with other evacuees. I Mr Durie, aged 25, of! Palmerston North, who is! the first Maori to work at! ithe Peking Embassy, had! been there only three days! when the earthquake devas-! ;tated Tangshan, and sent; Peking residents fleeing into! the streets. ; “1 got up and looked out; the window, and saw Chi * Inese in the streets and 1 tvent back to bed, because L j thought it was all over,” hej I said. “1 had a good sleep,, and it was only the next! morning I found there had I been another jolt. Afterwards, I thought I should ; have perhaps been a bit ; more wary.” i But he added: “I’m fairly iblase about earthquakes.” i

i Mr Durie, who worked for s Hthe Ministry of Agriculture 1 J and Fisheries in Palmerston t {{North, Hamilton, and Wellington, before being sec- i bonded to the Ministry of | . Foreign Affairs for the)< . Peking job, said he wouldit ' not hesitate to go backjt ■when the danger was over. ) Miss Ainslie Muldrew, of If jOamaru, another member of [ Jthe Embassy staff, had been f ■ (back only two days after a i (holiday in Europe when she 1 'was jolted awake, in her [ fourteenth-floor apartment (in 1 one of the diplomatic v blocks. |q ■ "It was hot, and I wasl( ((sleeping with nothing on, so|t I my first thought was to) 5 ({cover myself decently,” shel\ Isaid. Il "But I decided my clothesfi (could wait, and just stood injf •the doorway as I was. l! pressed my hands hardjy (against the sides of [door. It was just .backwards and forwards. Ik {really thought the whole I r building was coming down.” i s When the swaying) p stopped. Miss Muldrewlj, scrambled into some clothes,k decided to go down in the) 1 lift, which was still working,; instead of the darkened!'' 1 - b

staircase, and joined other foreigners and Chinese in the street. “It was a nasty twenty minutes, but what we experienced was very little .compared with what the Chinese people went through,” she said. “I'm rathei concerned at the attention that is being paid to what happened to foreigners in China, because it is the Chinese people who had by far the worst experience.” Other New Zealanders who flew to Tokyo were the Trade Commissioner (Mr Rod Cumming) whose wife and ■ two daughters left Peking on 1 Sunday, Mrs Susan Browne.; whose husband, Mr Tony! Biowne, is still at the Embassy, and Miss Pamela! Little. Still in Peking are the! Ambassador (Mr Richard; Atkins) and Mrs Atkins, the! Counsellor (Mr John Brady), Mr Browne, who speaks Chinese, the Ambassador's per-) sonal assistant, Miss Noeline Morrison and the communications officer, Mr Rod Tai-! bot. There is no indication; when foreigners who have) been evacuated will be able o return to Peking.