AMAZING STORY

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 16 July 1938, Page 10

AMAZING STORY

EXPERIENCES IN CHINA NEW ZEALAND WOMAN IN HONG KONG WAS IN BOMBING OF HSUCHOW

iU P A —Bv Electric Telegraph—CoDvriebt! (Received 16th July, 1 30 p.m.) LONDON, 15th July. ! The Hong Kong correspondent of : "The Times ’ says an amazing story of terrifying experiences in China was related by Miss Iris Wilkinson w’ho is still in hospital suffering from nervous prostration. She said the position became acute on sth May when Japanese planes dropped 200 incendiary bombs on Hsuchow. Many buildings were set !on fire. The hosiptals overflowed with civilian casualties. The Chinese on 14th May informed her that the railway had been severed by the Japanese. The only way to escape would be on foot. She decided to trek northward to the coast. She started ill-equipped, and suffering from an almost blinded eye caused by a crazed Chinese refugee striking her with an electric torch. This injury is still evident. After a long exciting trudge she was given a lift part o( the way by a Japanese lorry, the officer declaring that she would have been shot if she ; had been Chinese. After further foot slogging she reached a Chinese outposrt where the commander provided her with a uniform and a donkey on which she rode some distance, seeing occasional fighti ing. Eventually she reached Tsinpu railjway and decided to walk along the Urack to Tsingtao. A Japanese troop | train overtook her and offered her a lift to Tsingtao but when aboard she found the train was going to Hsuchow which she reached again in mid-June. Undaunted she decided again to attempt the trudge. After two days she was overtaken along the railway by Japanese soldiers on a trolley and offered lift but because of the unpleasantness of her companions she left the trolley at Lungchen where she m<f. a Japanese officer who placed her on a :roop train going to Tsingtao which she reached after two days and two nights in the same compartment with 14 Japanese soldiers sleeping on a mat. She was taken to the Japanese headquarters at Tsingtao, given hotel lodging for one day and then handed over tq the British authorities. Later she went to Hongkong where she is I slowly recuperating. MISS WILKINSON RECOVERING (Received 16th July, 9.45 a.m.) HONG KONG, 15th July. Mrs Iris Wilkinson (“Robin Hyde”) the New Zealand journalist is recovering slowly in hospital. Miss Wilkinson was reported missing for several days, but after a trying experience reached Hong Kong.