By Gareth Jones
March 1935
Like a ghost vessel, the liner which was taking me from the port of
Yokohama, with its modern semi-skyscrapers, to Manila, capital of
the Philippine Islands, glided from the quay, passed the great
broken all breakwater, many of whose massive stones had been hurled
into the sea by earthquakes, and skirted the Japanese coast.
I scarcely saw a soul on board until the dinner-bell rang, and I
descended to find a German and an American at table vigorously
discussing the Japanese.
“They just copy, copy, copy, proclaimed the German, “but we Germans
were too clever for them once, when they tried to steal some of our
plans,” and he chuckled: “A Japanese firm wanted a boat to be built
by a German firm.” He continued: “So the Germans showed the
Japanese representatives the blue prints. The Japanese said, ‘we
want to study the plans before accepting. May we take them back to
the hotel?’ “Certainly,” said the Germans.
Vessel Overturned
After many days of study the Japanese brought the blue prints back
and said that they did not wish to order the vessel. They returned
to Japan and built themse1ves a boat on exactly the same lines,
which they had seen in the German blue prints.
“The day of launching came, but at the dramatic moment the vessel
over-turned. The Germans, suspecting that the plans would be
copied, had omitted, on purpose, one or two of the essential
details!”
The next time I heard that story, however, it was told about British
plans; so there is a touch of the legend about it.
Mr Grunberg, from New York, was not to be outdone: “I’m in the
silverware business,” he said, “and there’s not much about cutlery
which your little friend Grunberg don’t know.” He paused for
effect, nodding proudly. “ But the Japanese nearly put one over
me. I went to the Hotel Imperial, Tokyo, and at dinner I looked and
said: “If that isn’t 1847 Rogers silverware! That’s swell! I
looked again, and on the back of the ware was ‘Tokyo ‘—a wonderful
imitation.”
With such experiences we passed the time. Next day we reached
Kobe, a fantastic place where there are streets packed with cinemas
advertising Japanese films, the one more bloodthirsty than the
other, and all glorifying the thrills of battle.
American’s Prophecy
At midnight we sailed from Kobe, and next morning I woke up to see
the magnificent Inland Sea with its islands its hills, and the
slopes covered with the picturesque Japanese pines.
As we went through the Straits of Shimonoseki, an American passenger
prophesying future events in North China, said: “A Japanese told me
that the next step would be an independence movement organised in
Shantung, which is already very strongly influenced by the Japanese
and where Tsing Tao is already another Dairen. In Shantung they
will declare that they want to join Manchukuo, but this movement
will, of course, be Japanese paid. Already masses of Japanese
goods are entering Shantung without paying duty, and the politicians
there get bribed for it by the Japanese.”
On Tuesday morning, a dull, misty day, I woke up to find the boat
stationary in a yellow, muddy river where hundreds of Chinese junks
and sampans were lying. A launch took me through the mist to the
Bund at Shanghai, where the modern European buildings stand. A rush
of rickshaw coolies came at the arrival of the launch.
A little Chinese beggar child, her pigtail tied at the back with a
red ribbon, repeated with a mischievous smile and in a strong
Cockney accent: ‘Gimme copper! No papa, No mama! No whisky soda’
Crashes to Come
A rickshaw carried me into the l French Settlement and I called on a
Chinese banking family. When I asked about the bank crashes in
Shanghai the young banker’s son said: Crashes! The crashes are
still to come. Conditions are terrible, here in Shanghai.
President Roosevelt by his silver policy has drained us, of silver
and we are suffering for his madness.”
Walking past the fine-statured Sikh policemen, past the beggars and
the women with their deformed little feet, I called on some of
Shanghai’s journalists, with whom l lunched and dined. They told me
that Japan wanted to control 90 per cent. of China’s trade and
that they wished to send 3,000 Japanese officers and N.C.O.’s
into the Chinese Army and get rid of all the German advisers. They
said that the Japanese were smuggling great quantities of goods
through their wharves into China and that the Chinese merchants were
furious with this subterfuge.
I learned that the Chinese industrialists were in a bad way, that
there a was too much “squeeze,” that their machinery was out of
date, that it would be a very long time before they could build up a
strong Chinese industry, and that the silk trade, unable to compete
with the Japanese, was smashed.
Tributes to Dictator
I heard tributes to the Dictator, Kiang Kai-shek, who was succeeding
in bringing some kind of unity to China by crushing the local
governors, suppressing the war lords, and defeating the Communists
in Kiangsi.
At one o clock at night I sailed for Hong Kong where I arrived a little
over two days later. In this rocky, mountainous island, which in the
beginning of the last century was a famous pirates’ lair, a great city
has been built, and here I met a fellow countryman in the colony, Mr.
David Davies, chief clerk to the Colonial Secretariat. He drove me to
the magnificent Repulse Bay, whose deep blue waters lie between high
wooded hills. I heard many tributes in Hong Kong not only to his
official services, but also to his conscientious work for humanitarian
causes.
There was great activity in Hong Kong. Volunteers were preparing for
long all-night route marches. Destroyers were speeding past the
islands. It was a time of manoeuvres in case there should one day be
conflict in the Pacific.
It was cool in Hong Kong, but two hours after sailing towards the south
the liner entered a sudden wave of heat, which was a rapid contrast to
the Hong Kong weather. Next day a hot sun burned down and I had entered
the Tropics. As we were nearing the Philippines flashes of lightning
filled the sky.
On the tenth day of the voyage after leaving Yokohama, Manila came in
sight and soon I was on United States soil again, arriving on a historic
occasion, for President Roosevelt had just signed the Constitution which
will in time give national freedom to the Filipinos.
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