Scared Sisters

The perennially mutinous crews of those two flighty will-o'-the-wisps of the Chinese Navy, the protected cruisers Hai Shen and Hai Chi, last week got the scare of their lives.

Thirty-seven years ago the Hai Chi, British-made, and the Hai Shen, German-made, were first class war boats. The Hai Chi, refitted in 1927, is theoretically still the heaviest (4,300 tons), fastest (24 knots) and best armed (two 8-in. guns) of all the twelve cruisers of the Chinese Navy. But its poor old sister wallows along at less than ten knots. The two ships' toughest problem for decades has been to find a paymaster. Half the time they are in pawn for coal bills, their crews unpaid, a gun or two sold for scrap. In desperation ever since 1917, the commanders have been trying to pick a sure thing.

When China first split into several "Governments," the Hai Chi and Hai Shen picked the Canton Government of Sun Yat-sen in the south. Later they sold out to the great northern war lord, Wu Pei-fu, next to Chang Hsueh-liang, the son of Wu's archenemy; still later to Nanking Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek. Two years ago they blandly deserted once more to their old friends, the Cantonese navy. Last fortnight, completely unable to decide whom to desert to, they steamed out of Canton past the fire of the Cantonese land forts into the neutral British harbor of Hongkong to wait for bids and inspiration.

Safe in Hongkong, the commanders sat down to wait. What bids came in none but the bidders knew, but one afternoon last week the two old sisters stood out to sea once again.

They had cleared Hongkong's headland when there appeared off their starboard bow none other than the crack cruiser of the loyal Nanking navy, the four-year-old, Japanese-made Ning Hai. Smaller, theoretically slower and equipped with only 5.5-in. guns, the Ning Hai is nevertheless in fighting trim and none of its guns is in pawn. It straightway opened fire on the Hai Shen and Hai Chi. The two old baggages heavily turned tail, labored back into Hongkong Harbor. Soon after, Ning Hai put in too, and its officers variously explained that the shots had been a warning, a salute, a welcome and that there had been no shots. Everybody agreed, however, that the Nanking navy was ready to welcome the Hai Shen and Hai Chi home.

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