A SAD STORY

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 99, 23 October 1924, Page 5

A SAD STORY

GIRL STOWED AWAY,

(UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION.-COPIRiSHT.) (AUSTRALIAN-NEW ZEALAND CABLE ASSOCIATION.)

B . ■ LONDON, 21st October. « Bessie Chalmers has arrived at Edinburgh from New Zealand, having travelled as a stowaway, dressed as a boy on board the Port Hunter. She said she was doing well in Now Zealand, earning good wages, when she heard of he? mother s death in Scotland. She felt she must return to help her invalid father and motherless family, but could not save the passage money, as she had been sending home every penny she had to spare.

She tried to obtain employment as a stownrdess on the Port Hunter, and when she failed she bought trousers jersey, and cap, and stowed away in an empty cabin. She went without food for three days. A storm came on, and she was terribly ill. She managed to change into girl s clothes 'and crawl out from hex- hiding-place and give herself up to the captain, who, though in the first place, very angry, finally allowed her to work her passage, assisting the stewards.

The girl's father, a veteran soldier who had been a crippled invalid for eighteen years, died before the eirl's .arrival. ,