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Show Letter from Hugh W. Hubbard On Board S.S. Hupeh, Tientsin to Hong Kong April 1, 1952 Dear Family & Folks, Today*s April Fool's Day, and we're out - no fooling! On the 25th all three of us, Alice Huggins, Mabel & I were summoned tc the Police Office and told that the government had agreed t6 issue us exit permits. We were to leave on the 27th and go direct to Tientsin, not stopping at Peking. We said we couldn't leave without money and visas, and had to get them in Peking. Finally they allowed us an extra day to run up to Peking and back. We rushed around for three days and nights attending to numerous details and examinations, raised money by a loan frem the British Embassy in Peking, got our belongings for sale to Peking for sale, in care of our church organization - no time for sales - and got off the morning of the 28th. Mabel and I were able to bring most of what we had planned. Alice, whose belongings had been taken over by the girls school, got back only a suit case, a trunk half full of junk, and some books. Before getting those or seeing them she had to sign a prepared statement that she was taking all of her personal effects - a lie - and that everything else left in her house was the property of the school - a bigger lie. -This was the price of her getting away. Piano, electric refrigerator, all furniture, supplies, 10 trunks packed to go home with, everything down to her motherTs photo - all taken by a bunch of teen-aged girls, egged on by the government - appointed political director. The police were appealed to again and again for help and protection, but would not go near her place until she showed them her signed statement - evidently close cooperation between police and school. However, we all kept in mind the one fact that it was all important to get out, at the sacrifice of all our possessions if necessary. As you know, we had had permission to sell our belongings for a'month, but in fact the police never gave final decision on procedure, so nothing had been sold, and very little could be in the short time given us. Mabel & Alice made the morning train frsm Tunghsien on the 28th. I was delayed by police and baggage formalities, but caught up with them by bus to Peking. In Tientsin we had 3 days, got our tickets, inoculation shots, foreign currency, etc., and finally customs examinations. This was where I suffered casuali-ties of my whole stamp collection, our radio Wells gave us, and mere than half of our photos and film strips. They gave me receipts for radio and stamps and I turned them over to friends who may be able to get them, sell the radio, and send the stamps later, but it is doubtful. We came down the river from Tientsin today, and are out at sea. The pilot has left us, we are out of Chinese jurisdiction and the next stop is Hong Kong. The fact is gradually dawning on us that we are free and actually on our way to you whom we love most in the world. It is almost like a return from the grave. We have never dared admit to each other and hardly to ourselves, the danger we have escaped. We may now talk freely and breathe freely. v Our permits were actually dated and sealed in Paoting on March 7, and were held up, evidently by the Tunghsien police, until the 25th, when we were pushed out as fast as possible. Whether this was in order to prevent us from realizing anything from sales, or for some other reason, we don't knew. The screws are tightening and not only Americans but also Chinese are in the grip of an increasingly relentless and ruthless police state, in which personal rights and justice, as we understand it, have virtually disappeared. At this writing, Sam Dean and wife at Yenching are under house arrest by the students, with telephone disconnected, Bill Gilkie the same. Lapwood and wife (British) are comparatively "advanced" in thought and still free. Miss Harriet Mills, daughter of Plumer Mills of the Y, was arrested last June 20th and not heard of since. No one kncws what are the charges. Bob McCann of Tientsin has been in jail for over a year, suffered greatly and is said to be reduced to a bag of bones. Dr. Ralph Lewis and family in Peking are free, but he, an excellent surgeon, does not perform any operation for fear of possible consequences. Another American whom we do not know |