ROPING around Hongkew in search of houses and belongings long since abandoned to the ravages of war was an adventurous business in which several hundred Britons participated yesterday morning and afternoon.
Adventurous not so much because of the proximity of the theatre of warfare, but because there was no knowing what might await those who visited their homes in the hopes of finding at least part of their possessions still intact, after having been abandoned in the hurry and flurry of evacuating the area north of Soochow Creek.
There was tragedy, of course, lurking among those anxious hundreds who went by motor lorry, private car, or simply on foot back to where their sole belongings, apart from immediate necessaries, had been left at the beginning of hostilities. But everyone at least pretended that the whole thing was a joke, forgetting that the clothes which they were wearing might well prove to be all that they had left in the world.
A big crowd gathered at H.M. Consulate at 8 a.m., when it was opened for the issuing of passes for those Britons who wished to go on a salvaging expedition. Passports having been examined, the exact position of their homes located on a big survey map, and the necessary permits issued, they trickled off in twos and threes, joined other salvagers, and hopped into waiting lorries. Each party was accompanied by one volunteer from the Transport Company, S.V.C., and one from the Russian Company. Over 150 had crossed the Creek by the end of the morning, and a further 100 went over in the afternoon
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.