Butterfield and Swire steamer, Nanchang, who were welcomed coeeialgmaneament with the, three young officers of the back to Shanghai on September 13 after the nerve-wracking ordeal of 163 days' captivity in the hands of ruthless Manchoukuo marauders, the "North-China Herald" is able to publish their exclusive first-hand story of one of the most daring piracies perpetrated in Chinese waters.
Extracts are given herewith of the actual diary, laboriously pencilled on cigarette packets and odd scraps of papers snatched from the decks of filthy pirate junks, in which the prisoners set down a vivid st. ry of their crushing hardships and dashed hopes after being carried off from the Nanchang whi she lay at Newchwang Bar on March 29.
"We just feel like schoolboys ready to break up for the holidays, We are very thankful we were British subjects, because we Know we would never have got out if we had not been, and we feel most grateful to the authorities, especially the British' Consul was how the escaped officers summed up their reaction in an interview on September 14. They are Mr. CLIFFORD JOHNSON (30), Chief Officer, of Berlancliff, Lanark Road, Colwyn Bay, who has been with Butterfield and Swire four years and eight months; Mr. A. D. BLUE (29), Second Engineer, from Port Glasgow, with the company four years and ten months; and Mr. W. E, Harcrave (25), Second Officer, a native of Ripon, Yorkshire, who has had three years in the Taikoo service.
Mr. F. L, Pears (31), Third Engineer, who was born in Inverness but spent most of his life' in Newcastle, was also captured, but was released five days later as messenger with the' bandits' demands.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.