KEY TO SHANGHAI

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 April 1938, Page 5

KEY TO SHANGHAI

riIINESK ‘ PASS’- VEGETABLES. Brirish soldiers, who for many weeks held the barbed-wire-and-saml-bag barricades on the western boundary of the International Settlement, have some amusing tales Io tell .of their experiences with the country folk, who of course, spoke a language quite unknown to these husky Irishmen and Scots.

At one phase of the hostilities, because of the pressure, refugees could no longer he admitted to the foreign areas haphazardly, but were periodically taken In charge hy the truckload for removal to special camps. So orders went, out that, henceforth free amt casual admission would be given only to gardeners bringing fresh vegetables of which the Settlement was.in need.

The word was circulated that thl only country people who could move freely past the barricades were those with vegetables. Near one of the main ba.rricade points was a big carrot field. So everyone wanting to enter the Settlement made it a point to visit the He’d, pluck a handful of carrots, and march confidently upon tne sentry waving a bunch of carrots as “pass." The sentries were aware of the joke, hut didn’t have the heart to halt these ingenious Celestials, so each was grinninely passed along with a jerk of the thumb. One of the officers finally became aware of what was going on, and he ordered that hereafter only people with a real load of vegetables might get past. Along tame a. man with two big baskets, from the top of which clothes projected; he proudly displayed a letter in English from his British master explaining that he had been sent out to get vegetables from the Englishman’s Hungjao road garden. The sentry pointed to the clothes and turned him back;but in a few minutes he appeared again, beaming and undiscouraged. Once more he was turned back. A third time he appeared, and by now the sentry was curious enough to call an interpreter. When the situation was disclosed, the man promptly pulled off the clothes coverings from two big loads of thoroughly authentic vegetables—probably /he only real load of vegetables which had been brought to the barricade that day!