LI day yesterday the food rush was on. The Garden Bridge, on both sides, experienced unprecedented traffic blocks as lorries and motor-cars by the hundred went to the Eastern area and returned laden with essential provisions and other cargo long tied up in godowns and cold-storage plants as distant as the end of Yangtszepoo Road.
Yet, when the Bridge was closed to northbound traffüc at 3.30 o'clock yesterday afternoon, scores of waiting trucks and cars had to turn back into The Bund and Soochow Road, their crews disappointed.
It had been announced that removals could be effected up to 5 p.m., but it is understood that the Japanese in charge on the Bridge had construed this hour according to Japan time, which made it 4 o'clock local time.
Hence the disappointment of the hundreds waiting at the south end of the span when it was suddenly announced at 3.30: "No more-cars over to-day; come, again to-morrow morning!"
Owners of foodstuffs stored "north of the Creek" reported to Miss E. M. Hinder at the Food Transport Office in the S.M.C. Administration Building for assistance at 830 am., and by 9 o'clock the big trek was on, It started on large lines and it did not diminish while it was still permitted, rain or no rain. Every conceivable type of motor vehicle was used, including motorcycles, and some property was carried by hand. All sorts of labour was used mostly Russian as the Japanese objected to Chinese crossing the creek. Members of office staffs—even taipans in certain cases—were espied, in khaki shorts and open-neck shirts—directing operations and occasionally lending a hand. It was
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