CHINESE STOWAWAYS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 133, 8 June 1931, Page 2

CHINESE STOWAWAYS

DISCOVERY ON MAKURA. “MORL. DEAD THAN ALIVE.” i Afore dead than alive, a Chinese stowaway was discovered on board the i Makura a day before tho ship arrived I at Sau Francisco on its last eastward trip. Tho story of tho discovery was, told by a member of the ship’s com- ■ pany w’hen the Alakura returned to Wellington this week te ~We wore on the last stage of the voyage from Papeete to San ‘Francisco,” he said, “and were doing lifeboat drill the day before we reached port. A Chinese was found lying in the bottom of one of the boats in the last stage of exhaustion and had to bo lifted out and taken to tho ship’s hospital immediately. Ho had stowed away at. Tahiti, and had been seven days without food or water, and seemed in dire distress. It was considered that if ho had laid undiscovered for another two days he would have died. There was food and water in the boat, ironically enough, but it was sealed in tanks, which could be opened only with a spanner.” Photographs were taken of the man on tho wharf at San Francisco, and he was put in hospital fcr further treatment. By the time the ship left he was well again and came on board to he returned to Tahiti. They heard on arrival there that a warrant was out for his arrest on a charge of stabbing a French gendarme, and it was the opinion on board that the Chinese would be sent to Devil’s Island.