Evening star., 1939-02-12
Quest Ends for Junk to Cross
Pacific From Hong Kong
c. Writer Sees Keel of Sea Dragon Laid;
japanese Reported Plotting to Ruin City
By RICHARD HALLIBURTON.
ARTICI NO z

BY RICHARD HALLIBURTON.
ARTICLE NO. 3.
s Last week. writing from Shanghai,
I said I had begun to hunt for a
Chinese junk big enough and strong
enough to take me and my crew
across the Pacific from China to
San Francisco.
Around Shanghai all the junks
had fed before the japanese. I
went to Wenchow and looked at
dozens. Every one appeared at least
10 years old. and some 100, and I
was distrustful of their seaworthi-
ness.
The fleets at Ningpo. Annoy and
Foochow were inspected. Ningpo is
a dead port today. It's ships, Ger
tain to meet destruction at the
hands and the japanese Navy the
moment they put out to sea, are
quietly laundering at their an
chorages.
In Annoy a shipbuilder offered to
build flrst-class Annoy Junk-in 80
days. I wanted one now.
In Foochow, home of the carved
and painted junks, there was such
a lack (again due to the war; OF
tools, timbers, gear. canvas, paint,
provisions-al vitally necessary for
q long sailing trip-that dared not
embark from there.
Hong Kong, a British colony, still
free from Japan's strangling block
ade, was my last hope.
Right Place at Last.
Even as our passenger ship ap-
preached Hong Kong, knew was
coming to the right place. Protected
by the guns on the towering peaks
above the harbor, the junks from
this port. thumbing their noses at
the Japanese, were fishing merrily
along the shore. There must have
been 500 in one fleet. their FORE
masts leaning rakishly forward,
their mainsails a vast brown web
of mating formed like the wing
of a bat, their perky little fan
shaped miZzensails stuck high on
the up-swelling poop. I almost for
got to look at the entrance to a
mountain bound harbor. which, Rio
de Janeiro excepted, is the most
spectacular on earth.
We found a magnificent junk an
chored in cove called-lovely
hame-Gin Drinkers Bay.
1t was built like battleship,
truly beauty, and could have
crossed the Pacific with ease, but
the pirce was three times what we
could afford to pay.
In Joss House Bay we found an
other almost as beautiful. We were
on the point of buying it when we
found that the hull planking was
only an inch thick.
And so it went, ship after ship.
Inevitably. we soon reached the
only possible conclusion-we must
build a new junk suitable to our
needs, regardless of the time it took.
Sea Dragons Keel Is Laid.
In a native shipyard we made a
deal, and in "a hours the Sea
Dragons keel was laid. AS that was
two weeks ago, I've had plenty of
time to play, and to enjoy one of
the most interesting cities in the
world, at one of the most critical
periods in its history.
Within a year Hong Kong will cele-
brate the Tooth anniversary of its
founding. A hundred years ago there
was nothing here but a rocky island,
bare and nearly uninhabited. A
few Chinese families lived along the
shore in squalid stone huts, gaining
q livelihood by fishing and piracy.
Then in 1910 these fishermen were
surprised to see several shiploads
of well-to-do British merchants,
with their wives and children, land
ing on the islands inhospitable rocks
and looking as if they meant to
stay.
This group of Britishers were refu-
gees from Canton, 80 miles inland,
where an antiforeign outburst had
driven all Europeans from the city.
In short time the refugees had
pirated the island from the native
pirates. Then, in quick order, forts,
Offices, banks, houses of God and
jails begn alto rise as fast as Scots,
Irish and Englishmen arrived to use
them. Hong Kong, from the start,
gave promise of becoming colonial
imitation of a London suburb.
What the British did not reckon
with was the migration of Chinese
into the colony. Seeking security,
they came in thousands. Today the
Chinese outnumber the whites a
hundred to !. They have swelled
the population until the city is now
probably the second largest in the
British empire.
Prosperity Ends Suddenly.
Up until the Japanese seized Can
ton, Hong Kong was enjoying a
fabulous prosperity. But lately there
Is every evidence that the city is
headed for sharp decline. In case
there is no war, Japan intends to kill
Hong Kong's economic value, reduce
1t to shell, and absorb the wreck
age. With violent means of conquest
delayed for the time being, Japan
is Systematically pursuing the Sec
ond method
Japan has mixed feeling toward
this great port-covetousness, and,
at the same time, hatred. From the
beginning of the China war to the
fall Of Canton, the Chinese armies
were supplied chiefly through this
British doorway. Carloads of shells
in a continual stream, went up the
busiest railroad in the world to Cam
ton: and trainloads of Chinese nrod-
ucts, in as steady a stream, came
down the line to Hong Kong, to be
shipped abroad and thus enable
China to maintain her credit.
In fhic roilroad Ianar enu, a