Evening star., 1927-02-06
American, Under Suspicion Is Held as Bolshevik S1
,-oking His Way Out of DangerSaved by Inspector

an spies have done Gen. Suns army a
great deal Of injury. l explained in
detail the reason for the disguise.
Fortunately. / had taken the precau-
ton of getting a Chinese passport for
the girl from Minister of Foreign Al
fairs Tsai-Ting-kan.
They searched and questioned the
poor child very exactingly, but she
held stiff upper lip and stuck to
straight story. Then they came back
to me. The scheme seemed to be to
send one man after another to ask
the same questions and require
name. card. Twenty repetitions of the
information and 20 cards the same
seemed to convince them.
I'VE and you have been made lot
of unnecessary trouble" their offlcer
said.
But we can't release you. We will
send yoAI under guard over the river"
We were escorted aboard a tiny
launch which rolled and pitched
frightfully. l had never seen the
Yangtze so rough. Waves swept
across the deck. The soldiers squat
ted down and made a railing Of their
rifles, to which we clung.
I1EA IHllltdTy nSduuudTlcTS dI
Hsiaokwsn was pretentious
for accumulated filth, inside. The room
labeled guest hail." into which we
were ushered, was without a single
seat. The plaster wallis were full of
bullet holes: relics OF one or more OF
the many times which this river port
has been "shot up"
The Supervisors ONCE" was oc-
cupied by a chap sitting on the only
stool in evidence, having a haircut,
his shorn bristles strewing the floor.
Some boy pages in military uniform
gathered about us and began to make
remarks. but were silenced by a we'll
aimed rifle-butt blow or two from our
guard. Here we repeated our story
twenty times more.
There Is nothing in this, but we
can't release you," was the identical
decision. l made a formal demand
that the American consul be called.
Wait" was the reply. After several
hours policeman in black uniform
arrived
"The inspector of police has heard
that an American and two Shan
tungese are here" he said. He
is great friend of foreigners,
and a Shantungese himself, and he
0nerS TO care IOr the prlSOneTS pcnu-
ing the commanders will"
The military turned us over with
evident relief. There was quite a
change in our manner of escort. In
stead of being herded within a ring
of bayonets, we were followed by two
unarmed policemen whom we lost
in the thronged streets. We had 10
inquire the way to our prison.
- We were kept kicking our heels In
the outer quarters for an hour OI
more; apparently to test our dispo
sitions. To have threatened and
stormed about. as foreigners have
been accustomed to do under similar
circumstances in the past, would
probably have cost me the friendship
of the police head. who wanted to see
how sweet-natured l was before ht
received me.
When we had shown every~indica
| tion of ability to outsit our guards
| the lass was invited to the rear oi
| the compound. A long time passed
| during which l asked several time:
| for the privilege of telephoning OF
sending a message to my consul. The
| answer was Wait"
| EINALLY Inspector Liu summoned
l. me. l founl him a kindly, witt,
man.
"Mr. Hall" he said, 'T have quite
| satisfied myself concerning you.
know your former connection with my
great but unfortunate fellow
provincial, Wu-Pei-fu. apologize tC
you. and ask you TO be my prisoner
and my guest until word can come