27/4/2005 Ed Minny and Hazel Campbell - spelling of Weihsien
Greg Leck - Civilian Internn Inquiry - May 2005 - born 29/11/1879 Baghdad - passport #C41806 - nearest relative Mrs W J Doran 641 O'Farell St SanFrancisco - interned March 1943 Weishsein - Moselle Minny - maiden name Gatton
www.jolytrinitynewrochelle.org/yourti19163.html May 2005 My memories of Eric Liddell by Nornal Cliff August 1943 to May 1995 Weihsien Camp "Following the Japanese raid on Pearl Harbor on December 8, 1941, Britain and America were at war with Japan. The British community of Tianjin were then very much under the control of the Japanese military. During March, 1943, all enemy nationals in Tianjin were instructed by the Japanese to prepare for a journey to an internment camp in Weihsien (now known as Weifany), some four hundred miles away. They were to go in three groups on the 23rd, 28th and 30th March, 1943, and the luggage for each group was to be sent four days in advance. The luggage to be sent for each person could include a bed, bedding and two boxes, and each traveller could take on the train two suitcases as hand luggage. The authorities omitted to mention the need to bring cooking utensils and tools. The Westerners arrived at the chosen meeting place at the Recreation Grounds in Tianjin. The weather was cold, and they were all wearing fur hats, thick overcoats and woollen scarves. To make sure that nothing was left behind because of weight they were pushing all kinds of contraptions - improvised wheelbarrows, prams and Chinese-style poles with buckets on each end. At 7.30pm the Japanese inspected the luggage, and then the ragtag group moved slowly along the street with their awkward burdens to the beginning of the French Concession, then on to the Bund, and across the international bridge to the railway station. During this mile-long walk the streets were lined with sympathetic and silent onlookers of many nationalities. Japanese camera men snapped pictures of the crocodile line for propaganda purposes in the home press. The Allied prisoners were crowded into third clasee carriages, and the train left at 7.40pm. There was nothing to eat or drink, and the adult passengers sat awake all night while the younger ones slept fitfully. After changing trains at Jinan, they arrived at Weihsien in the afternoon of the following day. Buses and trucks took them through the massive gates of the city, across three miles of countryside on a rough road, which led to the former American Presbyterian mission campus."
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Eric Palmer May07
