Dutch Prisoners in Shanghai
Mr. Jacobovits of the Dutch
Embassy called on 25 September with a further debriefing report of the Dutch
seamen who have recently been released by the Chinese. In this case the seaman
interviewed was Algra, who was arrested on 2 January this year. He was at first
held for about a week in a tiny cell (1 1/2 metres x 2 metres) on the third
floor of the Shanghai Prison. He was alone in his cell, which had no furniture.
After about a week he was moved to a larger cell already occupied by three
Chinese on the ground floor of the prison. Here there were bunks and prisoners
were allowed ten minutes exercise per week in the small prison yard. Food was very poor but extras could be bought
by Algra from the prison canteen with money from a fund left by his ship's master
for this purpose. The Chinese prisoners
were similarly aided by relatives. For five and a half months from the time of
his arrest Algra was taken to an interrogation room for "investigations of
his case". These all began with enforced bowing to a Mao portrait followed
by study of Mao thought. The interrogations took place at irregular intervals
and lasted varying lengths of time. Algra throughout maintained that he was
drunk when he had shot at the bust of Mao on his ship but when after five and a
half months he admitted that he had destroyed the bust because he disliked
China the interrogations stopped and were never repeated. For a short time
Algra was sent to a labour camp but no work at all was done in Shanghai Prison
(apart from study of Mao thought). In spite of the extras from the prison
canteen, Algra suffered from vitamin deficiency which after six and a half
months became scurvy. The Chinese treated him for this and thereafter improved
his conditions.
2. Algra reported that in the cell across the courtyard
opposite his own he had seen a European whom he described as short and stocky,
who wore a dark blue uniform in winter and white shirt, shorts and socks in
summer. He had no chance of making contact with him, however, Algra estimated
from the special food that was brought round on the trolley that there were
several other Europeans in the jail which otherwise held a thousand prisoners.
Algra saw no other Europeans other than the one mentioned and indeed did not
know of the presence of his colleague Revier in the same prison until they
found themselves on the same train together bound for Canton. (On this train they were provided with excellent
food including large quantities of fruit and eggs.)
3. I have informed Mr. Thomas of MacGregor, Gow
and Holland in confidence of Algra's report of the other European he saw. It seems likely that this was Crouch.
(R. N. Dales)
Far
Eastern Department
1 October, 1969
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Far Eastern Department
(FEC
21C/4) 9 October, 1969.
Many thanks for your letter
of 23 September about the release of the two Dutch merchant marine seamen.
2. The Dutch Embassy here have been very helpful
in passing on reports or the experience of the two seamen from the MFA in The Hague.
I enclose a copy of a minute I wrote recording my latest conversation with Mr.
Jacobovits of the Dutch Embassy, who passed on some very interesting details
about the conditions the seamen had had to suffer in Shanghai Gaol. The other
Dutchman, Revier, has also been interviewed.
He was kept in solitary confinement for almost two and a half months in
a small cell but was then moved to a larger one shared with two Chinese (with
whom he shared no common language).
3. The reports of both
having seen from a distance another European are inconclusive. Revier described
the man he saw as aged around forty, dressed in tropical "whites" and
a slim but short- legged 1m. 60c. tall. The common feature of this description
with that given by Algra is the tropical white uniform. It would seem likely
from the fact that he also wore a blue uniform in winter that this man is a
seaman. However, Tan Thomas of McGregor, Gow assures me that none of the rest
of the description fits Crouch, who is over six feet tall. Allowance could I suppose be made for the
fact that Revier was looking down from his first floor cell on the man he
describes while Algra only saw him through a cell window opposite.
4. Tan Thomas has not learnt anything
through his own channels, and, so far as we know, the photographs of Crouch,
Barrymaine, and Johnson have not yet been shown to either of the two seamen.
5. It would appear from Derksen's guarded
comments to you about the treatment of the two seamen that he is not aware of
the close co-operation between ourselves and the Dutch here!
(R. N. Dales)
To:
J. N. Allan, Esq.,
PEKING.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CONFIDENTIAL
Office of the British
Charge d' Affaires,
Peking.
23 September, 1969.
Please refer to your letter
of 27 August to Roger Garside about the release of the two Dutch merchant marine
seamen.
2. I today called on the Dutch Charge
d'Affaires and asked him about this. He claimed that he had as yet had no
reports either from the Dutch Consul-General in Hong Kong or the MFA in the
Hague. He had recommended to the latter that they interview Revier but had not
so far heard whether this had been followed up.
3. Having said this, Derksen then told me that
the two men had been in separate cells with Chinese and that it was only when
they were moved to Canton on their way to Hong Kong that they realised they
were sharing the prison. So far as he knew, they had seen no other Europeans. Apparently
they had a number of interrogations in prison. Their fellow prisoners taught
them current Chinese songs and Revier apparently also had sessions reading
Mao's thoughts. These remarks suggest that Derksen has in fact had quite a full
report of the men's time in prison; this
is strange in view of para 2 above, but I suppose he may have got it indirectly
from shipping sources.
4. Derksen congratulated himself on his
diplomatic technique in dealing with the arrested men. He said that he had
suggested in his notes that the difficulty arose because the Shanghai authorities
were being difficult and that he knew that the MFA were doing all they could
and he was grateful to them. He apparently did not press for consular access. None
of this is, I think, relevant to the final decision of the Chinese to release
these men, but it is revealing so far as Derksen himself is concerned. He was
obviously inordinately proud of what he regarded as his subtlety and saw no
disadvantage in abasing himself with the Chinese.
5. I enclose a spare copy of this letter in
case you wish to pass it to the Hague.
J.
N. Allan
R.
N. Dales,Esq.,
FED,
FCO.
出处：英国外交部档案FCO 21/511
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