HELD BY BANDITS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22164, 18 January 1934, Page 6

HELD BY BANDITS

CAPTIVE FOR SIX MONTHS TWO OFFICERS’ EXPERIENCES JOYFUL RETURN TO ENGLAND. “I’ve been through hell, but it was worth it for this.” The speaker was a young British ship’s officer, just back to England from the East after being a captive in the hands of bandits for six months, and he was now clasping in his arms the sweetheart he had not seen for five years. The reunion took place on a recent morning on the dock of a drab cargo boat which had just berthed in a London dock. On board was Mr A. D. Blue, of Port Glasgow, one of the three British officers who were captured together by bandits in Manchuria, and the girl who had waited for him was Miss Margaret Wilson, a bonnie lassie from his home town. With her was his mother. When the gangway was let down from the ship the girl ran up straight into the arms of her sweetheart and for a minute or two the couple were too overcome with emotion to speak. Then Mr Blue said simply: “Hullo, Bunty.” Then the young man clasped his mother in his arms while she, with tears in her eyes, welcomed him home with loving, broken sentences. With Mr Blue was one of his companions in misfortune. Clifford Johnson. Mr Johnson looked fit and well, but Mr Blue appeared pale and worn, and still bore traces of his ordeal. The three

officers ■were released after a ransom had been paid. To an interviewer the officers said that one of the worst ordeals they had endured was having to lie concealed in 15feet reeds in slimy mud for nine days with no shelter, while pursuing soldiers fired blindly into the reeds from all sides in the hope of finding a mark. “ Another experience we shall never forget was when we two and our comrade, W. E. Hargrave, of Ripon—he has stayed in China —tried to escape from the dhow in which we were imprisoned. “We slid over the side of the vessel in the darkness while our captors were asleep and ploughed through watery mud for hours until we were thoroughly exhausted and found that we had’ been wandering round in a circle. We were lucky to get back on board without our captors discovering our absence.

“ When we were captured by a second gang who fought the first gang almost every man in the first lot was shot to death. The bandits threatened to mutilate us, and they actually showed us a captured Japanese whose ears they had split. The forced marches they made us do were particularly trying,” went on Mr Blue. “ They took away our shoes and we had to march with nothing on our feet but cloth wrappings. Often we marched as much as 25 miles a night, roped together, and prodded on with rifle butts.” Yet, in spite of hardships of which these described are but a sample, both officers said they were willing to go back to China. ■