De: "Ron Bridge"
<rwbridge@freeuk.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Bishops in Weihsien
Date: samedi 28 juin 2003 21:39
re Leopold
Pander's report on Mgr Hanquets ,
According
to the various Camp Lists the following senior clergy were in Weihsien:
RC Bishops
all transferred to Peking on or about 16 Aug43
Francis
JOOSTEN Dutch CICM from Datung
Thomas
MEGAN SVD Sinsiang
Louis
MOREL Belgian Scheut Fathers Pameng
P
PINGER American Chowtsun
Leo de
SMEDT Belgian Chagar
Abbot
PESSERS Franciscan Shansi transf'd Peking 16Aug43
Anglican
Bishop of North China from Peking
Thomas A
Scott
Rgds
Ron
PS For the
record at this stage I have 2004 names that were in Weihsien at some time or
other.( Includes the Italians although I know that I still missing about 80
priests and nuns and probably 40 that were evacuated on the Gripsholm[at this stage I have not
traced the Camp of some of the Gripsholm names])
De: "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>; <pamela@hendersonhouse.com>
Objet: Diana Candlin
Date:
jeudi 10 juillet 2003 3:58
Hello, Everybody,
Through a happy coincidence, I recently had Sunday brunch with a
friend of DIANA CANDLIN,
who was in Weihsien when we were.
The 1944 prisoner list notes her
as a student, age 22, living in Block 34.
Some of you who knew her will
recall that she married one of the Marines (Silva) who helped repatriate
prisoners from Weihsien.
If friends would like to contact Diana, here's current information:
Diana Candlin Silva, 2150 Janis Way, Clarlsbad, CA 92008
I've missed hearing from everyone recently. What's happening?
Mary Previte
De:
"alison holmes" <aholmes@prescott.edu>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Diana Candlin
Date:
jeudi 10 juillet 2003 4:20
Nice to know that there may be some
new memories coming! I think most of us
have said our piece, sometimes more than once, and so new voices are
essential! Thank you Leopold so much
for putting the memories together.
Can any one who joins can get his
neat package, when they read the archives?
There has not been much said about the Weihsien trip or the
documentary...have they faded away? I
ask out of general interest, not because I would be going on the trip. Those
early days had a formative effect on our lives............and now we are living
them!
Alison Holmes
Liberal Arts Coordinator
Adult Degree Program
Prescott College,
220 Grove Avenue
Prescott, Az 86301
1 928 776 7116 X3202
aholmes@prescott.edu
De: "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Christiana Spink's doctoral dissertation
Date:
vendredi 11 juillet 2003 3:39
All of you with a Chefoo connection
will be fascinated with Christina Spink's
Doctoral Dissertation which
researches and analyzes the Chefoo School
experience including the years in Weihsien. This is the most comprensive research I've seen. It's data
includes interviews from more than 100 Chefoo students and delvings into primary documents about Weihsien from the U.S. National
Archives -- including from Swiss Consul Egger and concentration camp
reports to the U. S Secretary of State.
I confess, I'm one of the Chefoo
students Chris Spink interviewed.
Even you non-Chefoo students might
find fascinating the Weihsien history included in her research with its
information from Tipton, De Jaegher,
Gilkey, Cliff, Kuhn, Martin, Urech, and American consul Samuel Sokobin.
If you're interested in
getting a complete copy of Christina’s dissertation, here's the information:
It's called "AN ORAL CASE STUDY OF THE CO-CONSTRUCTION OF SCHOOLING AT THE CHEFOO
SCHOOL AND IN THE WEIHSIEN CONCENTRATION CAMP."
UMI # 9998870
UMI Dissertation Services
A Bell & Howell Co
300 North Zeeb Road
PO Box 1346
Ann Arbor,
Michigan 48106-1346
Phone: 1-800-521-1600
www.bellhowell.intolearning.com
De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Second-hand Memories
Date: vendredi 11 juillet 2003 6:31
I, too, have enjoyed hearing
everyone's memories of Weihsien and of growing up in China, which have helped
me more fully envision my grandparents' experience there.
I may already have sent this to you,
but if not, I'd be curious to know how many of you recognize any of the
"snack food" items described in the following excerpt from my Uncle
Durand's "Childhood Recollections" -- not from Weihsien, certainly,
but perhaps from before or after internment.
If I already sent this excerpt,
please forgive me, but it makes me wish I had some of the things he describes.
=============================================================
3. Snack Food
Forget the details of our education,
then. But everyone likes to eat. So let's see what strange things we ate in
China. Not shark's fins, nor birds'
nest soup, nor chow-mien, chop suey, or the other "American-Chinese"
dishes with which most Americans are familiar, but real "common folks,
country-style" treats.
Many of these were what might be
called "snacks." Most were
seasonal, available only at certain times of the year. Most, too, were made in small shops and they
were sold both in these shops and by the wandering vendors who patrolled the
city streets and the country lanes, crying their wares. For each product, there was a different and
rather musical "vendors' cry," which we soon learned to identify.
Usually, the vendor carried his wares
in open baskets hung from each end of a "carrying pole," and he
loped, rather than walked. His steps
were nicely timed to correspond with the elastic bend-and-straighten action of
the pole on his shoulder. Some of them,
however, pushed two-wheeled carts large enough to accommodate a charcoal
brazier and a pot in which their specialty was kept hot. For sanitary reasons, we were not permitted
to buy any of these things when they were cold, unless they were packed in
tightly covered baskets into which the dust and dirt of the roads could not
penetrate.
Which were my favorites? That is impossible to answer: each one, when its season arrived, was
delicious, and made me forget for the moment the delights of its predecessors.
Whatever I name herein will be
spelled the way it sounds to my ears; not in the manner of Romanization worked
out by a misguided British philologist.
(He maintained that the rollicking, rolling Peking-dialect "R"
was not an R, but a Jay! That
"D" was not "Dee" but "Tee", written "T",
and that our "T" sound was to be written "T"[?]. When he got to Romanizing Japanese, he
insisted that "Mount Fuji" was not that at all, but was "Mount
Huzi"!
"Tong gwars" (British spelling "T") and kwah tze"
were a cream-colored malt-sugar candy somewhat resembling "Salt Water
Taffy" or "pull candy."
Since Dr. Ingram said that malt sugar was "good for you," we
were allowed to eat it in almost unlimited quantities. Tong gwars were hollow-balls, about the size
of a tennis ball; by the time you had tried to bite into it two or three times,
it was a sticky mess! But the candy
also came in easier-to-handle sticks about six inches long and half-inch or
more square. These candies were
available only in the early autumn, when the newly-harvested grains had been
malted.
"Tong Hu Lers" were glazed fruits or nuts, stuck on a bamboo
skewer. Five to eight grapes,
crab-apples, walnuts, chestnuts, quartered apples or peaches or apricots,
dates, plums, cherries whatever was in season would be skewered on a thin splint
of bamboo, dipped in heavy syrup, and hung up to dry. All of them were delectable, and available in whatever season the
fruits ripened.
"Zoong-tzes" were small pats of rice, cooked until it was soft and
sticky, then mixed with dates. The
combination was wrapped, in triangular packets, in the long, slender leaves of
a reed. Then it was cooled, by the
street vendors, in buckets of water dipped from whatever water-source was
available: the polluted moat, the
equally polluted river or Grand Canal.
Therefore, we were not permitted to buy the cool zoong-tzes from
vendors: we had to find the shop where they were made, and buy them hot as they
came out of the steam-cooker. Then, we
took them home and cooled them in our ice-boxes. We waited impatiently for this cooling process to finish; but we
didn't mind the delay. We had
discovered, through occasional disobedience of our parents' orders, that the
consumption of even one zoong-tze cooled in the vendors' water bucket resulted
almost inevitably in stomach cramps, diarrhea, or even worse amoebic dysentery.
"Yuan-shiaos," which means literally "round little
things," were small dumplings of glutinous rice flour stuffed with dates,
pine nuts, almonds, walnuts, rock-crystal or brown sugar, and fried in deep fat. These were a Chinese New Year's delicacy, on
sale only in late January and early February.
Since they were best when hot, we (or the cook) bought them un-cooked,
then brought them home to be fried and served.
They made a wonderful dessert!
Also available only at Chinese New
Years were the best "Yueh Bing," or "Moon Cakes." They were round cakes, about three inches in diameter and
three-quarters of an inch thick, made of a rich pastry rolled out into very
then sheets almost like puff-paste.
They were filled with rock-crystal sugar, pine nuts, dates and figs or
other dried fruits. They were so rich
that we were never allowed more than one cake at a sitting. So-called "moon cakes" were
available the year around; but they were hardly worth eating, made as they were
of a much tougher, much less rich pastry and stuffed with a rather tasteless
mixture of soy-bean paste and brown sugar.
"Man toh," steamed dumplings made of wheat flour, were available
in an almost endless variety of fillings.
As part of a meal, served with the entree, they were stuffed with
mixtures of chopped onions, cabbage, a little garlic, spinach, and perhaps
grated carrot combined with minced pork, chicken or beef. As a dessert, they were filled with a
semi-sweet combination of soy-bean paste and brown sugar, or navy bean paste
and white sugar. Always, the
"man-toh" were steamed and served piping hot.
"Lu-dah-gwar" or "Donkey rolls over," were another sort
of dumpling made of millet flour, steamed.
Divided into pieces about a half-inch thick and four inches long, the
sticky dumpling was rolled in a mixture of fine-ground soy-bean flour and brown
sugar. These donkey-rolls-over were
available only in the fall, when the millet had been harvested and ground, and
the flour was still "glutinous," therefore sticky when steamed.
How to describe a "Yu-ja-gway"? Nowhere in
the rest of the world have I seen anything like it! In shape, it was as though you had laid out a strip of very light
pastry dough into a figure eight about a foot long; then, by pressing in from
both sides, had stretched it into an extremely slender figure eight about
eighteen inches long. Salted, then
deep-fried in a huge vat, it was light as a feather, crisp, slightly salty and
it literally melted in your mouth! Yu-jah-gway
were available all the year round, except in the heat of midsummer.
Less exotic, but none the less
delicious, were roasted chestnuts cooked in the unique Chinese way. Around mid-October, along the streets of
Tungchou and Peking, the chestnut-roasting pots would appear. These were huge iron cauldrons with rounded
bottoms, supported on an iron tripod.
Into the cauldrons were dumped a bushel or two of coarse iron filings. Then beneath the cauldrons wood fires were
lighted. When the iron filings had
reached the proper temperature, bags or baskets of raw chestnuts were dumped
in, and the chestnuts and iron filings vigorously stirred with short iron
shovels. The wonderful fragrance of the
roasting chestnuts was advertisement enough to draw hungry buyers, who stood in
line to get the brown-paper cornucopias (which the vendors supplied) filled
with the scorching hot chestnuts. No
other way of roasting chestnuts compares with this age-old Chinese method!
Besides these "snacks,"
there were, of course, endless varieties of food available at the many
restaurants. Full meals, however, were
more than our childhood weekly allowances could afford. Still, there were many very simple dishes
that to me were delicious: not
available at the more deluxe restaurants, they can still be had (as I
discovered on my return to China in 1944) at the roadside country restaurants
patronized by the wagoneers, the mule-drivers, and the coolies who carried
their burdens on carrying-poles from village to village. Among these simple dishes were "woh-woh-toh," an unleavened load of corn bread, heavy as a brick,
served either steamed or baked. Pieces
broken off the loaf and dunked in a chicken-and-cabbage soup, were
delicious! And they "stuck to your
ribs."
"Bao-bing," or "wrapping bread," was another very
simple dish that was good. Bao-bing
were pancake-like in shape, and came in sizes approximating the sizes available
in a pizza-house: anything from a
"small pizza" to a cart-wheel!
Made of unleavened wheat-flour, the dough was folded and rolled, folded
and rolled, until it was a sheet about a quarter-inch thick, in many thin
layers. Then it was toasted on the top
of a huge wood or coal-burning cook-stove.
Wrap a chunk of bao-bing around the slender stalk of a spring onion,
"butter" it with a spiced soy-bean sauce, and you have a
mouth-watering morsel! Or break it into
chunks, drop them into a thin stew of chicken or pork, and you have a filling
and delectable meal!
Hot dogs? Hamburgers?
Chicken-in-the-basket? Fine! I have enjoyed all of them in America. But I would not trade a bushel of any of
them for one zoong-tze, one tong-gwar, or one of any of these other Chinese
"snacks" I've tried to describe.
De: "David Birch"
<gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Second-hand Memories
Date:
vendredi 11 juillet 2003 6:52
Thank you Donald for enabling us to
share with you the treat of reading and "tasting" your Uncle Durand's
marvellous menu of Chinese gastronomical delicacies! Wow! What an utterly irresistible and mouth-watering feast of
good things!
I too would not trade a bushel of
hot dogs or burgers for one of those marvellous moist dumplings filled with
savoury Chinese meats and veggies!
And I well remember the marvellous
Tong-shee (malt syrup) that was spread on our sandwiches, along with creamy
peanut butter made from locally grown Shantung peanuts!
Thanks again, Donald! What a
wonderful series of contributions you have made over the last few years, to our
ability to appreciate and value what we experienced all those decades ago in
China!
Sincerely
David Birch
De: "alison holmes"
<aholmes@prescott.edu>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Christiana Spink's doctoral dissertation
Date: samedi 12 juillet 2003 1:43
Thank you so much, Mary. for letting
us know that the Spink dissertation is now available...I have been looking
forward to this.
Alison
Holmes
De: "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Second-hand Memories
Date: samedi 12 juillet 2003 22:18
Bless my soul, Donald! You've brought back such a flood of happy
memories.
Uncle Lui, a local Chinese
restaurateur who grew up in Shantung, brings me boxes of moon cakes every fall
when his family celebrates the Festival of the Harvest Moon.
He says he doesn't want me to forget where I come from.
Whenever I'm invited to speak at
naturalization ceremonies, I tell the
story of Uncle Lui's bringing me moon cakes ever autumn. As I speak, I hold up Uncle Lui's bright red shopping bag with gold characters
and the moon cakes' brightly colored metal box. "Never forget where you came from," I tell the new citizens. "Make America great with all that is
beautiful from your country -- bring us your music, your art, your stories,
your dance, your food."
In our area, Chinese usually
outnumber other groups of new citizens, so you can imagine their delight when I
show them the moon cakes box.
By the way, Uncle Lui arranged for
Shantung Province to invite me back one spring when we were looking for a
Chinese bride for his youngest son, John.
John -- very American -- did find a Chinese wife, but it wasn't the one
we had in mind for him.
As children, we loved the candied
crab apples on a stick and jhe ma tang -- sesame candy-- and yuan
siao--glutinous rice balls. Do you remember
dried persimmons? Once in a while I can
buy the sesame candy in local Chinese grocery stores.
Mary Previte
De: "David Birch"
<gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Second-hand Memories
Date:
dimanche 13 juillet 2003 3:46
Yes, those marvellous dried
persimmons!!! AND those equally wonderful ripe persimmons that we scooped out
with a spoon!!! Mmmmmm!!!
Plus, bao-tzes! And dofu (NOT tofu!) with rice and all sorts
of fabulous fried Chinese vegetables. Eggplant! Elephants' ears! Oh! the more I
think of it all, the more I just LONG to go back. Let me die in China, the land
of my birth! I sometimes pine for the land of my young boyhood!
Amen! Donald! You are a friend
indeed!
David
De: "Gay Talbot Stratford"
<stillbrk@eagle.ca>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Second-hand Memories
Date:
dimanche 13 juillet 2003 17:28
Thanks for the memories. How they linger in the taste buds.
You have provided a moment of sweet recall. Bless you. Gay Talbot Stratford
De: "Natasha Petersen" <np57@cox.net>
À: "weihsien" <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: food
Date:
lundi 14 juillet 2003 0:31
I, too, have been remembering the
"snacks" bought from street vendors.
Does anyone remember the wonderful designs of "poured" melted
sugar and flavour onto a metal surface.
As I remember, it seemed to take just a short time before the wonderful
crunchy beautiful design became hard, and was ready to eat.
I am sure that if we now bought and
ate any of the "snacks" we would become quite sick. In China, we had cast iron stomachs, that
helped us not get ill both in Weihsien and on the outside.
I still love the wonderful smells of
the foods being cooked and displayed in the China towns of the U.S.
Natasha
De: "Gay Talbot Stratford"
<stillbrk@eagle.ca>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Second-hand Memories
Date:
dimanche 13 juillet 2003 17:28
Thanks for the memories. How they linger in the taste buds.
You have provided a moment of sweet recall. Bless you. Gay Talbot Stratford
De: "Natasha Petersen" <np57@cox.net>
À: "weihsien" <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: food
Date:
lundi 14 juillet 2003 0:31
I, too, have been remembering the
"snacks" bought from street vendors.
Does anyone remember the wonderful designs of "poured" melted
sugar and flavour onto a metal surface.
As I remember, it seemed to take just a short time before the wonderful
crunchy beautiful design became hard, and was ready to eat.
I am sure that if we now bought and
ate any of the "snacks" we would become quite sick. In China, we had cast iron stomachs, that
helped us not get ill both in Weihsien and on the outside.
I still love the wonderful smells of
the foods being cooked and displayed in the China towns of the U.S.
Natasha
PS Could I have your "ordinary
mail" address?
De: "Gladys Swift"
<glaswift@cstone.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Second-hand Memories
Date:
mardi 15 juillet 2003 19:04
To Don Menzi -
Re Chinese snacks, what about jiao
tses? I see no reference to these wonderful eats, served with soy sauce,
vinegar and sesame oil mixed.
De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Second-hand Memories
Date:
mardi 15 juillet 2003 23:49
Yes -- what an omission! Maybe Durand didn't consider them a snack,
as they were served as holiday
meals. I know in our family back in the
US, my parents would make them as a special treat several times a year, and we
would have a contest as to who could eat the largest number.
I find that the "steamed
dumplings" that we get now are somewhat different. Ours were boiled and much softer than the
versions we get in Chinese restaurants now.
De:
"Joyce Cook" <bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Second-hand Memories
Date:
mercredi 16 juillet 2003 7:22
Re jiao tses. We ate them in
Tsingtao when we were there in 1986. Also in Tientsien we had gwatse which are
different to the ones described - they are deep fried crispy pieces of dough,
crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Eaten mainly at breakfast with
congee. We can buy all of these in
Chinese supermarkets in Sydney and often do. Very yummy. Joyce Bradbury
Australia.
De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Second-hand Memories
Date:
mercredi 16 juillet 2003 16:41
One thing puzzles me. My parents called this treat something
like"ju boa boas." They had
lived in Tungchou, near Beijing, from 1922 to 1925 is this just a local
regional for the same thing as jiao tses?
or is it a slightly different
product?
Several years ago I had some in a
restaurant in Taiyuen, Shanxi, and they were made exactly the way we made them
at home -- boiled, not steamed, and with a thinner skin than we get in New York
restaurants. The restaurant owner/chef
had originally come from Beijing, and said that's the way they made them
there. Are there regional differences
in the way this dish is prepared?
De: "Dwight W. Whipple"
<thewhipples@comcast.net>
À:
"Topica List" <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Back In?
Date:
mercredi 16 juillet 2003 18:53
BlankHi Everyone
Somehow I think that I was deleted
from the list. Hope this gets me back
in.
~Dwight Whipple
Dwight & Judy Whipple
4728A Lakeshore Lane SE
Olympia, WA 98513
thewhipples@comcast.net
Tel: 360.456.4300
Fax: 360.456.4300
De: "Kay Allan Canning"
<kay_m_allan@hotmail.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: weihsien camp movies
Date:
vendredi 18 juillet 2003 8:49
Hello everyone.
I wonder if anyone can help?
At the end of her book The Mushroom
Years, on page 307 in my copy, Pamela Masters describes seeing some film of the
final days in Weihsien shown by the photographer who shot the film, Phil
Malmstead. I have been trying to track down that film, thinking that it would
be a pleasing addition to what this group has managed to gather together over
the past three years or so.
I have asked Pamela if she knows how
to locate it, and she doesn't. Mary Taylor Previte told me a few months ago
that she had been trying to find the film, but at the time of writing [Jan
2003] she had not succeeded.
I have tried the U.S. National
Archives both by email and by having a friend go by and look at such scraps of
film of Weihsien as the National Archives card index was able to turn up, but
have unearthed nothing like what Pamela describes, and indeed nothing really to
get excited about.
I don't know what group Phil
Malmstead belonged to, but clearly by process of elimination he was not a
member of the initial OSS rescue team.
I am now not sure where to turn next
under my own steam, so am asking if there is anyone in the group who would like
to take up the challenge of finding the film - or of course if anyone has
actually found it?
I do hope somehow we can add it to
the group's collection of words and pictures of Weihsien.
Kay Allan Canning
De: "leopold pander"
<pander.nl@skynet.be>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: weihsien camp movies
Date: vendredi 18 juillet 2003 18:25
Whilst reading Father de Jaegher's
book, "The Enemy Within"
Chapter XVIII, he mentiones the fact that the Japanese took quite a lot
of pictures and movies of the "foreingers" with their luggage and
children to make them loose face they said. Question: do those movies and
photographs still exist and where could they be?
Best regards,
Leopold
De: "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: weihsien camp movies
Date: samedi 19 juillet 2003 2:00
I suggested to Pamela Masters
inquire through the several CHINA-BURMA-INDIA
veterans' magazines about Phil Malmstead and his movies of
Weihsien. That's how I found the heroes
who liberated us. But I'm afraid
Pamela may not have been as profoundly
fortunate as I was. I'll be more than
happy to give anyone interested the names and addresses of these publications
and their editors.
Mary Taylor Previte
De: "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Cornell Library
Date: samedi 19 juillet 2003 16:03
Hello, Everybody,
My contacts at the CHINA BURMA INDIA VETERANS ASSOCIATION suggested today that we check the CORNELL
LIBRARY for information about Phil
Malmstead and the movies he took at Weihsien.
Does anyone know how to do this via computer? Mary Previte
De: "Greg Leck" <gregleck@epix.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE: Cornell Library
Date: samedi 19 juillet 2003 22:54
Hello,
It so happens I will be visiting
Cornell next weekend for a conference and can look into this. Only problem is that college and university
libraries are often closed Saturdays and Sundays. However if I can I will try to investigate on Friday or
Monday. Can you supply any other
information about when the film was shot or what military branch may have been
involved?
Greg
De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: weihsien camp movies
Date:
lundi 21 juillet 2003 16:55
They have a web site which will give
you the phone number for the library, and someone will probably look it up for
you.
De: "Kay Allan Canning"
<kay_m_allan@hotmail.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE: Weihsien Camp Movies [and Cornell Library]
Date:
lundi 21 juillet 2003 21:02
I here contribute the very little I
have on the dating of the Malmstead movies and Malmstead's military unit
parentage, in the hope that someone with better documentation or an actual
memory of events will react to what follows.
1. Pamela M says in her book the following
'............just months after our
arrival in the States, we received an invitation to.........movies at the
California home of Phil Malmstead, the military photographer who had recorded
our last days in camp...........he told us of the endless runaround he'd had in
Washington to get the material declassified because of its serious
nature............the first few minutes were of camp conditions when they found
us. Then the mood changed...............and the chocolate caper came alive in
all its
slapstick humor..............'
2. nb the chocolate caper was
described in Pamela's book. It was part of a big celebration including The
Victory Dance which appears to have taken place only a few days after the 17
Aug liberation day. Pamela also records that the day of the Victory Dance
coincided with a further [possibly the
second??]major supply drop onto the
rollcall field from 5 B-29's flying out of Saipan.
3. 1. and 2. above together suggest
to me that the film, or much of it, must have been taken very early on, that
is, say between 17 and 31 Aug 1945.
4. Pamela's book, and others,
records the arrival of the initial OSS group of 7; Mary Taylor Previte has of
course tracked all of them down, and
Malmstead was not one of them.
5. Pamela's book says that others
including a medical group arrived not long after the OSS team. I cannot tell
from the book if 'not long' should be counted in hours or days.
6. Books also agree that the OSS
group were fairly quickly relieved by a larger group of 40 or so US Army probably
led by a Lieutenant-Colonel Weinberg, and that in that group were a Capt
Georgia and a Lieut Newman. I dont know if this group of 40 is the same as, or
includes, the 'others' referred to in 5. above. But it seems to me a betting
certainty that Malmstead was 'in there somewhere'.
7. So there are the fragments I
have. I hope they will prompt further input, either to help Greg before he gets
to Cornell or to fill out the picture for someone who feels moved to pursue
some other line of investigative work.
Surely someone can work things out
from diaries kept, or from their own memories, or eg from the Duck Mission
report that I know some of you have..............
Good hunting
Kay Allan Canning
De: "Greg Leck" <gregleck@epix.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE: weihsien camp movies
Date:
mardi 22 juillet 2003 20:00
I will be arriving at Cornell now on
Thursday so hopefully should haveplenty of time to hunt for the Malmstedt
movies.
I've seen a photograph of him taken
at Weihsien.
As for the Japanese, a large number
of still photographs and motion picture film was taken during the war of both
camps in Northern China and the Shanghai area.
Personal account describe how as internees were marched from the Anglican
Cathedral to the first internment camps in Shanghai there were scores of
Japanese photographers and cameramen recording the procedings, to the point
that there were half a dozen or so even perched up in the trees to get better
shots.
I have uncovered photographs taken
during one of the inspection tours of the Swiss consul general in Shanghai, E.
Fontanel, of several of the camps in Shanghai, in the Japanese National
Archives. However I have turned up
nothing else. One of the problems is
that the Japanese records were often destroyed, either by Allied action or by
the Japanese themselves.
Greg
De: "Ron Bridge" <rwbridge@freeuk.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weihsien Camp Movies [and Cornell Library]
Date:
mardi 22 juillet 2003 21:33
Re Kay Cannings comments;
Para 4 Can confirm that Malmstead
was not one of the original seven I have their signatures on a piece of
parachute silk also see below
Herewith an edited extract from the
Duck Mission report:
17 August The Duck team in a B24 arrived over the target of
Weihsien at aprox 0930 hours. Owing to the very scanty photographic and other
information with which they were provided they could not immediately locate the
CAC where the 1500 Allied civilians were interned. A sweep was made at 2,000
feet and no fire was drawn subsequent flights made round the area at lower
altitudes. Major Staiger commanding the Duck Team knew only that the internees
were held in a compound some way outside Weihsien but from the air several
locations answered this description. Finally when the B24 was down to 500 feet
a compound was located in which several hundred of people were collected waving
at the plane....in the course of circling an airstrip had been noted not far
from the camp. After a discussion between Major Staiger and the pilot the
airfield was abandoned as it might be mined and the B24 dropped to 450 feet and
the Duck team baled out. The team were Major Stanley
A Stagier team leader
Sgt Tadash T Nagaki Japanese interpreter
Ensign James W Moore USNR
SI
T/S Peter C Orlich radio
Operator
Eddie Wang Chinese
interpreter from FAB
1st Lt James Hannan AGAS
T/4 Raymond N Hanchuluk
medic
The men left plane in good order but
stiff ground wind and low altitude made landing difficult. Lt Hannan whose
parachute was swinging sustained a shoulder injury.
The plan had been for Major Staiger
to leave his parachute unfurled as a check point but so many crowds of
internees rushed out to greet them that chaos ensued and there was an ever
present danger that containers dropped form the plane would injure people
below. A Chinese boy ( not an internee) sustained a fractured skull. From the
confused and hysterical accounts of the internees Major Staiger was able to
form a picture of what had taken place.
18 August Major Staiger made an inspection of the Camp
19 August Lt Col Jimbo Japanese army arrived and asked the
Japanese Consular authority Camp commandant to withdraw as he had to negotiate
with the US Army .( Camp Commandant was Mr Izu of the Japanese Consular service
head of policing and executive authority was Chief of Police Koyanagi)
20 August Major Staiger established that the "Eagle
Mission " under command of Col Byrd ( 20 personnel) came out to Weihsien
(They had spent the night in Weihsien under the protection of Gen Li Wen LI of
the Chinese Army. In the afternoon two B24 flew over dropping leaflets telling
the internees how to behave when the war ended.
21 August the C47 which had brought he Eagle m ision returned
to Chungking with Col Byrd aboard other members stayed behind to photograph the
internees.
22-26 August Snarls were straightened out. Transportation was the
problem the Japanese army only had four charcoal burning trucks.
27 August an unannounced B29 ( from Okinawa) saying that in an
hour more B29s would arrive to drop supplies. An hour later a B17 arrived and
landed on the nearby airstrip it was full of reporters and photographers from
the 20th Bomber Group who wanted to come to a civilian camp for photographs and
news stories. Major Steiger did not permit them into the Camp so they went back
to the B17 and took off to photograph a group of 10 B29s which stated dropping
supplies. The B29 dropped a huge amount but unfortunately much of it was poorly
packed in two 50 gallon gasoline drums too heavy for their parachutes and a
loss of 25% of supplies was sustained. Major Staiger sent a message to 20th
Bomber group and asked for lighter loads in future meanwhile a B24 came in from
Hsian and made perfect demonstration on how to drop containers. The Inmates and
the Duck Mission spent the rest of the day carrying in supplies.
28 August Two C47 which had arrived the day before from Hsian.
One evacuated 12 invalids whilst the other took the remainder of the Eagle
Mission back to Chungking ( except that Tech Rep Willis S Georgia a
communications man
remained at Weihsien.)
30 August at 0700 hours an SOS team of 7 officers and 12
enlisted men headed by Lt Col H Weinberg arrived to take over administrative
control.The duck Mission phase one had ended
>From a diary kept by an inmate
the original (thin yellow copy typing paper with pencil writing)which I have:
1 September Pep Talk by Col Weinberg on he Ball Field followed by
Capt Ashwood -" terrible person we are all to be processed and oriented
with 5 year plan for entertainment. Every one all het up after the talks"
2 September Awful visit from the Okinawa boys starting at 9 am 6
B29s roaring over our heads driving everyone dotty pandemonium in the camp with
music blaring out over the loud speakers. More tins of food distributed all
feel every ill. Clothing distributed. .
3 September Capt Ashwood
starts regular talks afternoon and evening
8 September Morning Okinawa Boys dropped parachutes all over camp
four house hit wires down afternoon Mariana boys in their B29s appeared with
more food - two parachutes came down in the Italian camp. In the evening a
Dance held in No 1 Kitchen from 8-12.
10 September Six Chefoo school boys went in plane to join their
parents in West China.
15 September Great sensation one of the US Soldiers develops
scarlet fever.
Colonel in Tsingtao contacted
aircraft with litter will arrive next day.
Very drunken party given for the
rescuers followed by a dance.
22 September Gen Hays Col McMuller ( both British army) arrive
from Chungking
23 September Royal navy arrives Lts Derek Clark and Godwin.
24 September overseas people due to leave but rain too heavy
postponed 24 hours.
25 September 580 people
leave in 3 groups at 5:45 7:00 and 8:00 for train at 9:00.
As these dates were recorded at the
time They can probably be taken as accurate the diary goes on until Thursday 17
Oct when the writer left in a C47 for Tientsin. In it it is recorded that the
railway line Weihsien Tsingtao was blown up on the night of the 7th October
Rgds
Ron
.
De: "Kay Allan Canning"
<kay_m_allan@hotmail.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: weihsien camp movies [and Cornell library]
Date:
mardi 22 juillet 2003 23:11
Thank you Ron Bridge for coming up
with a valuable heavyweight input, not
for the first time
To me it seems probable that
Malmstead arrived as a member of or in
conjunction with the Eagle mission on 20 Aug and that his filming
started then or thenabouts
Who knows anything more about the
Eagle mission - was it also OSS, or what?
Kay Allan [Canning]
----- Original
Message -----
From: Raymond Moore
Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2003 4:04 AM
Subject: Camp movies etc
This is my
first foray in to the Weihsien chat room and it has been sparked by Ron
Bridge's recent contribution - especially the diary by a camp inmate covering
parts of September 1945. On 10 September he quotes the writer: "Six
Chefoo school boys went in plane to join their parents in West
China." I believe I was one of those and this is the
first time that I have been able to find a date or even a mention of our
departure as it was not exactly a "mass" departure.
In my mother's family history she writes that someone in Xi'an had seen the
four Taylor children at the airport and also had seen me there with my arm in a
sling (from a greenstick fracture sustained while trailing around after one of
the American 'gods'). I was mistakenly taken down to Kunming and
eventually flown back again to Xi'an where I met my father, who then took me
home to Hanzhong in South Shensi with the help of a British Army convoy going
that direction.
The other
question I have regards the "four Taylor children" mentioned by my
mother and the "six Chefoo school boys" mentioned in
Ron's diary quotation. Were you, Mary, one of these Taylor children
or was it only boys that were on the flight?
Ray
(Raymond) Moore
De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weihsien Camp Movies [and Cornell Library]
Date:
mercredi 23 juillet 2003 5:44
Great stuff, Ron! Where did you get it?
By the way, did anyone keep a copy
of the leaflets that were dropped telling people what to do when they were
liberated? Unfortunately, that kind
of thing is not highly valued at the time,and I would be surprised if any still
exist. I would love to see the text, if
anyone did happen to keep one.
De: "David Birch"
<gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Leaflets dropped from the B-24 Liberator
Date:
mercredi 23 juillet 2003 7:24
Donald!
Contact Norman Cliff. I'm almost
certain he would have some of the original leaflets dropped to us on 17 Aug
1945. Cliff was some five or six years
older than I. He must have been close
to 20 or 21 at the time the war ended. I was 13 then, nearly 14 and I still
remember running errands for Norman Cliff.
Throughout the Camp, there were a number of notice boards on which our
Internee governing committee used to post announcements of various kinds. Cliff
had me (and no doubt other innocent youngsters) running about to these notice
boards and taking down notices once they were a few days old. He had us bring
them to him. They were of all types.
Some, for example, would have brought greetings to all the Canadian internees
(I was one) from Prime Minister William Lyon McKenzie King. Others would have
informed American internees that President Roosevelt had passed away.
Cliff knew what he was doing. He was well aware at his age, and with his
background and interests, of the historical value of such primary documents
from our internment Camp. There were
notices from the Camp Discipline Committee of discipline meted out to named
individuals for breaches of the strict Internee code. And all sorts of things
like that. I was a "sucker"
I'm sad to say. Just for a "Thanks Birch" from a revered older boy, I
ran around getting him lots of material for which I didn't even get a mention
of thanks in the books he later wrote. He likely forgot who the boys were who
scrounged all that information for him. Oh well, such is life. I'm sure he
didn't think he was being unfair to us. But I felt it rather keenly when I read
his book and realized that some of the items he mentioned were definitely
documented with my help.
And he didn't run the risk of being frowned upon for taking down the
notices. We younger boys did that for him.
I had a reputation that I don't feel was fairly earned for being a bit
of a mischievous boy. Mr. Houghton sent word home to my poor parents whom I hadn't
seen for five years saying that I was uncooperative. (I think that was nearly all they heard about me during the war.
No wonder my dad, after the war, thought he had a problem child on his hands!) Well, I certainly was not uncooperative with
Norman Cliff, and looking back I think I was really "a pretty good kid all
together. Do I still feel resentment? I
suppose a little bit.
I never intended to say so much. It just began to spill out. Actually we
all owe Norman Cliff a lot for his able documentation of what went on in
Weihsien (and elsewhere).
He probably has a leaflet or two and could send you a photo copy. In his "Courtyard of The Happy
Way," on page 142 he gives a word for word text of the leaflet and states
that it was signed by A.C.Wedemeyer, Lieutenant-General, U. S. A. Commanding
David Birch
De: "Kay Allan Canning"
<kay_m_allan@hotmail.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: leaflets
Date: mercredi 23 juillet 2003 9:44
for donald menzi
there are pictures of 2 leaflets on
p.36 of norman cliff's 'looking back 50
years to weihsien'.
I have a complete example of the one
norman has reproduced in part which
details the supplies to be dropped and what to do with them, which is
in english on one side and dutch or
flemish on the other.
I have tried to copy it to send as
an attachment to an email but one side as a bitmap amounts to over 3 mbits and
I do not know how to reduce it to anything sensible! happy to take instruction
from anyone on what to do, or to forward you a photocpy by snailmail if there
is no better way forward
kay allan canning
De: "Ron Bridge" <rwbridge@freeuk.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Camp movies etc
Date:
mercredi 23 juillet 2003 11:47
The full diary entry for 10th
September is :
""Six "Chefoo School
" boys went in plane to West China to rejoin their parents there - 4
Taylors - very hot thundery weather again. 'Orientation' course sin full swing
- no news of any description at all this time.""
In ,my last message I précised they
entries otherwise I would be typing ALL NIGHT it will not scan as written on
both sides of such thin paper often barely readable.
Incidentally, in an earlier entry
""18th August - Tipton and Hummel come back these were the two that
escaped on 10th June 1944 very poor reception for them and they alarm people by
talking of the unsettled conditions around.""
And just to give a flavour of the weather ""10th August
Awful heat worst of the summer dripping day and night heat hit 97 F
today""
Rgds
Ron
De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Leaflets dropped from the B-24 Liberator
Date:
mercredi 23 juillet 2003 15:52
Thanks. I don't need an original, so I will look in the book for the
text. I had forgotten that it might be
there.
Thanks to Leopold's collections,
somebody some day is going to use all of the things that have come out on this
web site, including your contributions.
I think the next step is for someone
-- maybe you, Leopold -- to produce an edited copy, grouping together the most
interesting contributions under headings, and providing an introduction
describing the email project and listing the names of the participants --
including the "lurkers," which I have learned is a technical term for
people who are members of a group, read the postings, but don't post things
themselves. (They, too, are
"active" as interested listeners, even if they aren't putting their
own material out, and should be listed.)
How about it, Leopold?
De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: leaflets
Date:
mercredi 23 juillet 2003 15:53
Kay –
I'd be satisfied to know the
contents, if you could just copy it into an email. I have Norman's "Courtyard..." book but not the one you
mention.
Thanks.
At 07:44 AM 7/23/2003 +0000, you
wrote:
>for donald menzi
>
>there are pictures of 2 leaflets
on p.36 of norman cliff's 'looking back
>50 years to weihsien'.
>
>I have a complete example of the
one norman has reproduced in part which
>details the supplies to be
dropped and what to do with them, which is in
>english on one side and dutch or
flemish on the other.
>I have tried to copy it to send
as an attachment to an email but one side
>as a bitmap amounts to over 3
mbits and I do not know how to reduce it to
>anything sensible! happy to take
instruction from anyone on what to do, or
>to forward you a photocpy by snailmail if there is
no better way forward
>
>kay allan canning
>
De: "Kay Allan Canning" <kay_m_allan@hotmail.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: leaflet
Date: mercredi 23 juillet 2003 23:06
here is a text as requested by
donald menzi. sorry if the lines reach you with a wraparound. I have tried to
send the same thing in its better format from my husband's email address but
don't know if it will be accepted
kay
De: "Greg Leck" <gregleck@epix.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.net>
Cc:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Date:
vendredi 25 juillet 2003 0:35
I'm at Cornell and just spent an
hour with various research librarians and the curator of the East Asia
Collection. So far nothing has turned
up about the Malmstead film. Everyone
wants to know the title! - which I can't give them. We've tried using Malmstead, Weishsien, Weixian, army film, etc
as searches but nothing yet.
If anyone has any other clues please
let me know.
Thanks,
Greg Leck
De: "Kay Allan Canning"
<kay_m_allan@hotmail.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:camp movies
Date:
dimanche 27 juillet 2003 8:16
greg
sorry to be slow - I was away until
last night
i have no cluse but as long shots it
might be worth trying
-
eagle mission
-
duck mission
-
cac weihsien
good luck
kay
De: "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: RE: Cornell Library
Date:
lundi 28 juillet 2003 1:55
Please contact Pamela Masters < pamela@hendersonhouse.com > who
mentions these movies of Weihsien in her riveting book, THE MUSHROOM YEARS.
Mary Previte
De: "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weihsien Camp Movies [and Cornell Library]
Date:
lundi 28 juillet 2003 2:47
What a fascinating diary account,
Ron!
The September 10 diary account isn't
quite accurate in reporting that six Chefoo BOYS were evacated on that
date. The six Chefoo School
students (four boys and two girls) who
were evacuated from the airfield that day included Kathleen Taylor, Jamie
Taylor, Mary Taylor (me), and John Taylor.
On my refrigerator, I keep a photo of all six of us -- the second group
of internees to be evacuated from Weihsien -- eating cake and ice cream with an
officer at the Office of Strategic Services base in Si-an that night.
My father had connected with
American Autorities in Chungking and with
Chefoo Head Master "Pa" Bruce to arrange for our evacuation to
the deep northwest of China -- rather than to the USA or to England.
We were reunited with our parents,
James and Alice Taylor, the next day, 9
- 11 - 1945, in Fenghsiang, Shensi Province.
We had not seen our parents for 5 1/2 years! Indeed, we were greeted by a brother -- almost 5 years old --
whom we had never before seen.
Bless my soul! That trip home is another miracle in the
Weihsien saga.
Mary Taylor Previte
De: "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: : Re:
Camp movies etc
Date:
mardi 29 juillet 2003 5:20
Hello, Ron,
Who wrote this wonderful diary account?
And where did you get it? What
a treasure!
Mary Previte
De: "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Camp movies etc
Date: mardi
29 juillet 2003 5:23
Raymond Moore,
I was one of the six Chefoo School students who were repatriated from
Weihsien to Xi'an on August 10, 1945.
The group included you (RAYMOND MOORE),
David Allen, and Kathleen, Jamie, Mary
and John Taylor. If you give me
your e-mail address, Raymond, I'll try to scan to you a photograph of our group
celebrating with an OSS officer in Xi'an that night. Do you remember seeing the Humphrey Bogart movie that night. Was it Casablanca? Kathleen and I slept that night in the tent of an officer? Where did the boys sleep?
Come on. It's time you joined in
with your memories.
Mary Taylor Previte
From: Raymond
Moore
Sent: Tuesday,
July 29, 2003 8:08 AM
Subject: Re: Camp movies etc
Hi Mary,
Thanks for your
confirmation of my flight out of Weihsien to Xi'an. My email
address is raym82@hotmail.com .
My memory of the flight
from Weihsien is mainly of lounging around in the plane on a heap of used
parachutes that were being transported with us - rather we were being
transported with them! I don't remember the movie itself, but
I have fond memories of sitting in an out door picture theatre to watch
it. I seem to remember seeing some cartoons for the first time and have
been a Disney cartoon fan ever since.
I have also been a Coca
Cola fan ever since, as I remember one of the airmen taking me to a
machine that served glasses of Coca Cola on tap. I loved it - still
do. I can still remember the smell of toothpaste as I watched the
airmen performing their ablutions.
Ray (Raymond Moore)
De:
"leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: paintings & sketches
Date:
mardi 29 juillet 2003 8:13
Dear Donald and Topica friends,
http://users.skynet.be/bk217033/CACW/page_01.htm
A modest contribution you could add
to your web site. Could you check and
tell me if all is OK?
Suggestions welcome.
Best regards, Leopold.
De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: paintings & sketches
Date:
mardi 29 juillet 2003 15:13
What is this about
"modest?" The site is
fantastic! What a collection. Thank you once again, Leopold.
I'd like to suggest again that
people look at the pictures and write a brief not about something that they
remember about that place. These
annotations could be collected and provide a text to accompany the
paintings. How about it?
De: "george menzi"
<geomenzi@chartermi.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: paintings & sketches
Date:
mardi 29 juillet 2003 15:40
Don my dear.. Why can't I send a
message to these wonderful people and tell them how much I am enjoying their
sharing? I can't get the pictures however. I tried but I received a message
from somewhere telling me not to send any more to that address. I thought I forwarded
it on to you. You can fix anything!! Love,..Carol..
De: "george menzi"
<geomenzi@chartermi.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: paintings & sketches
Date:
mardi 29 juillet 2003 17:29
I think I have discovered a way to
reach all of you. Since my message to Don came back to me I assume when I
"reply" my email will reach
you. I am Don's sister -in-law
Carol Menzi. I want all of you to know how much I am enjoying all of your
emails. What a story! There is a good book , movie, or one very interesting
term paper in all of this information. Thank you for sharing it all. I can't
get the pictures however, but Don must have them and I will look forward to
seeing them when we visit during the
December holidays. Fondly, Carol Menzi
you may be relieved to learn that we
are going away for the month of august, so I shall be silent for a while from
friday onwards!
best wishes
kay allan
De: "Ron Bridge" <rwbridge@freeuk.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Eagle Mission
Date: mardi 29 juillet 2003 21:19
Just to clarify matters in case
there has been misunderstandingThe Duck report states ( extracts):
Aug 20 Major Staiger received word
that the Eagle Mission had arrived in Weihsien ( City) the previous day and
were staying in the town under the protection of Gen Li Wen Li. Major Staiger
established contact with Col Byrd and the Eagle Mission ( a pary of 20) came
out to the Civilian Assembly Centre. They subsequently spent the day inspecting
the work that had been done and taking photogarphs of the internees...........
Aug 21 the C 47 that had originally
brought the Eagle Mission to Weihsien left for Chungking with Col Byrd on
board.
Aug 28 Two C 47 which had arrived
the day before left for Hsian. One evacuated the 12 invalids. The other
transported the members of the Eagle Mission who had been left behind when Col
Byrd departed for Chungking. One member Tech Rep Willis S Georgia a
communications man remained behind.
Aug 30 At 0700 hours a SOS team of 7
officers and 12 enlisted men headed by Lt Col H Weinberg arrived.
>From all this my reading is that
the Eagle Mission were the press and photographers
There is a full report of the Swiss
Consul (37 pages) on Weihsien dated 1944. Their is an original is in the US National Archives under "Enclosure No 1
to despatch 7500 dated March 9, 1944 from the American........" although
the end is unreadable I suspect that it is from the American Embassy Berne
Switzerland. There is also a further report on Weihsien at the British national
Archives Kew under file CO980/126.
One of the gems of the annex to the
Swiss report being that during 1944 the entire camp had one decimal six ounces
of jam a day, ( The Swiss precision is
that "each inmate got a negligible
amount) and for those of you in the States the Coffee Substitute ration was six
hundredths of an ounce a day try measuring that on your kitchen scales, they
obviously favoured the British as we all had nine hundredths of an ounce of tea
a day (I can recall tea being carefully fried after use for another pot)
Rgds
Ron Bridge
De: "Greg Leck" <gregleck@epix.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: : Weihsien Film
Date: mardi 29 juillet 2003 22:28
Hello All,
Unfortunately, after several hours
of digging, we could not turn up a trace of the Weihsien film.
Cornell has a very large East Asia
collection, so it would make sense it could be there. But without a film title or knowing if it was part of a
collection or private papers, it was impossible to find, if it indeed is held at
Cornell.
I spent a lot of time with research
librarians, the curator of the Far East Collection and people in the Rare and
Manuscript collection.
I'll contact Pamela Masters to see
what more light she could shed on the matter.
We even thought Phil Malmstead might have been a Cornell alumnus, but no
luck there.
Greg
De: "Greg Leck" <gregleck@epix.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE: Weihsien Camp Movies [and Cornell Library]
Date:
mardi 29 juillet 2003 22:43
Mary,
Forgot to ask - can you check with
your CBI contacts and ask them how they know the film is at Cornell, or
why? If they can tell us who donated it
or how it got there that would be an important clue also.
Greg
De: "Kay Allan Canning"
<kay_m_allan@hotmail.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weihsien Film
Date:
mardi 29 juillet 2003 22:56
Greg [and everyone else]
Many thanks for trying Cornell this
past weekend. I still hope this group
can somehow track down the film. Ron Bridge's new-to-me reference to
'Eagle Mission' makes me want to see
what that term [coupled with dates and
Weihsien] could turn up in the US national archives. I am now out of
play until the end of august and would be delighted if someone would like to
have a go. if none volunteers I shall pick it up in September
kay
De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: paintings & sketches
Date:
mercredi 30 juillet 2003 1:02
To get to the pictures, just click
on the address (the blue http: address) and it should take you automatically to
his address. I'll see what I can do about
getting you back into the group. I
think they automatically drop anyone who doesn't pick up their mail for a
certain length of time.
De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Fwd: Re: paintings & sketches
Date:
mercredi 30 juillet 2003 1:06
My brother and sister-in-law got
dropped from the list, probably when they were away without email for several
months.
I've forgotten which of you
wonderful people is the list moderator.
Can whoever it is please put them back in? Thanks.
De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weihsien Film
Date:
mercredi 30 juillet 2003 1:14
While you're there, do you have time
to check their special collections under George Wilder? I believe that all of his ornithology
research notes were given to Cornell and are in some special section, including
a "tree-map" of the Weihsien compound identifying all of the trees
there. (He was a Gripsholm internee). I
tried to get them to xerox certain things but never heard back from them. If you could identify someone there I could
talk to on the phone or email, I'd appreciate it greatly. If it's not convenient, don't bother.
De: "Donald Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weihsien Film
Date:
mercredi 30 juillet 2003 1:20
Kay
Do you have access to the National
Archives? If so, could you find out if
that is the repository for questionnaires completed by Civil War veterans
and/or their widow seeking pensions?
I'm trying to track down what happened to some Civil War vets who were
in my great-grandfather's company, a group of Oberlin College students known as
"The Praying Company" because of their evident piety, and someone thought that their pension applications
might be in the National Archives. The
Weihsien connection is that he was the father of George Wilder, who was an
internee.
De: "Greg Leck" <gregleck@epix.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE: Weihsien Film
Date:
mercredi 30 juillet 2003 1:38
Sorry Don, but I have left Cornell
and am back at home. I'll keep it
inmind for my next visit, though.
Greg
De: "george menzi"
<geomenzi@chartermi.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: paintings & sketches
Date:
mercredi 30 juillet 2003 2:21
but I do pick up the mail every time
I get one. However, I tried only once to say anything. (A record for me,
right?) I will try to bring up the pictures. Thanks for the help....C..
De: "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: RE: Weihsien Camp Movies [and Cornell Library]
Date:
mercredi 30 juillet 2003 5:30
GREG:
My contact at the China Burma India Veterans Association suggested that
we search the Cornell library for the Weihsien movies because it has an
extensive East Asian collection there.
By any chance did you search for the following spelling? WEIXIAN
That is one spelling used in the book, OSS IN CHINA.
I've written to our rescuer, James Hannon, to ask if he has
recollections of Phil Malmstead and the
movies he took at Weihsien. He's not
yet replied.
Mary PREVITE
De: "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: : Re:
paintings & sketches
Date:
mercredi 30 juillet 2003 5:34
What a spectacular collection of
paintings and stories, Leopold! Bless
my soul! You've given us all a
priceless collection of memories!
A thousand thank yous. Mary
Previte
De: "Kay Allan Canning"
<kay_m_allan@hotmail.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Fwd: Fw: weihsien - your new website - comment
from kay allan
Date:
mercredi 30 juillet 2003 11:59
>dear leopold
>
>I have now looked more carefully
at your new website and I am once again
>very grateful for what you are
doing for us all. I have some comments which
>I hope you and Donald menzi will
not mind:
>
>1. I see that you and Donald menzi
are showing every sign of intending to
>work together, and greet that
intention with cries of joy
>
>2. I should like to see one day
all the paintings and sketches of the camp
>one day available in a single
virtual gallery, with the name of the artist
>attached and with a title or
explanation of what we are seeing and with the
>location of the artist and
his/her orientation available on a map/plan.
>[Donald got Norman cliff's help
to locate the wilder paintings and he would
>be a good person to ask for help
of this kind again I think.] you and
>Donald are already very close to
doing that and will need to agree on the
>best standard way of doing it
for the future. as a keen user I should like
>to be able to
> - click on something (which could probably be some standardised
reference
>like S1 for schmid #1 sketch or
V 3 for verhoeven #3 painting) associated
>with a picture and be taken to a
plan which shows me the artist's location
>and orientation; I would group
the pictures by artist, not by view.
> - click on a plan that has been very simply marked with locations
and
>orientations but no picture
references since I foresee that this would make
>the plan too cluttered; then
click again on a reference of the type S1 or
>V3 to see what the artist was
looking at. you need two steps because there
>are some views such as the one
which looks at the main entrance gate which
>were captured by several artists
and you would want to look at all of them
>
>3. photos are rather different
but could be treated in the same way
>
>4. I like the text options which
Donald offers in his website [diaries
>etc], and there are more, if the
owners are willing to release them. I was
>glad to see that you had
included as a 'demonstrator' on your site the
>first slice of the archive.
again as a keen user I would say that within
>the archive there are subsets
which are worth extracting and being made
>available on their own: one
example might be 'the recollections of father
>Hanquet'; another quite
different one might be 'food in Weihsien'. but
>getting the pictures right
probably has priority
>
Kay
De: "Kay Allan Canning"
<kay_m_allan@hotmail.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weihsien Film
Date: mercredi 30 juillet 2003 12:08
Donald
my only access is via internet. I
expect you know that route, but in case you dont I put in requests using the
form which comes up in response to http://www.archives.gov/global_pages/inquire_form
. I think the main site is simplyth abbreviated form of that [stop after gov].
the initial responses are a bit impersonal, but I soon found I was dealing with
a real person and that he was very helpful
kay
De: "Greg Leck" <gregleck@epix.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE: RE: Weihsien Camp Movies [and Cornell Library]
Date:
mercredi 30 juillet 2003 17:28
I checked about five different
spellings for Weihsien. There is a
Chinese author named Wei Xian and that came up a lot but obviously no
connection!
Pamela Masters tells me the US Army
locator service told her they have no record of Malmstead ever being in the
service. But another Army cameraman in
North China in 1945 told her he remembers Phil well and knows he was in the
Army and was there.
It turns out the Cornell connection
may have been a wild goose chase.
Cornell checked for me and he was
not an alumnus.
Cornell was mentioned by people in
the CBI veterans association because "they have a big Asian
collection." That is true, but it
doesn't mean they have the film.
Anyway, I was looking under
MALMSTEAD but now I have just checked the US Social Security Death index. I found two Philip MALMSTEDT.
1. Philip Malmstedt, born 27 July
1909, died 16 April 1989, last residence not specified, ss number issued in Illinois.
2. Philip Malmstedt, born 26 June
1906, died October, 1982, last residence St. Paul, Ramsey, Minnesota [I think
Ramsey may be the County], ss number issued in Minnesota.
Number one is of little help, I
think, but we can check number two by contacting one of the newspapers in St.
Paul and asking for an obituary search for October, 1982. If the paper doesn't do this, a library in
St. Paul might. Then, the funeral home
can be contacted and they will often pass on contact details for next of kin, or
we might be able to find them from the obituary with searching via the
internet. The film may be in existence
with his family still, even if Phil is deceased.
regards,
Greg
De: "Kay Allan Canning"
<kay_m_allan@hotmail.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: not Malmstead but Malmstedt?
Date:
mercredi 30 juillet 2003 18:33
Greg
o excellent detective who deserves
to succeed.
I have put in some new requests to
US national archives, including a request concerning the Eagle Mission which
features in Ron Bridge's chronology. if I get lucky and something is turned up,
then I need to get lucky a second time and find that the elusive photographer
is listed in that group
kay
De: "Greg Leck" <gregleck@epix.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE: not Malmstead but Malmstedt?
Date:
mercredi 30 juillet 2003 23:23
Remember that Malmstedt was acting
as a cameraman, not photographer. Might
make a difference. Be sure to mention
you are looking for a FILM since they will probably catalogue it differently,
as opposed to photos.
Greg
De: "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Web site about Weihsien
Date:
jeudi 31 juillet 2003 4:07
I'm forwarding this message from the
Chinas-Burma India Veterans Association message center. Some of you may not have seen this
fascinating comparison.
By the way, this CBI group is
putting out inquiries to everyone on its mailing list to help us find Phil
Malmstead.
Mary Previte
From: TEM1911@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday,
July 30, 2003 6:17 AM
Subject: Re: Movies of
Weihsien
MARY:
IF YOU HAVEN'T BEEN TO THIS
SITE. TAKE A LOOK AT IT.
(http://www.foitimes.com/internment/compare.htm)
Best Regards,
Thomas E. Miller
CBI Message Center
CBI Veterans Are Unique
De: "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Arthur Hummel -- obituary
Date:
jeudi 31 juillet 2003 4:32
In browsing the Weihsien Internment
Camp listing, I found this 2001 obituary of Arthur Hummel. Also, there in the One Voice (Phillips)
listing from Wheaton College, I found a spectacular, new aerial photo of Block
23 with the U.S. flag hoisted.
Mary Previte
In Memoriam, Arthur W. Hummel, Jr.
In February The U.S.–China Policy
Foundation was saddened by the passing of Arthur W. Hummel, Jr., a cofounder of
the U.S.–China Policy Foundation, a pioneer in promoting positive U.S.–China
relations, and a respected friend. Known for his integrity and deep
understanding of China, Art Hummel will be remembered as a skilful Foreign
Service officer who eloquently and successfully manoeuvred through difficult
bilateral relationships during his thirty-five-year diplomatic career.
Born in China to missionary parents,
at age eight Hummel moved back to the United States with his family. As a
young man in 1940 he returned to China, taught English, and studied Chinese at
the College of Chinese Studies in Beijing. The Japanese placed him in
Weihsien internment camp after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941. In
1944, Hummel and another internee escaped from the camp and joined the Chinese
Nationalist guerrillas, fighting against the Japanese occupation of China until
the war ended.
In 1950 Hummel began his impressive
Foreign Service career serving as ambassador to Burma (1968–71), Ethiopia
(1975–76), Pakistan (1977–81) and China (1981–85). He also served in Hong
Kong, Taiwan, and Japan and was in charge of East Asia and Pacific Affairs as
Assistant Secretary of State (1976–77). Hummel was a superb negotiator who
earned the respect and admiration of the officers who served under him and his
foreign counterparts.
During retirement, Ambassador Hummel
remained in contact with his numerous friends, lectured on college campuses
across the country, participated in various conferences, and remained an
adamant promoter of educational exchanges between the United States and Asia.
His personal contribution to
developing and improving American relations with China was an impressive
achievement that will always be remembered. He will be deeply missed.
De: "Dwight W. Whipple"
<thewhipples@comcast.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Web site about Weihsien
Date:
jeudi 31 juillet 2003 17:53
Thanks for the comparison. I had seen it before but don't remember that
it was that complete. Fascinating
stuff. By the way, my Dad, Elden C.
Whipple, Sr., is ninety-eight years old and I just put him on a plane for
Alaska where he will spend a week with my brother, Elden C. Whipple, Jr. and
his family. His memory of Weihsien is
still pretty sharp. I keep him informed
about the fascinating news over this Topica vehicle.
~Dwight W. Whipple
De: "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Movies of Weihsien -- National Archives
Date:
vendredi 1 août 2003 2:55
Here's my latest response from the
China Burma India Veterans Association Message Center which has been asking for help from its members in our
tracking down the movies of Weihsien.
Mary T. Previte
From: TEM1911@aol.com
Sent: Wednesday, July 30, 2003 10:48 PM
Subject: Re: Movies of Weihsien
I received an answer from
the Library of Congress. They acknowledge that movies were taken at the
time of liberation.
They told me that you will
be able to find them at:
National Archives and
Records Administration
Special Media Archives
Notion Picture, Sound and
Video Unit
8601 Adelphi Road
College Park, MD 20740
Phone 301-837-3520
Fax 301-837-3620
Email: mopix@nara.gov
Website www. archives.gov
They also you can search
some of their holdings using the ARC online catalog at:
http://www.archives.gov/research_room/arc/index.html
This information was
provided by:
Rosemary Hanes
Reference Librarian
Moving Image Section
Library of Congress
email: mpref@loc.gov
Phone - 202-707-8572
I wish you good luck in
finding what you want. Looks like a very good chance that you will since they
acknowledge that movies were taken.
Best Regards,
Thomas E. Miller
CBI Message Center
CBI Veterans Are Unique
De: "Kay Allan Canning"
<kay_m_allan@hotmail.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: weihsien film
Date:
vendredi 1 août 2003 6:41
hello everyone again
thank you mary previte for your
continung pursuit of the malmstead film[s]
I see that the library of congress
response is consistent with the one I had
I very much hope that someone in the
group will now choose to pursue the question with the US national archives: we
now have a bit more information than we had when I tried a few months ago.
the response I had then was that
films with the 'control numbers' 18 cs 4357; 4337; and 4350 might be what I was
looking for. I can send detail but essentially there is nothing filmed from the
ground in the camp in any of these films; the quality is poor; and in my view
there is nothing in them worth bothering about. so anyone now engaging with
NARA will I trust look beyond the films with the above references
kay allan
De: "Greg Leck" <gregleck@epix.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE:
Movies of Weihsien -- National Archives
Date: vendredi 1 août 2003 14:52
I'll be visiting the National
Archives sometime later this month in connection with my CAC research. Unless someone else gets there before me
I'll look it up and give everyone a
full report.
Greg
De: "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>; <pamela@hendersonhouse.com>
Objet: Information of photographs taken by EAGLE
MISSION
Date: vendredi
8 août 2003 3:20
Hello, everybody:
Troy Sacquety, a new contact through the China Burma India Veterans
Association (CBIVA) message center,
has responded to my inquiry about photographs
of Weihsien. Mr. Sacquety researches each week at the National
Archives about
OSS 101 for his doctorate. He says these files have much about all the OSS
liberation teams in Asia. Here's his fascinating response to me:
"The mission that you refer to is the EAGLE mission. The problem was that
the Commanding Officer brought along
an OWI (Office of War Information) man
who took pictures of the Japanese
and Americans drinking toasts to one
another. The fraternization was a bit too much for the OSS higher ups, so
they recalled the mission and
refused to let it return. In a
nutshell, that
is it." Troy Sacquety
More information from Mary Previte:
Most of the members of our DUCK
MISSION that liberated Weihsien have
told me that the EAGLE MISSION did not
follow their assignment to liberate
a camp in Korea. The Japanese turned
them a
way, so the EAGLE TEAM returned via
Weihsien. Jim Hannon told me last
week,
"Where I come from, that would
merit a firing squad." EAGLE
MISSION, Hannon
told me, tried to save face about
their failure in Korea and flew to Weihsien and
said THEY were taking over the camp
-- and told Major Staiger and the DUCK
team to go back to Kunming.
Major Staiger would have none of it.
Staiger sent the EAGLE MISSION team
packing -- except Willis S. Georgia. Hannon had nothing good to say about
Tech Rep. Willis S. Georgia. Hannon says he can only guess that Major
Staiger
let Willis Georgia stay because he was a member of OSS.
Jim Hannon said that when Weihsien prisoners prepared and posted a thank
you banner congratulating by name
all the members of the Duck Team for
liberating the camp, Willis Georgia personally added his name to
the banner. Jim
Hannon told me he personally crossed
out Georgia's name from the thank you
banner.
Hannon has no recollection of anyone taking movies at the camp.
Jim Hannon says he hopes that his book about Weihsien will be one of his
next projects. He has just published his book about his own
experience in and
escape from a German POW camp in Europe in 1944. I believe it is called The
Five Marks. Jim Hannon showed me his manuscript about
Weihsien when I
visited him in California in 1999.
Mary T. Previte
De: "Dwight W. Whipple"
<thewhipples@comcast.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
Information of photoghraphs taken by EAGLE MISSION
Date:
vendredi 8 août 2003 4:58
What a story! Politics during war back then. Times don't change much, do
they? Would love to learn more.
~Dwight Whipple
De: "George Kaposhilin"
<gkapo@earthlink.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet:: Hello
Date: mercredi 13 août 2003 12:54
Hello, I just discovered this site
while doing research on the Weihsien Civilian Concentration Camp
It is fantastic that so many people
of that time are still around and taking advantage of the new technology to
leave an impression of what was happening in China after Japan's infamous
attack on Pearl Harbor.
I was living in Tsingtao at the time
and was eventually interned ,at about March 1943 ,in the Weihsien Camp
My name was George Watts, AKA
"Porky"
I was about 14 when entered and
about 16.5 when the American Heroes dropped in from the sky. I remember the day
well, I was actually casing the Japanese compound for what I could pilfer from
there that night. I saw this glimmering sight of an airoplane and I knew immediately that it was our
salvation. It was beautiful! I
immediately ran to the north gate and just about made in the rush to get out to the field and bring
back those wonderful GI to the camp.
I would like to know if anyone
remembers me. My job was pumping water at Kitchen #1. I was also a Boy Scout
and a hockey player. I attended school and did my share of stealing from the
Japanese compound, particularly books from one of their mansions.
My best friend was Bobby Dreggs,
whom I tried to contact for many years with no success. If anyone knows him
please send me an address or an e-mail for him. I now live in the USA. My email
is: gpapo@earthlink.net and I would love to hear from anyone who
remember our time in Weihsien.
My best to you all, and particularly
to Natasha, for having made this communication possible.
Love.
Porky
***
De: "leopold pander"
<pander.nl@skynet.be>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: : Hello
Date: mercredi 13 août 2003 18:52
Dear George,
This is f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c.
Your message will be in Father
Hanquet's letter box tomorrow.
He lives in the village next door to
where we live in Belgium.
Best regards,
Janette and Leopold
(in 1945, Janette was 7, --- I was 4 and we lived in Block 22 with our
parents and little sister Marylou (died in 2000) who was born in Weishien)
De: "George Kaposhilin"
<gkapo@earthlink.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: : Hello
Date: mercredi 13 août 2003 23:29
Dear Leopold:
Thanks for the prompt reply and
getting the word to Father Hanquet. I am sure he will remember me. I am still
going through the archives of this site. What a find!!
I found that you have compiled a lot
of it into issues called the "Weihsien Gazette" Is that correct? If
so I would dearly appreciate you e-mailing me copies of what you have. Also I
read that someone has a photo of some boy scouts and Father Hanquet with me
being in it. I would like to know who has it and how I can get a copy of it.
Occasionally some of the messages I read had e-mail addresses. One of them was
for Fred Dreggs, Bobbys brother, I sent him a message but it was returned. The
address was listed as; drg-@powerup.com.au
I have never seen an address with a
"-" before the "@". Am I getting it wrong?
Of course that was in the archives
of the year 2000, so he may have a different address now.
How about you and your sister. Did
you go back to Belgium immediately after release? What have you been doing
since then?
Best Regards,
George "Porky" Watts
PS It is funny, I used to hate that
nick name but now it seems almost endearing, like being accepted into an
exclusive tribe. I suppose in many ways we were an exclusive tribe then and
just did not know it.
De: "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: : Hello
Date: jeudi 14 août 2003 3:19
Hello, Everybody,
August 17 is the anniversary of our liberation. If you'd like to
telephone your thanks to our
liberators who are still alive, here are names and telephone numbers:
WEIHSIEN RESCUE
TEAM (DUCK MISSION) or widows
Mrs. Raymond Hanchulak (Helen) Phone: 570-472-3520
James J. Hannon Phone: 760-365-2210
James W. Moore Phone:
214-341-8695
Tad Nagaki Phone: 308-762-2968 (Call
late in the evening. He farms until
after dark.)
Mrs. Peter Orlich (Carol)
Phone: 718-746-8122
Stanley Staiger -- deceased
Mary Taylor Previte
De: "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: : Hello
Date: jeudi 14 août 2003 3:32
Hello, George,
Welcome to our Weihsien memory board.
I'm so sorry you were out of town when I told the Weihsien story to the
national reunion of the China Burma India Veterans' Association in Houston two
or three years ago. I'm scheduled for a
repeat performance at their national reunion later this month in Valley Forge,
Pennsylvania.
Are you aware that our rescuer Jimmie Moore lives in Dallas?
James W. Moore
Phone: 214-341-8695
9605 Robin Song Street
Dallas, Texas 75243
Mary Taylor Previte
De: "Albert Dezutter"
<albertdezutter@worldnet.att.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Membership
Date: jeudi 14 août 2003 4:48
I tried to reply to George Watts,
but received a reply from topica saying I was not a member of the list. How do
I get back in?
Albert de Zutter
De: "Albert Dezutter"
<albertdezutter@worldnet.att.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: : Hello
Date: jeudi 14 août 2003 5:00
George:
My name is Albert de Zutter and I
remember you very well. I sent you a couple of e-mails earlier today, but they
may not have gone through.
You and my brother, John, had a
fight shortly after you arrived at the Weihsien camp and subsequently you and
he became friends. You may have been in his patrol in Boy Scouts. I also
remember you visited us at our house on Wu Shen Kuan Road after the camp. You
and John were interested in radios and phonographs -- taking them apart and
(possibly) putting them back together again.
I'm sure John will be happy to hear
from you. I will be seeing him in a couple of days. He lives in New Jersey now,
but will be visiting here in Kansas City, Missouri. His e-mail is jjdz@optonline.net.
I'm glad you found this site. One of
us will be sure to send you a copy of that picture you want.
Al de Zutter (formerly Albie)
De: "leopold pander"
<pander.nl@skynet.be>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Cc: "George Watts"
<gpapo@earthlink.net>
Objet: Re: : Hello
Date:
jeudi 14 août 2003 9:21
Dear George,
http://users.skynet.be/bk217033/CACW/page_01.htm
Thanks for your message.
If you click on this link, you will
find a few paintings and sketches of Weihsien. Also, a photograph of the five
sections of the red parachute our family received before leaving the Camp, our
Dad's armband and the badge I had to wear. You can download the boy scout group
photo (that came from Father Hanquet). You can also download all the
"archives" since the beginning of this wonderful Topica chat list Natasha
created a few years ago.
This link is a new site I created a
few weeks ago. It is "amateur-work" and also a bit mixed-up but that
is normal.
Another interesting link is: http://www.d.menzi.org/ and many other links you will find in the
"archives".
If ever you have a problem,
downloading the "archives", let me know.
Best regards,
Leopold.
De: "George Kaposhilin"
<gkapo@earthlink.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: : Hello
Date: samedi 16 août 2003 2:39
Thank you Leopold. That is a
fantastic archive. It may take me a few days to read and digest all that is
there. I particularly enjoyed seeing the boy scout picture. I completely forgot
that these pictures were taken and was really surprised to see so many of my
buddies there.
Brought back so many memories!
You are really doing a fantastic job
to keep such an archive alive. Thank you!
George "Porky" Watts
De: "George Kaposhilin"
<gkapo@earthlink.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: : Hello
Date: dimanche 17 août 2003 5:50
Hello Albert:
Thanks for the reply. I would love
to hear from John. I am not sure if his e-mail is JJDZ or JIDZ. in lower case
the first two letters look alike
Best Regards,
George Kaposhilin (Watts)
De: "Albert Dezutter" <albertdezutter@worldnet.att.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: : Hello
Date: dimanche 17 août 2003 5:58
Hi George,
I was with John today, and he was
pleased to hear that you had joined the Weihsien group. His e-mail is JJDZ@OPTONLINE.NET. He will be home in four or five days. He is
now in Kansas City, MO, where I live. Where do you live? What's the story
behind your name change?
Al de Zutter
De: "Kay Allan Canning"
<kay_m_allan@hotmail.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: weihsien
film, malmstedt, ducks and eagles
Date:
dimanche 17 août 2003 16:50
hello everyone again
mary previte's 7 aug message which
begins with a response from troy sacquety is all fascinating.
i wonder [mary] if troy would be
able to tell us if the eagle mission had a list of personnel that went to
weihsien and if so if it included phil malmstedt?
and if greg leck has not already
been to the national archives i wonder [mary again] if troy would be able to
give him any guidance on short cuts to what we are looking for?
although it is interesting that jim
hannon has no recollection of anyone taking movies it is plain that pamela
masters remembers the malmstedt movies. no-one will have a complete
recollection of everything that happened, which is why the collective memory of
this topica group is so wonderful.
kay allan
De: "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
weihsien film, malmstedt, ducks and eagles
Date:
dimanche 17 août 2003 21:31
Hello, Kay,
I will forward your e-mail
inquiry about Phil Malmstead to Mr. Sacquety.
Mary Previte
De: "Mary Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Fwd:Phil
Malmstead
Date:
lundi 18 août 2003 13:29
----- Original Message -----
From: "Troy Sacquety" <sacquety@starpower.net>
To: <MTPrevite@aol.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 17, 2003 10:00
PM
Subject: Re: Eagle mission
> Mrs.
Previte,
>
> Since I have not looked at the mercy mission files, I have only an
incomplete roster of the Eagle mission. I do have a record of Phil
Malmstedt being an OSSer, but not that he was in China or on the EAGLE
mission. He may well have been, I just do not know with the limited
amount of records I currently have on OSS China.
>
I have no problem showing someone how
to use the Archives and where to look. However, I usually only get there on
Fridays, so we would have to try to do it on a Friday and coordinate it in
advance. I think it would be very useful to you to have someone come
out. I would recommend that they come (in the very least) over a two day
period. In that time they can probably research or get the records for
all the DUCK material, but not for all the teams. Also, they will want to
copy records, so it would not be a bad idea to have two people come (one to
research, one to copy.) Plan on spending $100 a day on copies (.15$ a
page), and you should be adequately funded. I would do it myself for you,
but I can't right now as I cannot get sidetracked on research until I finish
all the DET 101 records since I am on a strict timeline.
> Troy
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <MTPrevite@aol.com>
> To: <sacquety@starpower.net>
> Sent: Sunday, August 17, 2003 3:35 PM
> Subject: Eagle mission
>
>
> > Troy:
Here's an inquiry from a member of our Weihsien
internet bulletin board about the Eagle mission that stopped in Weihsien.
> > Mary Previte
> > hello everyone again
> >
> > Mary Previte's 7 aug message which begins with a response from Troy
Sacquety is all fascinating.
> i wonder [mary] if troy would be able to tell us if the Eagle mission had
a list of personnel that went to weihsien and if so if it included phil
malmstedt?
> >
> > and if greg leck has not already been to the national archives i
wonder [mary again] if troy would be able to give him any guidance on short
cuts to what we are looking for?
> >
> > although it is interesting that jim hannon has no recollection of
anyone taking movies it is plain that pamela masters remembers the malmstedt
movies. no-one will have a complete recollection of everything that happened,
which is why the collective memory of this topica group is so wonderful.
> >
> > kay allan
>
>
De: "Zandy
Strangman" <zandy.jen@bigpond.com.au>
À: "Internment Camp"
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Phantom memories!
Date: mercredi 20
août 2003 10:14
Fellow internees,
Your dogged determination to uncover more of the past is admirable but
beware of 'wild goose chases'!
Your recent emails indicate a lot of energy has been spent chasing up
the so called....'Malmstedt movies', while someone else expresses 'blind faith'
in Pamela Masters' memory.
i.e.: ..."although it is interesting Jim Hannon has no recollection
of anyone taking movies it is plain (?)that Pamela masters remembers (?) the malmstedt movies" ( Ex email dated
8/18/03 )
I'm amazed at some of the things Pam remembers! Such as her description in 'The Mushroom
Years' of the RED CROSS painted on the Liberator, as it flew past the Weihsien
camp, on that bright, sunny, memorable day in August 1945.
What I and most others saw, was a big silvery aircraft with the USAF ensign (star and bars) on it's
side!
It may have been on a 'mission of mercy' but as a weapon of war, as the
B-24 Liberator certainly was, it is hardly likely it would have been flying the
Red Cross flag.
For what it is worth, I for one, would back Jim Hannon's recollection
and besides, I've never heard of any film being shot of the camp!
A.Strangman
De: "Mary
Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
Phantom memories!
Date: jeudi 21 août 2003 4:50
Hello, Everybody:
Pamela Masters wrote to me
recently that sometime after she returned to the USA, she personally
viewed the movies taken by Phil
Malmstead in Weihsien.
She says she'd like to get them
for use by the Shantung movie production team who toured the USA this year to
get information about Weihsien for a possible documentary movie. I believe Pamela is one of several of us who
met with this group.
By the way, Pamela says she
is about to release a sequel to The Mushroom Years.
Mary Previte
De: "Zandy
Strangman" <zandy.jen@bigpond.com.au>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
Phantom memories!
Date: dimanche 24 août 2003 10:22
Re any sequel to 'The Mushroom Years"........
I hope ALL the facts are right,
this time!...............A.Strangman
De: "Fred Dreggs" <dreggs@powerup.com.au>
À: "Ex Internees"
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Hello
Date: samedi 30
août 2003 7:37
I got back from holiday in Sydney only last night and just caught up
with all the email messages.
It was a real pleasure seeing a message from you via the Topica site.
Yes, Porky, I certainly remember you from camp. Although I was a couple of
years older than you at that time, I nevertheless remember your good friendship
with my brother Bobby. You have asked about him but I am sorry to say that he
died in 1956-- a hellova long time ago. By way of some background, I went to
England from camp alone to continue my studies in London while my parents,
Bobby and younger bro. George stayed in Tientsin for about 6 months while my
dad finalised some business.
They then travelled to the UK. My mother hated England --too cold and
austere-- so the family decided to emigrate to Sydney and I joined them.
Bobby went to Uni in Sydney and got his BA degree and decided to travel
a bit more and pursue his studies in London, to gain an MA degree. His ambition
then was to join the Diplomatic Service. Unfortunately, he accidentally drowned
in the river Thames and the story goes that it was winter and he had on a heavy
overcoat which pulled him down into the icy waters.
Info from police was quite sketchy but there were no apparent suspicious
circumstances. We will never know the full story.
I am mentioning this to you as you
brought up his name. I should like to communicate with you again for old
times sake, in the near future. I have made a note of your email address and
mine is:-
All the best for now.
look forward to hearing all about you covering all these years and I
shall do the same.
Kind regards,
Fred (In camp I was called "Alfie'' )
De: "leopold
pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: ... found in our family papers ...
Date: mercredi 3 septembre 2003 21:55
Roll call: 7:30h curfew:
22:00hours
Meals at: 08:15h, 12:30h,
18:00h
Meals are served at the refectory.
The food:
You can only count on enough bread and some Chinese vegetables.
Occasionally, eggs, fish and meat are obtainable. However, besides these and
other supplies, an additional half a pound of fish or meat per day per person
would be more than adequate, to complement a meal.
Work and working hours:
. varied. In general, one day off, every three days for the men, and
every two days for the women.
Labour is normal for our community life, (cleaning, coal transport,
peeling of vegetables, etc. ). It is advisable for men to take overalls with
them, aprons or pinafores for the women and also, clogs for everyone. To be
mentioned: there are three distinct kitchens and the one for the Tientsin folks
is the worst of all.
Electric current:
. 220 volts. It would be wise to take a few screw-on light bulbs. It is
forbidden to take along electric irons, foot-warmers, electric stoves etc. but you can always try, for those are very
useful items to have. A useful thing to take with you, is a small Chinese stove
with no chimney, because the stoves we have here take a long time to get heated
and are never ready before noon. There is coal, but it is more dust like and it
would be very useful to bring along a rake to scrape it and also a little axe
to cut the wood, as well as a saw.
The washing is done by ourselves, but there is a Japanese laundry on the
outside which accepts washing three pieces per person per week. This is useful
for bed sheets. Soap can be purchased there for personal laundry and washing.
Useful things to take with you:
. Benzene, spade, cigarette lighter, a lot of cigarettes, bucket, jug,
basin, .
At the local canteen, you can buy local fruits, thermos flasks, soap,
moth balls, toilet paper, shoe laces, carafes, small towels, very bad quality
notebooks, pencils, . and all that for quite cheap.
All the food supplies in your possession upon arrival in camp can be
kept, but you absolutely need very good quality trunks (2 or 3 maximum), for
there is very little space in the rooms. The rest of the gear will have to be
stocked in the baggage room where there are thousands (!?) of different trunks
difficult to reach.
Essential food supplies to be taken:
. bacon, animal fat, powdered
eggs , powdered milk, cocoa, coffee, butter, flour, cheese, sugar, honey, jam,
meat, vegetables etc. You can't buy anything from the outside. The first to
arrive in camp (as a group) haven't been searched though isolated persons were.
Bear in mind that the railroad system is insecure and that you must have two
excellent padlocks with different keys for each trunk.
Take as much money as you can. Normally, you have to leave it all to the
authorities upon arrival in the camp, but don't be stupid enough to do so. Out
of that money, you have a monthly allowance of $.50.-. Take with you as much
medicines as you can because there is nothing at the camp hospital . You can
keep all your personal reserves.
Meals can be prepared during the
winter months with your personal provisions in your room, and on the common
stove during the summer season.
There are no facilities for reading, writing or studying because we are
too badly housed in our rooms. Bring as
many games as possible and also reading novels.
Shoes are quickly worn out over here, so take good shoes with you, and
also working shoes, and if you have to pass through the rainy season, take
wooden soled shoes or rubber boots. It would be judicious to take a bit of
leather or rubber to replace the shoe soles: there are people with the adequate
tools over here to help you.
For the communal showers wooden sandals are best (there is danger in
catching "Hong-Kong foot"). The ladies must not hesitate in buying
local Chinese shoes made of solid canvas, green or red, with good leather
soles. I insist on the "shoe" item because shoes are the first to
wear out.
Therefore, the valid men, those who will of course have to work, should
have a working outfit, an overall, etc. because, when you are a stoker, or a
mechanic, or a rubbish collector, or a flour bag carrier, or a baker ., good
clothes are unwise. The women must bring along aprons or old dresses. Usual
everyday clothes or objects you must of course bring along, but I must point
out a few practical items one might forget to take. Thus, for the kitchen
stuff, each person must have at least three containers: i.e. two soup plates
and an enamel mug which resists better. Those who want to, can also take an
earthenware cup to sip their coffee in their rooms. No drinking coffee in
golden cups, you could burn hands and lips. (??!) This is probably a double
meaning sentence!! Take a coffee pot, not too small, especially for the
families. Two cooking pots and a bigger one like a jam pan. Families must have
an extra plate or two. Also, take a good tool for opening tin cans.
Take a raincoat or a big Chinese umbrella. It is very useful to have a
good hammer, pincers, a pair of pliers, a screw driver, a length of iron wire,
nails, etc., a saw and an axe (we are given small tree trunks, these are too
big to light up the stove). It is better to take a small saw, and a saw for iron, a gimlet , etc. for those who
are concerned: ink to mark your clothes, a good provision of benzene for the
cigarette lighters, also take some for our older folks, a spade, a rake. For
those who like "fricassée de lard" (bacon fricassee), pancakes, and
fried eggs: a good frying pan.
Food to take with you:
It is useless, for the first days, to bring along a week's provision of
bread and cakes, it takes too much place and it gets all dry. However do take
(mostly for the families) what is necessary to make porridge, flour, a lot of
sugar, salt, mustard, etc. according to
each one's tastes. As for tinned food, take: butter, fat, jam, pâté, sausages,
bacon, tongue, vegetables, sauces, vinegar, powdered milk, powdered eggs,
cocoa, oil, coffee and cheese. Everything can be used. All this can be used as
an everyday food supplement, mostly (as it happens from time to time) when the
food served at the kitchens is uneatable. Don't worry however, we are not
starving out here.
The families must take two buckets, a big jug, and a few basins.
Bachelors must take a big basin, a washing board.
Please take a saw and a hammer for Mr. Pander.
As books; take easy reading novels. The children must take their school
books. The camp library is well provided with books in English, loaned monthly.
This should be a good opportunity to learn Russian, it is the language
of the future, but there are no Russian books out here. For money, it's as I
have already explained, but if it could be possible for the gentleman to whom
Mr. Pander left an amount of money, take $.500.- and give them to the owner. I
think he will be pleased with it because he put all his money in the bank and
what he can take out every month does not cover his expenses. As for the
foreign money, may each do as he thinks best. I should however take a few
"golds", and those who have a gold watch or small valuables easy to
handle, why not take them also, it can occasionally be used as exchange money.
Be cautious, when you send your trunks along: close them well, with padlocks
and special keys, for there are many thieves on the way and they are well
equipped with many keys. A deckchair could be quite welcome. Also, the
necessary material for the making of curtains for the windows and those who
have old drapery should take them along to hang on the walls, it is cleaner.
Also, carpets.
Do not take big beds, but good ones however. If you have matting to
sandwich in between the mattress and the bed sheets, as well as for the
pillowslips: take that too, for in the middle of the very hot season, it comes
in handy. Electric irons. The eventual electricians (and the audacious ones)
should take whatever to tinker with, such as wall outlets, switches, etc. . but
don't let them catch you!.
Take woollen sweaters.
***
The original version of this letter (in French) can be found on: http://users.skynet.be/bk217033/CACW/page_01.htm page -6- . Just click on the little
envelope symbol under a copy of the red armband our Dad had to wear.
***
No name, no date!
This letter was obviously written by my Dad in Weihsien.
My Dad was a Tientsin banker of 46 years old with his Wife and two kids.
A boy of two (that's me) and a girl of four and a half (that's Janette).
In fact, this is a carbon copy of a letter written with a type writer
(suppose he found one at the headquarters ??) on a very bad quality paper that
had once been used for another purpose. . and that gives the date.
This paper must have previously
passed through a stencil machine for the CHUNGHWA local newspaper
because on the back of one sheet we can read:
Date: may 22, 1943, CHUNGHWA journal, . Churchill Roosevelt talks
expected to reach decision . etc. Pennsylvania miners abandon work . etc..
Chrysler workers on strike . etc . Tatung's
coal etc .
And on the back of the other sheet, dated January 22nd, 1943 . German
War communiqué - Chunghwa - Transocean - Fuehrer's headquarters, January 21st -
The High Command of the German Armed Forces announced Thursday noon: - etc..
about Stalingrad, the Eastern Front, North Africa, Tunisia, Algiers, and the
bombing of the southern regions of England .
So, I suppose that the original of this letter was written for somebody
who was to come to Weihsien for a long "imprisonment" and sent via
the cess-pool tam-tam organised by Father de Jaegher. But who was it?
I think it must have been written for one of our Italian friends. Mr.
Prodane and his wife, Simone.
Mr. Prodane was an Austro-Hungarian with an Italian passport in
Tientsin.
I remember visiting Mr Prodane and his wife, long afterwards, in
Brussels in the late 1950's with our parents. They had a coffee shop and
roasted the green coffee of various origins. It smelled good in there and they
were very fond of the 3 Pander kids. That, I remember.
In those days I didn't care a nickel about Weihsien.
It was a piece of history that only interested the older folks: our
parents, . so I thought !!
Best regards,
Janette and Leopold Pander.
De: "Mary
Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Alerte
Spam: Re: ... found in our
family papers ...
Date: jeudi 4 septembre 2003 2:43
Leopold,
What an extraordinary letter found in family papers! It
tells its own story, doesn't it.
Mary PREVITE
De: "Fred Dreggs"
<dreggs@powerup.com.au>
À: "Ex Internees"
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Temporary
discontinuation
Date: samedi 6 septembre 2003 4:51
As My wife Coral and I have sold our house here at the Sunshine Coast
Qld., we will be moving to NSW as from Septemer 17, 2003. Please note that our
present email address will not be valid as from that date. When we settle down
and join a new ISP, we shall let you know what is our email address.
Meanwhile, do not cancel our membership as we enjoy keeping in touch
with ex internees.
Kind regards,
Fred (AKA Alfie) Dreggs
De: "Pamela Masters"
<pamela@hendersonhouse.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: ... found in our family papers ...
Date: samedi 6 septembre 2003 19:06
Hi Mary -- There was no message attached! Please send it again.
Thanx -- Pamela
De: "Greg
Leck" <gregleck@epix.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Weihsien Film at
National Archives
Date: samedi 6
septembre 2003 20:29
Well gang, I am sorry to report that my trip to the National Archives
did not turn up the elusive Weihsien film.
If it exists, I am certain it is in the National Archives. It is just a matter of finding it, which is
no easy feat. (For example, while researching
internees I came across a record of one man's arrest, in a small town in 1911
Oklahoma, for burglary. Nothing is ever
thrown away - it all ends up in the archives!)
However despite searching, the only thing I found was a sound (not film)
recording of an interview with Major Steiger.
Of the three films mentioned to me by Kay, one was actually one of
buzzing Shanghai during victory celebrations.
The second was a long film about dropping supplies. It was interesting,
with footage showing how the 55 gallon drums were made from long tubes of
metal, to their packing and stowing and finally dropping by parachute, from
B29s. Very little of the camp can be
seen and it just appears as a group of long barracks - it could be
anywhere. Finally, the third film was
very dark and showed C47s on an airfield and a lot of non descript aerial
shots.
The film could very well exist, but I didn't find it.
regards,
Greg
De: "Mary
Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weihsien Film at National Archives
Date: samedi 6
septembre 2003 21:12
Thank you, Greg, for continuing the search. Were you able to listen to the
Stanley Staiger tape recording?
Mary Previte
De: "Pamela Masters"
<pamela@hendersonhouse.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weihsien Film at National Archives
Date: samedi 6
septembre 2003 21:22
Thanks so much Greg for your report, and your great research.
I think by now, if I hadn't viewed the film in it's entirety in late '46
at Phil Malmstead's home in southern California, I'd be ready to throw in the
towel. But I did see it. It was great, and was taken inside Weihsien
a couple of days after our liberation, and, as I mentioned in The Mushroom
Years, it even covered the crazy chocolate cake caper. There were so many shots of so many people,
that even if the Shandong delegation wasn't involved, there'd be many
ex-internees who'd love to view it. I'm
still trying to find the right Phil Malmstead, or members of his extended
family.
All the best -- Pamela
De: "Greg
Leck" <gregleck@epix.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: RE: Weihsien Film at National Archives
Date: samedi 6
septembre 2003 21:24
I'm afraid I didn't have time but I did copy all the information about
the Steiger recording. I'll post the
details on Topica later.
Greg
De: "Kay
Allan Canning" <kay_m_allan@hotmail.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: weihsien film, malmstedt, ducks and eagles
Date: dimanche 7
septembre 2003 12:15
Greg many thanks for the report on your national archives session. I
guess the Staiger interview to which
you refer is the same one as I found a
reference to a few days ago and was wondering what to do about: arc
identifier 102069, item from record group 226 [records of OSS 1919-1948]. I do
hope someone in the group will have time to listen to it and make a copy or
transcript if it sounds to be of general interest. If no-one wants to, I still
have a friend in the Washington area that I think I could persuade to do it for
us. i agree that the national archives still feels like the best archive
collection to search for the malmstead or malmstedt film.
Pamela it is good to see that you are still in pursuit. I feel sure that
it has to be right to try and track down the photographer or his family, since
i suppose notwithtanding nara's enormous collection of things your film might
be 'the one that got away' and the only copy could just be languishing in some
malmstead/malmstedt family archive or box in the attic.
Mary would it be ok for me to email troy sacquety direct do you think?
Unfortunately i am 3000 miles from washington but i do have time to work
on the nara indexes over the internet. he is obviously very familiar with the
region of the indexes that is likely to be the most promising and if i could
get some guidance from him [without taking up too much of his time - i saw the
reference in his 17 aug email to you to a strict timeline] i or my washington
area friend might be able to get closer to the film or to other things like an
eagle mission report than we have so far managed.
kay
De: "Greg
Leck" <gregleck@epix.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet:
RE: weihsien film,
malmstedt, ducks and eagles
Date: dimanche 7 septembre 2003 18:52
Here's what I came up with during my search in Washington DC:
Dropping of First Supplies to POW's at Weihsien, China
ARC Identifier 5493
Control Number NWDNM(m) - 18-CS-4337
Dropping Supplies to Allied POW's in Shanghai, War department, 1945
ARC Identifier 13785
Control Number NWDNM (m)-107.1523
Buzzing Shanghai
ARC Identifier 5506
Control Number NWDNM(m)- 18-CS-4357
Dropping Supplies to POW's in Shanghai, 1945
ARC Identifier 13786
Control Number NWDNM (m)-107.1525
Here is the sound tape interview with Major Steiger:
Duck Mission, The: Interview with Maj. William A. Steiger, 09/1945
ARC Identifer: 102069
Control Number NWDNM(s) - 226.13
Here are two other films which might contain, within them, scenes of
Weihsien. I say this because
after looking through thousands of files at
the National Archives I have learned that sometimes things are lumped
together. I did not get a chance
to view these films:
Japanese Surrenger Negotiation - Scenes of China, 08/29/1945
ARC Identifier: 79871
Control Number NWDNM (m)-428-NPC-14825
Another possibility is a large group of films taken of what I believe is
the
Ssupingke Internment Camp, which was in Manchuria. There are at least ten
reels of film so the Weihsien reel could be one of them.
Susupe Civilian Internment Camp
ARC Identifier 4587
Control Number: NWDNM (m) - 18-CS-2631
I don't plan on returning to Washington in the foreseeable future - it
is unfortunately a four hour drive for me and my work schedule makes it
difficult. However I provide these in
the hope that if someone else can continue they have something to build on.
I think the very best chance of a short cut here is to find either Phil
Malmstead or one of his family members.
Mary, with your contacts in government, do you think you could track dow
one of the Malmsteads?
regards,
Greg
De: "leopold pander"
<pander.nl@skynet.be>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: implicit
Date: samedi 13 septembre 2003 9:00
Dear Mary, and Weihsien friends,
When commenting my Dad's letter written in 1943 in Weihsien compound, I
wrote:
---
"In those days I didn't care a nickel about Weihsien.
It was a piece of history that only interested the older folks: our
parents, . so I thought !!"
---
Quite correct!
But that was a 45 years ago! and
I should have added : that ---
"Only fools didn't change their minds!"
Sixty years after, I am still wondering why am I so attracted by this
Weihsien "adventure" I don't even remember well?
All the best,
Leopold
De: "Dwight
W. Whipple" <thewhipples@comcast.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
implicit
Date: samedi 13 septembre 2003 17:42
Well, Leopold, you are not alone.
I think the fascination of being part of such a significant segment of
history draws many of us into this mix.
I was only seven years old in 1943 but my memories are vivid of
Weihsien. Our family was all together
through it all and it was a great adventure for us kids. Getting filled in by so many of you
continues to be a treat and the photos and paintings are exquisite. They all help to support our childhood
memories. We have been wondering how
may Weihsien internees are still alive after sixty years? My father is a good example. He was in his mid-thirties back then and is
ninety-eight years old now. I'm sure
many of our internees are gone. Anybody
know how many are left? And so it
goes...
~Dwight W. Whipple
De: "Mary
Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Liberator Jim Moore's birthday
Date: dimanche 14 septembre 2003 18:27
Jim Moore, one of the six Americans who liberated the Weihsien Civilian
Assembly Center, will celebrate his birthday on October 5. If you'd like to drop him a birthday card,
his adress is:
James W. Moore, 9605 Robin Song Street, Dallas, TX 75243
Phone: 214-341-8695
His is one of the truly
feel-good stories of World War II. A
graduate of the Chefoo School for the children of missionaries in China, Jim was serving in the Federal Bureau of
Investigation (FBI) in the USA and did
not have to go to war. But he found out
that his Chefoo School had been captured by the Japanese and marched off to
concentration camp. He resigned from
the FBI, joined the military, signed up to go to China, and signed up for the
mission to rescue Weihsien. The first
person he asked to see when he got inside the camp was "PA" Bruce,
headmaster of the Chefoo School.
Mary Previte
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Beard" <beard@xtra.co.nz>
To: "Weihsienese" <weihsien@topica.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 21, 2003
3:25 AM
Subject: Weihsien Visit - 10
September 2003
> Greetings
to all ex-Weihsienites!
>
> Back in 1986, when I last visited the site of the Weihsien Civil
> Assembly Centre of 1943-45, the trip was an afterthought when our Chefoo
> Lotus Tour party was staying in Yantai. The rushed visit left me with a
> sense of frustration, because the Weifang tour guide seemed
> disinterested and didn't show us the plaque, presented in 1985 to
> Weifang No 2 Middle School by the Chefoo Schools Association, to
> commemorate the 40th anniversary of our liberation.
>
> So, when planning my recent China tour, I e-mailed the Shandong Movie
&
> TV Studio's 'Lawsuits for the Future' production crew representative Ms
> Zhang Xiaoping, saying that I was planning to visit the former Weihsien
> Camp site; would they be interested in meeting up with an ex-internee
> live on site? Yes, came back the reply. Thus, a subsequent phone call to
> my Beijing hotel room and several more to my Yantai room a few days
> later resulted in my being whisked off on 10 September in a chauffeured
> limousine at speeds of up to 180 km an hour along a series of new,
> six-lane expressways, interspersed at intervals by three toll gates, to
> arrive three hours later at No 2 Middle School, Weifang.
>
> On going through the unimposing (back?) entrance to the administration
> area, I noted on my right, one of two former Japanese guard houses which
> I'd seen in 1986. Gone was much of the extensive open space I'd formerly
> seen in the area where Block 23 used to be. Also gone for good is the
> old hospital where I was quartered on the top floor, as well as the old
> water tower and pump room where I had slaved away to make the water
> gauge rise. On the other side of the school grounds I was shown a
> dilapidated building which they said is soon to be renovated. The
> stairway inside and the upper floorboards seemed sound, but I couldn't
> identify where it would have been during our camp days.
>
> Then I was taken to the Eric Liddell Memorial Garden. As I stood by the
> Scottish granite monument erected there in his memory I felt deeply
> moved by a sense of the historical significance of the site and spoke
> the the gathered Jinan film crew and local TV personnel about Eric
> Liddell's quality of life in the camp and of the privilege of being in
> his 1944 Bible Class prior to his death in February 1945.
>
> After a Chinese banquet hosted by the Foreign & Overseas Chinese
Affairs
> Office of the Weifang Peoples' Government, I presented the
> producer/director of the 'Lawsuits for the Future' team, Hou Hongliang,
> with my copy of 'Eric Liddell: Pure Gold' (2002) and of 'Looking
Back
> 50 Years to Weihsien' (1995) by Norman Cliff, after which I was
> interviewed for one hour. The questions were perceptive and
> philosophical in nature; for example, how internment had altered my
> perspective on life. I expressed a sense of empathy with the Chinese
> people in their efforts to document significant events which had
> occurred during Japan's occupation of China, noting that my own 16½
> years in China (beginning in 1929 only two years before the Shenyang
> [Mukden] Incident in 1931), were significantly affected as a result of
> internment by the Japanese in Weihsien - right where we stood - during
> 1944-45.
>
> I was informed that the production crew plan another visit to the USA
> and that final editing of the current documentary, which will include
> footage of the USA interviews late in '02, will be completed late in
> 2004, ready for screening on China National TV during 2005 - the 60th
> anniversary of the end of the Japanese War of Aggression against China.
> I've been promised a copy on videotape and will be suggesting that
> copies for both the USA and UK be made available.
>
> Following the interview, I enquired from the No 2 Middle School's
> Administration Secretary as to the Eric Liddell display room and was told
> it no longer exists. I couldn't establish clearly what plans are being
> made for a future display, or as to what has happened to the E.L.
> memorial plaque presented in 1985. I did learn, however, that plans
are
> well under way to move the E.L. memorial garden and the monument to a
> more central site on the school grounds.
>
> David Beard
De: "Pamela Masters"
<pamela@hendersonhouse.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
Weihsien Visit - 10 September 2003
Date: lundi 22 septembre 2003 17:59
Thank you David for a great report!
Did the delightful Zhang Xiaoping feel that the production company had
enough material to complete their documentary without the additional film by
Phil Malmstedt? When I was interviewed
in San Francisco last Thanksgiving, I was asked specifically if I knew of any
photos taken at our liberation and I told them about Phil, and said I'd do all
I could to locate his film, hence my almost year-long search...
Kindest regards -- Pamela
De: "Mary
Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
Weihsien Visit - 10 September 2003
Date: mardi 23 septembre 2003 2:41
Bravo, David,
What a wonderful idea to
connect with the Shantung movie makers while you were visiting Weifang!
Mary Previte
----- Original
Message -----
From: Raymond Moore
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 8:06 AM
Subject: Weifang
Visit
Thanks David for your story of your visit to the
Concentration Camp site. I took my brother Frank there at the
beginning of 2002 and, together with a Chinese friend of ours to act as translator,
I took Frank to Chefoo and to Weihsien. Here is part of my diary entry
for 5 February 2002:
"We got a taxi to the No.2 Middle School
which, we were told (and I think it is mentioned in David Michell's book) is
the site of the old Weihsien camp. We
spoke to the gatekeeper - all schools seem to have a gatekeeper who can be
fairly authoritative - and he was pleased to let us in and suggested we go in
to the headmaster's office to get further permission.
Immediately ahead of us was a large building which
was obviously the main administrative building and on either side as we walked
up the main entrance road, were two old buildings which were obviously original
buildings on the site. I placed them as two of the Japanese quarters and
somewhere just past them would have been the dividing wall that separated us
from going into the Jap quarters. These two old buildings seemed to be in
good nick. We found our way, with a little help, to the headmaster's
room. The man we met was actually the
chief administrator as today is the first day of the Spring Festival Holiday -
Chinese New Year - and the headmaster was not around. He was most helpful and knew what we were talking about and went
out and brought in a copy for Frank and I of a handbook for the Eric Liddell Foundation. I
was pleased to get a copy of this.
He then went on to say that Block 23 which is the
building in which I lived for practically the whole time there, was exactly in
the position of the building we were now in.
It had been knocked down in 1986 to make way for the present building. I
was very sad about this as David's book mentioned that he returned in 1985 and
the building was still there minus the bell tower. It would have been nice to see the rooms in which I lived during
that time. But, as the man we were
talking to said, we have to move on, so maybe there is some kind of closure in
not being able to see it.
We were encouraged to walk around and see what we
could see so we went out the other side of the building and there was a large
playing field and basketball courts and not much else to see. Still I was able to visualize the place as
it has been and I got quite excited as I drew a picture for Frank of the camp
as I remembered it. This is where the residential huts were.
Here was the toilet and the cesspool. Up there was the main road
and Kitchen No. 1 and the front gate up there. We took a couple of
pictures. The school has 4,000 pupils
and has huge white tiled buildings to
cater for such a large enrolment. We
were approached by a very pleasant girl who had been a student and was now
doing an English major in the Teachers College who introduced herself as Alice
and spoke excellent English. She was visiting the college to catch up with one
of her former teachers. Even though the
school is big, it only takes up a part of the land on which the concentration
camp stood. The man who was
accompanying us told us that next door was a large hospital and that there was
one of the old buildings still there.
But first we went to the back of the school
and made for the place which used to be our front gate. The school faces exactly the opposite
direction to the way the camp faced.
It was not hard for me to find this and locate where the front gate
would have been, and near to this was a rather attractive little garden which
was under lock and key and in which was a large stone tablet in memory of Eric
Liddell set up by the Eric Liddell Foundation. The key was located for us and we went in and took some
photos. There is something nice about
him being remembered here in a place which has moved on and in some cases made
deliberate attempts to erase the colonial and missionary past.
We were at a wall which looked down over a laneway
which would have been the road in front of the camp in the old days and we
could see a huge concreted in drain (you might call it a creek or a river)
which was the creek that used to run just a few meters in front of the
camp. We made our way around and found
the lane and walked down it. It was a
real country lane with people living out their lives there and, most obvious to
us, was the fact that as in the majority of China, there is no system of
rubbish disposal so it was all dumped in stinking heaps outside their houses
and on the river bank. We stood there
and took some pictures while I described to Frank that none of those houses
were there in 1945 when the Americans dropped by parachute to liberate the
camp. A few meters in front of the camp
was this creek and then there were open fields with the usual burial mounds
scattered about. When the Americans landed by parachute they immediately drew
their pistols and hid behind the burial mounds thinking that the Japs might
resist their approach. The Japs didn't
and in fact it was us internees who for the first time in a number of years,
rushed out the gate and across the creek and went to welcome them. It was also in that area that most of t! he
parachutes of food and other supplies were dropped over the next few
weeks. It was a 10 year old's dream as
loads of chewing gum broke apart and tins of peaches were scattered about, some
having broken open too.
Although there was no obvious sign of it I took
pictures of the place where the front gate used to be and have no doubt of my
accuracy in this. We then walked next
door to the back entrance of the current hospital property and immediately
found the old hospital building which I remember so well where the Boys and the
Girls schools were housed during our internment. I spotted the front steps and the kitchen for the hospital
patients. We wandered around taking
pictures and came across a corner stone on the building which had the date 1924
on it and above that had been the name of the hospital, but during the Cultural
Revolution some industrious Red Guard had come along with a stone chisel and
hammer and chipped away at the name to obliterate any sign of the decadent
westerners who had been here. However
it was not hard to work out that he had chipped away the letters which spelt
"SHADYSIDE HOSPITAL" He had
done the same with the Chinese characters giving the name of the hospital on
the other side of the stone, but one of the ladies who was there with her
children told us what the characters had been.
Also while we were talking there and Frank was
entertaining a number of young children as it was a children's playground, a
lady came along who told us that she had been in the building cleaning it and
had found hidden in some high place some papers which included a picture of a
lady who was a nurse. She lived too far
away to go and get them to show us, but it set our imaginations on fire. Who had hidden this stuff? Was it one of the people who nursed in the
camp hospital? Maybe it was one of the
boys or girls school children and the picture was of their mother? Why was it
hidden and why was it not collected when the person left the camp?
It was a good day."
We did not have the benefit of a civic reception, but it was wonderful to see the place and discover that some of it the buildings were still there and all of the memories.
Ray (Raymond) Moore
De: "David
Beard" <beard@xtra.co.nz>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
Weihsien Visit - 10 September 2003
Date: mardi 23 septembre 2003 13:52
Pamela,
The 'delightful' Zhang Xiaoping unfortunately broken her leg a few weeks
ago, and apologized over the phone, saying she was really disappointed at not
being able to go to Weifang to do the interview. So regrettably I never met
her. The interviewer, Ms Guo Mengxia, is a graduate from Jinan University. She
impressed me by her sympathetic understanding and perceptive questions. No
mention of the Phil Malmstedt film was made. They were interested in getting a
DVD copy of the film 'Chariots of Fire', which is available in China in pirated
form. I also supplied them with an order form downloaded from Yahoo. Zhang
Xiaoping earlier asked me in an e-mail if I could supply some photos from my
childhood and more youthful days . "When we tell your story we'd like to
show some old pictures making your story vivid and vigorous".
Good luck in the arduous search for the elusive Malmstedt film
Regards,
David Beard
De: "leopold
pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weifang Visit
Date: mardi 23 septembre 2003 22:21
Dear David, Dear Ray,
Wow, :-))
Many thanks for your last messages sent by e-mail. We read them trying
to imagine ourselves in the middle of was is left of the old concentration
camp. It is true that life must go on and that new buildings have to take the
place of the old ones. What happened there 60 years ago must not be forgotten,
neither for us, nor for the local Chinese people and certainly not for our
ex-captors.
You mention several times that you took pictures.
We would love to have a print of those photographs you took in Weihsien
and also if you could point out the location of the views on the map we have of
our old compound. (--- the one drawn by Father Verhoeven).
Also, we would like to participate in your expenses for printing and
sending these pictures out here to Belgium. Please, let us know.
Best regards,
Leopold.
De:
<cwritsher@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weifang Visit
Date: mercredi 24 septembre 2003 2:47
Hi, Cynthia Wilder Ritsher here and very grateful to be on this list,
which treats me to a kind of
fly-on-the-wall look at the Weishien camp where my grandparents, George and Gerrude Wilder were imprisoned during
WWII. As I watch you all digging into your memories and bring
alive to me bits and pieces of prison
camp life I wonder what I'd see if you spent some time reminiscing about the school in Chefoo which many of you
attended. Is the school still there
and, if so, who are the attendees? Is it a co-ed school now? Is it a Chinese school? My Dad, Theodore Stanley
Wilder, was there as was his brother Durand.
Thornton Wilder was Dad's roommate.
I remember Dad talking about having very limited contact with the
Chinese staff. Students weren't supposed to share food with them or (I think)
even talk with them. I'd love to hear
more – though I have to say I'm grateful for all the little bits and pieces of
information that have been coming this way. Wonderful, the miracles of the
Web. Some years ago my 16 year old son
now 36 years old, David, and I went to China with a group from his public high
school. We looked for Weihsien but couldn't get enough of a lead to go on...
Now I'm feeling the seeking has brought results...thanks to all of you. it's wonderful to watch. Cynthia (Cindy) Wilder Ritsher
De: "alison holmes" <aholmes@prescott.edu>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
Weifang Visit
Date: mercredi 24 septembre 2003 2:48
Could the pictures go on the website along with the other archives? That would be wonderful! Thanks, A
Alison Holmes
Liberal Arts
Coordinator
Adult Degree
Program
Prescott College,
220 Grove Avenue
Prescott, Az 86301
1 928 776 7116
X3202
De: "David
Beard" <beard@xtra.co.nz>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
Weifang Visit
Date: mercredi 24 septembre 2003 3:33
Pictures of Weihsien 2003 and of yesteryear put into the archives sounds
a very sensible idea. Would the creator of the archives or whoever be so kind
as to provide the URL, so that we know how to get started. Thanks.
De:
"leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Cc: "David
Beard" <beard@xtra.co.nz>
Objet: Re: Weifang Visit
Date: mercredi 24 septembre 2003 9:30
That is a good idea.
Could you simply send the pictures as "*.jpg" files to my
e-mail address (pander.nl@skynet.be). I could then include a complementary page
with your photographs just as I recently did with John de Zutter's documents of
the boy scout group.
Best regards,
Leopold
De:
"Beard" <beard@xtra.co.nz>
À:
"Leopold Pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>
Cc:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weifang Visit
Date: mercredi 24 septembre 2003 14:46
Good thinking, Leopold. I'll try and send my pictures in the next few
days. However, in reality, there's not too much left! I'll provide a shot of
the E.L. memorial monument, one of the two-storied building due for renovation
I referred to recently, which I'm unable to identify and a shot of the original
Weihsien city gate with a new, fancy top, from the 'inside' and the 'outside'.
Someone else may like to provide a view of the memorial garden showing the moon
gate, which I didn't have an opportunity to get. Nor did I photograph the one
remaining ex-Japanese guards former residence, but do have a shot of the two of
them as they were in 1986. Raymond Moore probably photographed the two of them
last year, and took shots of the old hospital building which no longer is.
Incidentally, can anyone who in recent years saw the E.L. display room
and the memorial plaque tell us if the display room was in of one of the two
Jap. residences? If it was in of one of those two buildings, then, if I am
correct in my recollection that there was only one ex-Jap residence left, we
have an explanation for the disappearance of display room and plaque.
Regards,
David Beard
De: "David
Beard" <beard@xtra.co.nz>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
Weifang Visit
Date: mercredi 24 septembre 2003 16:00
Hi Cynthia,
Some of the old Chefoo School buildings are still standing, which I was
able to see and photograph earlier this month, but not the old Boys' School,
which was burnt down late in 1945. After WW2, the Chefoo CIM Compound was taken
over by the Yantai Naval Academy, which is still there, training young naval
and airforce trainees. Lots of historical information on the Chefoo Schools is
in former issues of 'The Chefoo Magazine', which is now no longer being
published in print form.
However, if you want to keep in touch through the new electronic Chefoo
Mag., then contact Ian Grant of Toronto: chefoo@rogers.com who is shortly to put out the first
issue. As well, you could try and
get a s/h copy of 'Chefoo School' 1881-1951, A History and Memoir (1990) by
Gordon Martin; Merlin Books Ltd, Braunton Devon. ISBN 0-86303=465-9. You could
also contact Dr Norman Cliff: Cliffnorman@aol.com . He if anyone would know if copies are still around. But be
quick: he's off on yet another trip to China soon! In reality, this Weihsien List is devoted only to
Weihsien. There may be a Chefoo website; the above contacts are likely to know.
There is no Chefoo List comparable to our Weihsien List that I know of.
Best wishes,
David Beard
De: "Mary
Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet:
Re: Weihsien Visit - 10 September 2003
Date: jeudi 25 septembre 2003 3:53
David:
Please give me the e-mail address of Ms. Zhang. When she visited me in New Jersey, she
photographed quite a few of my photos, but I may have another she might find
useful.
Mary Previte
De: "Mary
Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
Weifang Visit
Date: lundi 29 septembre 2003 1:13
Hello Everybody,
When our Taylor family
visited the "museum" or display room, it was
located in one of the buildings that
was once in the Japanese quarters.
We were
entertained there before being allowed to tour the campus.
I wonder what
happened to all the magazines and documents that were displayed there.
Mary Previte
Mary Previte
----- Original
Message -----
From: James H. Taylor III
Cc: PREVITE, MARY T. ; IAN GRANT
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 3:49 PM
Subject: WEIFANG VISIT
Dear Cynthia,
My sister, Mary Taylor Previte, has forwarded to me
your e-mail of the 24th.
I think your grandfather must be the one who
collaborated with Hugh Hubbard in writing the book, Birds of
North-eastern China. Hugh Hubbard was almost like a surrogate
father to some of us Chefoo boys during the two long years we spent in
Weihsien. He opened our eyes to the marvels of creation through ornithology.
Weihsien, now known as Weifang, is on the main railway
line between Qingdao, the famous port city and Jinan, the capital of
Shandong province. The concentration camp was a former Presbyterian
Mission School cum hospital. The school, now almost totally changed, is the 2nd
Peoples Middle School. The hospital is now operated separately under
the Bureau of Public Health. To learn more about life in the camp, go to
google and see if you can unearth the following books:
Shantung
Compound by Langdon Gilkey, 1966
Courtyard of
the Happy Way by Norman Cliff, 1977
A Boy's War
by David Michell, 1988
My sister, Mary, also wrote
a fantastic article for the Philadelphia Enquirer Sunday Magazine
entitled, Song of Salvation, August 25, 1985.
Concerning Chefoo School, it is located in Yantai
(called Chefoo in the West), a port on the northern coast of the Shandong
Promontory. It has been a Chinese Naval Base since 1949. Many of the former
buildings are still standing. The Boys dorm was burned down in the '40s, I
believe. A book that will give you an idea about Chefoo School is:
Chefoo
School 1881 - 1951 by Gordon Martin, 1990
Chefoo by
Stanley Houghton, Edith Harmon and Margaret Pyle, 1931
As students at Chefoo, we were not normally allowed to
have close links with the Chinese staff. I think this was primarily to avoid
the danger of incidents that could easily flare up in the troubled political
atmosphere of the Boxer Uprising (1900), the demise of the Qing Dynasty (1911),
the Warlord Period (1915 - 1925), and the Northern Expedition (1927 - 1928).
The School was caring for children whose parents were scattered all over China.
As some of our school songs show, however, there were Chinese staff who
were regarded endearingly by teachers and students alike. I do think it
was very sad that we were not given an opportunity to learn Chinese and to
delve into the riches of Chinese literature. Sadly, those were the days when it
was more important to study Latin and French as well as the full curriculum
required for entry into Oxford and Cambridge. In that respect Chefoo could not
be faulted. Its academic standards, sports program, and spiritual formation
were perhaps the best east of the Suez.
Some thoughts that hopefully will be
of interest to you.
Jamie (as I was known in Chefoo)
De: "Joyce Cook"
<bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
WEIFANG VISIT
Date: jeudi 2 octobre 2003 5:54
Dear Mary. I received your message entitled "Weifang visit' but for
some
reason my computer deleted the attachment. Could you re-send it to me
please. I am sure I would be interested in it as we were there in 1986.
I note somewhere the Shadyside
hospital has been demolished but it was
still standing during our visit. Regards Joyce Bradbury
De: "Natasha
Petersen" <np57@cox.net>
À:
"weihsien" <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Joan
Walle Eglis
Date: jeudi 2 octobre 2003 14:50
To all of you who remember Joanie:
Joanie will be visiting me in Roanoke, VA on October 10th for just half
a day. If you wish to send her a
message, please write to her c/o my email address, np57@cox.net I will give her the message.
Joan, her sister, Lila, and her parents were from Tsingtao. Joan is now living in New Jersey.
Natasha
De: "Albert
Dezutter" <albertdezutter@worldnet.att.net>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Joan Walle Eglis
Date: vendredi 3 octobre 2003 0:14
Give Joan my love. I used to visit her and Lila when I was growing up in
Tsingtao.
Albert de Zutter
De: "Joyce Cook"
<bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
Joan Walle Eglis
Date: vendredi 3 octobre 2003 4:12
Hi Joan. Of course I remember Joan and so does our good friend Yvonne
Ozorio who joins me in sending our heartiest greetings. We remember all the
good times we had together. We were good friends. Is Lila all right?
Does Joan remember the play we staged in our first camp at the Iltis
Hydro? She was an angel and can be seen in the photograph in page 45 of my book
"Forgiven But Not Forgotten" (She is standing at the back on the left
hand side of the photograph immediately behind Yvonne and me)
Joan, do you remember Jimmy Basket, Deedee Sale (Now deceased) m Ida
Wilson, Zartousha Sanosain, Alice Gerber, The Reinbrecht sisters, junior Chan,
the deZutter boys , little Jeanette Baliantz
(Who became executrix of Rudolf Nureyev's will) and the Whipples etc etc
who are all in that photograph. Such a
long time ago. Much love from Joyce Bradbury (nee Cooke) and Yvonne (Rozicki)
nee Ozorio
De: "leopold pander"
<pander.nl@skynet.be>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: www
Date: vendredi 3 octobre 2003 10:31
Dear everybody,
Thanks to David Beard and Raymond Moore there are a few new (recent)
pictures of Weihsien.
You will find them on pages, 9 and 11.
on --- http://users.skynet.be/bk217033/CACW/page_01.htm
--- hope it will be OK for everybody!!
Best regards,
Leopold
De: "Mary
Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: WEIFANG VISIT
Date: samedi 4
octobre 2003 2:12
Dear Cynthia,
My sister, Mary Taylor Previte, has forwarded to me your e-mail of the
24th.
I think your grandfather must be the one who collaborated with Hugh
Hubbard
in writing the book, Birds of Northeastern China. Hugh Hubbard was
almost like
a surrogate father to some of us Chefoo boys during the two long years
we
spent in Weihsien. He opened our eyes to the marvels of creation through
ornithology.
Weihsien, now known as Weifang, is on the main railway line between
Qingdao,
the famous port city and Jinan, the capital of Shandong province. The
concentration camp was a former Presbyterian Mission School cum
hospital. The school,
now almost totally changed, is the 2nd Peoples Middle School. The
hospital is
now operated separately under the Bureau of Public Health. To learn more
about
life in the camp, go to google and see if you can unearth the following
books:
Shantung Compound by Langdon Gilkey, 1966
Courtyard of
the Happy Way by Norman Cliff, 1977
A Boy's War
by David Michell, 1988
My sister, Mary, also wrote a fantastic article for the Philadelphia
Enquirer
Sunday Magazine entitled, Song of Salvation, August 25, 1985.
Concerning Chefoo School, it is located in Yantai (called Chefoo in the
West), a port on the northern coast of the Shandong Promontory. It has
been a
Chinese Naval Base since 1949. Many of the former buildings are still
standing. The
Boys dorm was burned down in the '40s, I believe. A book that will give
you
an idea about Chefoo School is:
Chefoo
School 1881 - 1951 by Gordon Martin,
1990
Chefoo by
Stanley Houghton, Edith Harmon and Margaret
Pyle, 1931
As students at Chefoo, we were not normally allowed to have close links
with
the Chinese staff. I think this was primarily to avoid the danger of
incidents
that could easily flare up in the troubled political atmosphere of the
Boxer
Uprising (1900), the demise of the Qing Dynasty (1911), the Warlord
Period
(1915 - 1925), and the Northern Expedition (1927 - 1928). The School was
caring
for children whose parents were scattered all over China. As some of our
school
songs show, however, there were Chinese staff who were regarded
endearingly
by teachers and students alike. I do think it was very sad that we were
not
given an opportunity to learn Chinese and to delve into the riches of
Chinese
literature. Sadly, those were the days when it was more important to
study Latin
and French as well as the full curriculum required for entry into Oxford
and
Cambridge. In that respect Chefoo could not be faulted. Its academic
standards,
sports program, and spiritual formation were perhaps the best east of
the
Suez.
Some thoughts that hopefully will be of interest to you.
Jamie (as I was known in Chefoo)
De: "leopold pander"
<pander.nl@skynet.be>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: water colour paintings
Date: lundi 6
octobre 2003 11:38
Dear David,
Mrs. Eileen Bazire's water colour paintings have been added to the
picture gallery.
They are on page 11, just after the photographs you recently sent by
e-mail.
Again, many thanks for your help ---
Best regards,
Leopold
De:
<cwritsher@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Weifang Visit
Date: samedi 11
octobre 2003 1:30
Thanks David. Thanks for your thoughtful response to my inquiry about
Chefoo.
It's strange how someone (me)
can have mental pictures of places they've
never been to. My impressions of
Weihsien are revised significantly because of
the letters, books diaries, photos and paintings that have been shared,
thanks
to this listserve (Isn't that what I should call it?). I still have probably
over-romantisized visions in my head of the Chefoo boys school and other
places in China my father knew.
The searching and looking for new insights gives
me lots of pleasure. It's a
pleasure to be on this Weihsien list.
Cindy (My family always call me Cindy) Wilder Ritsher
----- Original
Message -----
From: Dawei Beard
Cc: Cliffnorman@aol.com ; snordmo@sd.fastq.com
Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2003 8:50 AM
Subject: Getting
back on the Weihsien List
My husband,
David Beard, was no longer able to send and receive mesaages to and from the
Weihsien List. Topica's programming seems to be in disarray. When I
tried to subscribe him again, I was told that he was already
subscribed :-), but when I sent messages from him to weihsien@topica.com I got messages back telling me that he was not a member of the
List :-( I have therefore subscribed him again using our Hotmail
account and using his Chinese name Dawei, so that Topica won't get confused
again (I hope!). So when you receive a message from Daiwei, that is from
you old List member David.
I know that
Stanley Nordmo and Norman Cliff and possibly others have not been able to send
and receive messages from this List. It is a great pity that some are cut off
from communication with this List. Perhaps those people could try opening
a Hotmail (or other) account and registering again using a different email
address. I would not recommend registering with the same name, as Topica
may get confused.
Margaret Beard
***
----- Original Message -----
From: Dawei Beard
Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2003 10:07 AM
Subject: Former Jap quarters supply
house & Block 50
Hullo everyone,
Thanks to Raymond Moore having kindly made available
his 2002 Weihsien photos for inclusion in Leopold Pander's excellent website
(in section 9), I have been able to compare his photo of the former Jap
quarters supply house (9 iii) with a photo I had taken on my 10 Sept '03 visit.
The unmistakeable conclusion is that the building is
still there, on the right side after entering No 2 Middle School, Weifang
through the rear entrance. My photo can now be viewed on Leopold's website
at
http://users.skynet.be/bk217033/CACW/page_01.htm in section 11, photo number 14.
Thank God for the treasured legacy which the artists
of Weihsien Camp bequeathed us! I think few of us in Weihsien at the time gave
much thought as to the architectural features of the camp. Can you now, without
a visual reminder, recall what Block 50 looked like? I certainly couldn't and
so found myself with the photo of a building which I couldn't identify. You
see, during my visit, the No 2 Middle School Administration Secretary dutifully
showed me round all the old buildings still standing, and I got a mug shot in
front of each one. It wasn't until yesterday, while viewing 'Weihsien Paintings
& Drawings', p5 on Leopold's website, that the magic of a former camp
artist (who was he/she, Leopold?) worked wonders. As I looked at p5 (vii) Block
50, the unusual architectural style rang a bell and I went to fetch my
unidentified photo. Bingo! it was clearly the one and same building.
Though some 56 years had elapsed between painting and
photo, the features were unchanged. How has Block 50 kept so quiet all these
years?
I may have missed past references to it, but can't
recall it coming up in any discussions, or having seen anyone's photos of it.
Block 50 must have a few stories to tell. Can anyone bring it's stories to
light?
My Block 50 photo is on Leopold's web site, No. 15 on
Page 11.
David Beard
De:
"Natasha Petersen" <np57@cox.net>
À:
<beard@extra.co.nz>
Cc:
"weihsien" <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Weihsien listing
Date: dimanche 12 octobre 2003 14:44
Margaret,
Sometimes, for an unknown reason, an email address
changes from "on" to "off". This is what happened to your email address with the Weihsien
Listing. I have changed it back to
"on". I do not check the
list unless someone has a problem.
Please let me know at np57@cox.net
Natasha
Margaret, please let me know whether you received this
message via three e-mail addresses.
De: "George Kaposhilin"
<gkapo@earthlink.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Weihsien Archives
Date: dimanche 12 octobre 2003 17:37
Leopold
Will you
please post the correct address for your archive site. The one
David Beard
just posted does not work
Thanks
George
Kaposhilin
De: "alison
holmes" <aholmes@prescott.edu>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Eric Liddell
Date: dimanche
12 octobre 2003 18:39
Thanks, Leopold, for your wonderful website. My sister and I have been enjoying
reminiscing over all the pictures this morning. We have a couple of questions for the group. Were the ladies latrines behind Block
23? We lived in block 15 and don't
remember running that far...Other question is "Is the Eric Liddell garden
on the site of the old church...has that been pulled down, and then this new
building/site created? When we saw the moongate for the Eric Liddell site we
wondered if that was one we new or a new one. Where was the moongate that we
went through when we arrived hot and tired with the whole Chefoo school ...was
it into the Italian quarters? None of
the maps show it. We don't remember all
the blocks having these cute names. We
knew Block 15 and are glad to see that it wasn't called Cuckoo Hollow,
Nasturtium Drive or anything else! Do
the Eileen Bazire and other watercolours over emphasize the trees in the
camp? I remember bushes certainly by
Block 23 and trees lining the main drive and down by where the Quakers lived,
but it all looks so incredibly pastoral when we remember the hardpan ground
where we had roll call daily. What was
Block 50? Who lived in it? Doesn't look familiar at all! When would we have ever seen Weifang Main
Gate? We saw it when we went to the
Kite Factory, but don't remember it from the old days. Is the baseball diamond a building site
now? Any answers gratefully
received! Best, Alison
Alison Holmes
Liberal Arts Coordinator
Adult Degree Program
Prescott College,
220 Grove Avenue
Prescott, Az 86301
1 928 776 7116 X3202
aholmes@prescott.edu
De:
"leopold pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet:
Re: Former Jap quarters supply house
& Block 50
Date: dimanche 12 octobre 2003 20:53
Dear David, and Weihsien friends,
Could you click on this new address:
http://users.skynet.be/bk217033/Weihsien/index.htm
I tried to build up a new and more friendly layout for
the (our) picture gallery with the photos, paintings and sketches. It is not
completely finished yet and that is why the other address (CACW) will still be
active for a few months. No more page numbers (that don't meen much) but, on
the left side of the screen are the different chapters. If they are underlined,
theay are active, --- so you can click and see what you get. I just added a new
link between Ray's photo and yours, and another link for block-50 between your
photo and Father Verhoeven's painting. As you can notice, there is a lot of
free space on the left side of the "index-page" for more pictures, so
----------- !
All the best,
Leopold
De: "Gladys Swift"
<glaswift@cstone.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Quakers
Date: dimanche 12 octobre 2003 21:17
To Alison: I
have not been writing to 'weihsien group but did a
double take on the word "Quakers" My parents there were not Quakers.
I am a convinced Quaker for a long time but did not
know there were
any Quakers in Weihsien. Or was it just a name?
Please tell me who,
if you know.
Gladys Hubbard Swift
----- Original
Message -----
From: Dawei Beard
Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2003 10:35 PM
Subject: Re:
Weihsien listing
Dear
Natasha
I received
this message from the Weihsien List via our Hotmail account only. When
you realised that you had incorrectly spelt our ISP's name for our
previous Weihsien address, you sent a similar message to beard@xtra.co.nz, but that message did not come via
the Weihsien List. It came directly from you. I replied to
that message telling you that in spite of your best efforts to turn 'on' the
Xtra address, we were still unable to send or receive messages to and from that
address.
Margaret
Beard
De: "Dawei Beard"
<phoenix7788@hotmail.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Eric Liddell
Date: lundi 13 octobre 2003 0:23
Alison,
Weihsien
CAC had a lot of trees - and consequently, attracted a wide variety
of birds,
as those of us who engaged in bird-watching in relation to our Boy
Scout badge
requirements well remember. I have a rather grainy aerial
photograph
of the camp, showing a largely treeless, agricultural
countryside,
in which the buildings of the camp are largely obscured by the
trees. It
would be nice to get a better quality copy ot that picture. Can
anyone scan
in .jpg a good copy and send it to Leopold Pander for inclusion
on his
website, so we can all see for real that there were in fact lots of
trees?
To see
where the Eric Liddell Memorial Garden is situated, go to Leopold's
website and
on p.10 locate 05. If I remember right, you enlarge the picture
and click
on the right side of it to get a map which shows the location of
the garden
in respect of the former camp site. I think the garden, moongate
and
monument were all set in place prior to the memorial ceremony there on
17 August
1995 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of our liberation. The
full text
of the speech, recorded in the Winter
1995/96 issue of The Chefoo
Magazine,
was given by Estelle Cowley(nee Cliff).
David Beard
De: "alison holmes" <aholmes@prescott.edu>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Quakers
Date: lundi 13 octobre 2003 3:43
Gladys, I
am afraid we know no more...they were friends of our (deceased)
mother so
there is no way we can get more information for you. Perhaps
someone
else can fill in the blanks....Alison
Alison
Holmes
Liberal
Arts Coordinator
Adult
Degree Program
Prescott
College,
220 Grove
Avenue
Prescott,
Az 86301
1 928 776
7116 X3202
De: "kay
allan" <kay_m_allan@hotmail.com>
À: <dmenzi@earthlink.net>;
<pander.nl@skynet.be>
Objet: Re: Fw: the donald menzi websites
Date: lundi 13 octobre 2003 15:24
for donald and leopold
thanks both of you for unravelling my little problem
this is a good opportunity for me to say that i am a serious fan of the
work
that both of you have done on websites etc. please keep it coming
kay
De: "Mary
Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: What a priceless website!
Date: lundi 13 octobre 2003 15:38
Leopold,
You have given us a priceless
gift with your web site. I've looked at
the maps and drawings, retracing my
steps taken 60 years ago -- this is the route we took from our Lower School
Dormitory (LSD) to dine at Kitchen Number One . This is where Mrs. Bazire's
concert or lecture announcements were posted -- or -- HORRORS! -- do you
remember the notices posted when we were to get innoculations? I
get goosebumps remembering. This is where Mary Scott taught us Chefoo
girls how to play softball. This is the
lane where I got asthma attacks when I ran during Eric Liddell-organized racing
competitions. This is the playground
where we watched the Peking Panthers, the Priests Padres and the Tientsin
Tigers play on summer evenings. This is
the place where we lighted tiny fires in tin can stoves to earn our Girl Guide
badges. This is where we went to
Japanese quarters -- a chain of girl-bucket-girl-bucket-girl -- to get our
ration of coal dust to fuel our dormitory's pot bellied stove in the winter.
What an astonishing gift of memories, Leopold! A thousand thank yous would never be enough.
Mary Taylor Previte
De: "Donald
Menzi" <dmenzi@asan.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Fr. Schmid's Pictures of Weihsien
Date: jeudi 16 octobre 2003 23:49
I have added Fr. Schmid's 17 drawings of Weihsien to the
weihsien.menzi.org web site (no www., please).
They're really quite wonderful, and Leopold Pander is again due many
thanks.
I'm not sure about the medium used.
They're mostly black and white, so It looks like charcoal, but is much
more detailed than usual. I've asked
Leopold to try to find out something about the artist, and also about Fr.
Verhoeven, whose paintings are already included. Maybe he knows the materials used, as well.
Of course, you are also invited to explore the rest of the
Wilder-Stanley family site through the links on the Weihsien page.
De: "Dawei Beard"
<phoenix7788@hotmail.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Block
50
Date: dimanche 19 octobre 2003 4:12
Alison,
Block 50 seems not to be ringing too many bells with most of us, perhaps
because its residents weren't in our particular circle during camp. There has
been one response, from Zandy Strangman, who wrote to me saying,
".......it seems B50 was occupied by a mix of both sexes, various
persuasions and occupations. Most of the names are beyond my ability of putting
a face to, but 2 in particular were very well known, Aubrey Grandon who just
pipped Eric Liddell in that match race in camp and George Beck, one of the
Hawaiian Pineapples, a guitarist".
Apart from the two former Jap houses and the as yet unidentified
building to be seen in my group of pictures on Leopold Pander's website: http://users.skynet.be/bk217033/Weihsien/index.htm Block 50 is significantly the only
ex-Weihsien CAC residential building left.
David Beard
De: "leopold pander"
<pander.nl@skynet.be>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: www
Date: lundi 20 octobre 2003 9:36
Dear David, Dear Ray,
Thanks for the new pictures, David and thanks for the extract of your
diary, Ray.
A nice day to all ---
Best regards,
Leopold
De: "Ron
Bridge" <rwbridge@freeuk.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Former Jap quarters supply house & Block 50
Date: samedi 25
octobre 2003 22:43
Ref David Beard query on Block 50 written )ct12 Herewith the list iof
inmates as at 30Jun44. Sorry for delay but I have been away.
They were all unattached men
Rgds
Ron Bridge
De: "David
Beard" <beard@xtra.co.nz>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Cc: "Ron
Bridge" <rwbridge@freeuk.com>
Objet: List of former Block 50 residents
Date: dimanche 26 octobre 2003 17:49
Ron,
Thanks for supplying the list of residents of Block 50 as at 30 June,
1944. It makes for fascinating reading, helping to create links. For example,
after seeing Mrs Eileen Bazire's water colour notice of the then forthcoming Gleed Singers concert,
one can now know a little more about his background in China and also place him
as a resident of Block 50.
For the information of everyone, a newly typed out list of all 66 of
those characters in Block 50 - and many of them were 'characters' in their own
right - has been sent to Leopold Pander, and before long will be viewable by
going to his new website http://users.skynet.be/bj217033/Weihsien/index.htm Under FROM in the index, select 'David
Beard', then click 2003 and scroll down to picture No 6, which is the former
Block 50, still standing to-day - the only WCAC residential building left (not
including a former Jap residence still there). That should shortly lead you to
the new window giving this newly provided list of residents. Have fun!
Regards to all,
David Beard
De: "leopold
pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: List of former Block 50 residents
Date: dimanche 26 octobre 2003 19:15
Dear David and Weihsien friends,
--- please read the address as :
http://users.skynet.be/bk217033/Weihsien/index.htm
Hope you all have a nice time exploring all this.
There are still 4 links under construction, but that will be for
"soon" :-))
Best regards,
Leopold
PS critics, suggestions, documents and photos are welcome
De: "Mary
Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Former Jap quarters supply house & Block 50
Date: lundi 27 octobre 2003 0:13
Bless you, Ron! You're an
encyclopedia of fascinating Weihsien information.
I notice your listing Percy Gleed as a resident of Block 50. - He
was one of the camp's star singers, was he not? I've seen his name on some of Eileen Bazire's announcements of
concerts.
Was he the one who used to sing "Cherry Ripe"? or was that Mr. Chalkley?
Mary Previte
De: "David
Beard" <beard@xtra.co.nz>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Percy Gleed - conductor of the Glee Singers
Date: lundi 27 octobre 2003 12:20
Mary,
On Leopold Pander's excellent new website one can revisit Eileen
Bazire's watercolor artwork announcing the first of the Glee Singers concerts.
It is No 6 as listed under 'Mrs Eileen Bazire'. Percy Gleed was the conductor.
He obviously was talented musically, but was he a star singer? I don't know.
David Beard
De: "Mary
Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Birthday of Weihsien liberator Jim Hannon
Date: samedi 1 novembre 2003 14:40
The birthday of Weihsien rescuer Jim Hannon is coming up on November
12.
Some of you may wish to send cards.
He was born in 1919.
His address is P.O. Box 1376, Yucca Valley, CA 92286
Phone:
760-365-2210
Jim and his wife form a team that write books and screen plays. His most recent book is a novel based on his
own experience of escaping from a German concentration camp in 1944 and walking to freedom across Europe. He tells me his manuscript about Weihsien
may be one of his next projects. He
writes under his full name, James Jess Hannon.
Jim was part of the Air Ground Assistance Service (AGAS), not a member
of the Office of Strategic Services as the other Americans on the rescue team
were.
When the rest of the liberation team left Weihsien to set up an OSS base
in Tsingtao, Hannon stayed on to
coordinate evacuation of prisoners.
Mary Previte
De: "Kay
Allan Canning" <kay_m_allan@hotmail.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: kailan mining administration
Date: jeudi 13
novembre 2003 7:06
can anyone advise me on the best way of finding out about the post-war
history of the kailan mining administration? my parents both worked for the kma
before we were interned, and after the war we returned to tientsin and my
father resumed working for the kma. of course many other kma employees were
interned in weihsien too.
apologies for introducing what to many in the topica group will be of no
interest
kay allan
De: "Stan Thompson"
<thompson@ginniff.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Alerte Spam: Re: kailan mining administration
Date: jeudi 13 novembre 2003 17:29
Kay,
I expect that you have already been to Google !
When I typed in "kailan mining administration" I got 20 hits.
Good luck !
Stan
Thompson
De: "Pamela Masters"
<pamela@hendersonhouse.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
kailan mining administration
Date: jeudi 13 novembre 2003 17:51
Hi Kay --
My best source of material on the Kailan was in the Bodleian (sp?)
Library at Oxford and the Teddy Nathan papers.
I would think that the library would still be a good source for postwar
info on the KMA. Happy hunting ...keep
me posted -- XXX Pamela
De: "Pamela Masters" <pamela@hendersonhouse.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
kailan mining administration
Date: vendredi 14 novembre 2003 4:01
Thanks Stan -- I don't believe there was a Google back in the '80s when
I got in touch with the PRO and located Teddy Nathan's papers. Had a great time going through the Google
files this evening. Looks like Kay's
going to get all the material she needs, what terrific files --
Pamela Masters
De: "Kay
Allan Canning" <kay_m_allan@hotmail.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: kailan mining administration
Date: mardi 18
novembre 2003 23:12
my thanks to pamela masters and to stan thompson for replying to my
recent request for help
i had noticed a reference, in i think a ph.d. thesis abstract, to the
nathan papers at the bodleian library in oxford but had not had the wit to
follow through. encouraged by pamela i shall now do so sometime, since oxford
is less than an hour's drive away
i have also made a note of the files held in the british national
archives [formerly public record office] that i could find by electronic
search, and these too i must look at when i can
yes, stan, i had looked at what google could find for me. although there
are quite a few entries they do not seem to me to be overwhelmingly rewarding,
but perhaps that is because i am not a terrific researcher! i shall try again
you may be amused to note that my initials before i was married were
KMA. my father was clearly a very good company man!
kay allan
De: "Pamela Masters"
<pamela@hendersonhouse.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: kailan mining administration
Date: mercredi 19
novembre 2003 2:55
Hello KMA --
Knowing your Dad, I'm not surprised at his choice of initials!
Incidentally, for a lot of very interesting material on the beginnings
ofthe Kailan, don't forget the last item on my bibliography in The Mushroom
Years: The Life of Herbert Hoover - The Engineer, by George H. Nash, W.W.
Norton, NY, 1983. You should be
able to find it in any library. It's an
intriguing story that I only just touched on.
Have a good one -- Pamela
De: "Mary
Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Does anyone recognize these people?
Date: lundi 24 novembre 2003 2:31
Does anyone recognize these people?
Researcher Troy Saquety -- doing
his doctorate on OSS 101 -- says he
believes it is from Weihsien.. He found the
photo in the National Archives.
Mary Previte
----- Original Message -----
From: "Troy Sacquety" <sacquety@starpower.net>
To: "Dick Hamada" <dickhamada@hotmail.com>
Cc: <MTPrevite@aol.com>
Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2003
12:47 AM
Subject: Re: Howdy
> Dick,
>
> Thanks for the well wishes. I found something today in the Archives
that
> might be of interest to you and Mrs. Previte. I found several files
of
> pictures taken in CBI POW camps. I think they were from the Rescue
> Missions, but they were not labeled as such. In any case, I found a
photo
> in a group of them which I found interesting. The folder consisted
mostly
> of photos of a huge banquet/party which was taking place at a camp with
OSS
> men, and the Japanese were outside the gates. Enclosed is a photo of
a girl
> on a man's lap. Although you can not make it out as this is only a
photo
> copy, she is wearing a sailor's style hat. On the hat are the
embroidered
> words: "GS WEIHSIEN."
>
> Hope it is of interest. I got another 30 boxes knocked off the list
this
> weekend!
>
> Troy
De: "Joyce Cook"
<bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Does anyone recognize these people?
Date: lundi 24 novembre 2003 4:01
Dear Mary. Unfortunately my computer deleted the photo found by Troy
Saquety. Can you re send it to me please and I will see if I am able to
identify any of the subjects. Joyce Bradbury
De: "Pamela Masters"
<pamela@hendersonhouse.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Does anyone recognize these people?
Date: lundi 24 novembre 2003 8:07
Sorry, they all look familiar, but I can't put a name to them.
Pamela
De: "leopold
pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Does anyone recognize these people?
Date: lundi 24 novembre 2003 10:56
Dear Mary,
I just had a long conversation with Janette on the phone. ---
Could the lady in the background on the right be Mrs.
Fairchild??????????????????????? and if so, the boy sitting on the same
bench should be Stanley Fairchild who is now in Hong Kong
??????????????????????
Could someone check this?
For the "Pander family" kids, Mrs. Fairchild was: auntie
Galia.
Best regards,
Leopold
De: "Ron
Bridge" <rwbridge@freeuk.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Does anyone recognize these people?
Date: lundi 24 novembre 2003 13:49
Mary,
Could you ask your contact. to put a few more pictures maybe
concentrating on the kids as someone might recgnise themselves, I am fairly
certain it could be taken in No1 Kitchen Weihsien. As the faces seem familiar.
rgds
Ron Bridge
De: "Natasha Petersen" <np57@cox.net>
À: "weihsien" <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: photo
Date: lundi 24
novembre 2003 17:09
I found only one photograph. The girl does not seem to be wearing a
sailor's hat, but she has on a sailor's blouse. I do not see a boy or a girls sitting on anyone's lap. Are there more photos that I did not
receive? If yes, where are they to be found?
Natasha
De: "David
Beard" <beard@xtra.co.nz>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: photo
Date: lundi 24 novembre 2003 21:40
Same here.
David
De: "Joyce Cook"
<bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Does anyone recognize these people?
Date: mardi 25 novembre 2003 7:58
I would love to check whether Galia and Staney Fairchild appear in that
photograph but unfortunately I have not received it yet. I am still in regular
phone contact with Stanley and I am sure he would be happy to have a look at
it. Galia died 3 or 4 years ago aged 94 years. Joyce Bradbury
De:
"Bob&Joyce Bradbury" <bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
À: "Leopold
Pander" <pander.nl@skynet.be>
Objet: Re: Does anyone recognize these people?
Date: mercredi 26 novembre 2003 5:23
Leopold. Thanks for the photo. Unfortunately I cannot identify anyone in
it. It certainly looks like one of the
dining rooms. I do not recognise Stanley or Galia Fairchild. Joyce Bradbury
De: "Joyce Cook"
<bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Death of Junior Chan.
Date: mercredi 26 novembre 2003 6:26
I have just been informed that Professor Guy (Junior) Chan died in Hong
Kong in April 2002. Junior and his parents and brother Eugene are
Chinese-Canadians. Their father Dr Guy Chan senior was attached to the WeiHsien
Camp hospital during our incarceration. They are from Tsingtao and were also
with us in our first camp at the Iltis Hydro, Tsingtao. With others from
Tsingtao, their family was one of the first to arrive at WeiHsien. Junior was
teaching at the Chinese University (Opthalmology) in Hong Kong, A few years ago
we met Junior in Atlanta. he was then living in Philadelphia and had come to
Atlanta to meet us. He and his brother were in the scout cubs in Weihsien.Joyce
Bradbury.
De: "Mary
Previte" <mtprevite@aol.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Death of Junior Chan.
Date: vendredi 28 novembre 2003 18:57
I'm so sorry to learn of the death of Dr. Guy (Junior) Chan. Dr. Chan
contacted me in 1985 after The Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine published as its cover story my "Song of Salvation at Weihsien Prison
Camp" to comemorate the 40th anniversary of the ending of World War
II. Guy was teaching at Temple
University Medical School in
Philadelphia and I live in New Jersey, just across the river from
Philadelphia. A couple of years before
that, our Taylor family had taken a nostalgia trip to China to show the younger
Taylor generation the important places of our childhood, including Chefoo and
Weihsien and Kaifeng, where we were born.
Guy was very much interested in asking how to return to China for a
visit.
Mary Previte
De: "David
Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Death of Junior Chan.
Date: vendredi 28 novembre 2003 19:26
I too am saddened to learn of the death of Junior Chan! I live in the city that the Chan family
called home for many years, Vancouver, British Columbia.
My best memories of Junior were when he used to be an expert pitcher on
one of the Weihsien softball teams. He must have been a teenager then. Junior's younger brother, Eugene, looked me
up years ago when my dad and our family were farming at Hammond, BC, near here
in the Fraser Valley. That would have
been in the late forties. The Chans had
relatives who lived by the river at Hammond.
Eugene was out visiting them. Learning that we were farming nearby, he
walked over and had a little visit with me, reminiscing about Weihsien which,
at that time, was quite a recent memory for both of us. I think that Eugene is retired now. He
practised medicine in New Westminster, BC, for many years. He is a neighbor to
a cousin of mine and the two families have visited China together a few years
ago.
Again, although each of us has to die eventually, it is sad to learn of
the passing of one we once knew, and I am sorry to learn of the death of Junior
Chan.
David Birch
De: "David
Beard" <beard@xtra.co.nz>
À:
"Weihsienese" <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Mrs
Gibb
Date: lundi 1 décembre 2003 11:11
Our son's wedding on 15 Nov was very much an intercultural and
intergenerational event. The wedding
service was interpreted into Cantonese and into New Zealand Sign Language. There was a 17 strong contingent from one
4-generation family, the elder statesman of which is Murray Kendon, the now 86
year old nephew of Nelly Gibb. At the
reception, hosted by the Chinese Anglican Church, some people were very
interested to find out that Murray's aunt, Mrs Gibb nee Nelly Kendon, had
taught David at Chefoo School and had been in Weihsien with him. I was wondering if anyone has any memoirs of
Mrs Gibb which we could pass on to Murray.
Margaret (David's wife)
De: "leopold pander"
<pander.nl@skynet.be>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: 73rd
wing
Date: mardi 9 décembre 2003 11:54
It is about this most extraordinary photograph of Weihsien.
David sent it to me on a CD ... 13Mo, in size. Enormous. I tried to cut
it into pieces for everybody to see the details but the result was awfull. So I
made a *.jpg out of it and included it in David's chapter, 1945/picture-6.
Click on the magnifying glass and wait for the picture to load. 756Kb!! (2889 x
1673 pixels)You can then print it on a good photo quality paper to A4 size. If
you don't have the printer, save the file on a floppy disc and ask your
photographer to print it for you.
Hope you like it :-))
Leopold
De: "alison holmes"
<aholmes@prescott.edu>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
73rd wing
Date: mardi 9 décembre 2003 16:46
Dear Leopold...........Could you be a dear and give the link again to
the site? I thought I had kept it, but
apparently I have not...so don't know how to get to David's chapter. Thanks for your help, Alison
De: "leopold pander"
<pander.nl@skynet.be>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
73rd wing
Date: mardi 9 décembre 2003 18:21
http://users.skynet.be/bk217033/Weihsien/index.htm
good luck,
Leopold
De: "Joyce Cook"
<bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Seasons Greetings.
Date: jeudi 18 décembre 2003 5:25
Wishing all exWeiHsieners a very Happy Christmas and prosperous new
Year. Unfortunately have just been told
that Michael Boycott died but I have no further details. He is
ex-Tsientsin/WeiHsien. I was very happy to be able to print out Leopold
Pander's aerial views of the camp. Thank you Leopold. Joyce Bradbury
De: "David
Birch" <gdavidbirch@yahoo.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: Seasons Greetings.
Date: jeudi 18 décembre 2003 6:49
And a Happy Christmas and wonderful New Year to you, too, Joyce!
God bless!
David Birch
De:
<cliffnorman@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Alerte
Spam: Re: Seasons Greetings.
Date: jeudi 18 décembre 2003 21:34
Dear Joyce,
Greetings from your
one time Shorthand teacher. I am flying
off
on Sat. to Florida to see family there.
God bless you and
your family. Love, Norman
De:
<MTPrevite@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: I'm looking for details
Date: vendredi 19 décembre 2003 3:49
Hello, Chefoo members of our Weihsien memory board:
What specific memories do you
have of Chefusian Jim Moore in the
liberation of Weihsien and the days after the team entered the
camp? What memories
have you of the reaction of Chefoo students or teachers to Jim Moore or
to the
other American liberators?
Allison, Jim adored your father as his favorite
teacher at Chefoo. What
recollections do you have of Jim being with your father at Weihsien?
I'm currently finishing an
article about Jim and would like to add more
of that human thread to the story.
I'd love to hear from you.
Mary Previte
De:
<MTPrevite@aol.com>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: If you'd like to send holiday greetings to Weihsien
liberators...
Date: samedi 20 décembre 2003 0:26
If you'd like to send holiday greetings or notes to the men who
liberated
Weihsien or to their widowes, their addresses are:
WEIHSIEN RESCUE TEAM (DUCK
MISSION) -- current addresses
Mrs. Raymond Hanchulak (Helen),
widow of Raymond Hanchulak
Phone: 717-472-3520
P.O. Box 4
243 Laurie Lane
Bear Creek Village, PA 18602
James J. Hannon
Phone: 760-364-4580
P. O Box 1376,
Yucca Valley, CA 92286
James W. Moore
Phone: 214-341-8695
9605 Robin Song Street
Dallas, Texas 75243
Tad Nagaki
RR 2, Alliance, NE
69301
Mrs. Peter Orlich (Carol), widow
of Peter Orlich
Phone: 718-746-8122
15727 20th Road
Whiteston, N.Y. 11357
Stanley A. Staiger , died last 2002
Mary Previte
De: "leopold pander"
<pander.nl@skynet.be>
À:
<weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: happy new year,
Date: lundi 29 décembre 2003 11:51
Dear everybody,
Two more days to go and we will reach the end of the 365 civil days of
2003 --- so ---, h-a-p-p-y-n-e-w-y-e-a-r to all and may 2004 (and all those to
come) be happy and healthy years for all of you.
What's new on http://users.skynet.be/bk217033/Weihsien/index.htm ?
There is a new chapter: "Ron Bridge"
Many thanks to him for sending the complete list of the Weihsien
inmates. More than two thousand names --- fantastic. I cut it into more or less
sixty small pieces.
Well --- all you have to do, is to click on "Ron Bridge" on
the main index frame. On the upper left of Ron's chapter, there is a map. Click
on that and you will reach another map (the same) that is too big for your
computer screen. Use the scroll bars to reach any part of the Weihsien compound
you want to go to and put the mouse pointer on the block of your choice. Click
once --- and on the screen, will appear a list of all those who lived in that
block. --- and so on ---
If your computer can handle *.xls files you can click on the complete
file that is just under the map on the left hand side of the screen.
Hope you appreciate ! :-))
Oh! Yes! --- you will surely have a mass of complementary information
for Ron such as the room numbers, the full Christian names, the exact dates of
birth, etc. You can send to him, ( rwbridge@freeuk.com ) or directly to Topica
all your critics, suggestions and remarks. For the picture gallery, I would be
happy to include any anecdote or picture as I did for my little sister who was
born in camp. (Click on block 22, then click on Marylou Pander and you should
find the link)
Also, thanks to Father Hanquet who gave me permission to reproduce his
book on the web site. (His book is out of print an now unavailable) It's done up to included Weihsien. There are
also a few links in the pages --- I
hope you will find them and, as usual, --- critics and suggestion are welcome.
Best regards,
Leopold
De: "Joyce Cook"
<bobjoyce@tpg.com.au>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re: happy new year,
Date: mercredi 31 décembre 2003 5:20
Dear Leopold. Thanks to you and Ron.
I now have a comprehensive list of the inmates together with their
details and accommodation. It brought back a lot of memories. As set out my
family was in block two which had two
stories with one room downstairs which we were in and one room upstairs which
the de Zutters were in. Joyce Bradbury.
De: "Albert Dezutter"
<albertdezutter@worldnet.att.net>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Inmate
list
Date: mercredi 31 décembre 2003 21:19
Dear Leopold,
Let me add my thanks to Joyce's for the list of Weihsien inmates. Thank
you Leopold and Ron.
A small footnote: Somehow all the dates of birth of the de Zutter family
are a year off. My father, John, was born in 1887, my mother in 1903, my
brother, John, in 1929, and myself in 1932.
Al de Zutter
De: "Ron Bridge" <rwbridge@freeuk.com>
À: <weihsien@topica.com>
Objet: Re:
Inmate list
Date: jeudi 1 janvier 2004 19:42
Al,
Birth years can be a year in error. I took the quoted age from the year
of the lsting 1944, but with the date being 30Jun44 obviously half the camp had
not had their birthday yet. For the british and some others I have the prcise
date from records found in Berne Switzerland.
Happy New Year to all readers
Rgds
Ron Bridge