Freed Prisoner

Canada's only air force prisoner of the Korean war flew home to freedom last week. As the airliner from Tokyo touched down at the Vancouver airport, a handsome honey blonde broke from the crowd and ran to her husband, Squadron Leader

Andrew MacKenzie, freed after two years as a war prisoner in Communist China.

The 34-year-old Montreal fighter-pilot was serving as an exchange officer with the U.S. Air Forces in Korea when he was shot down in 1952. At the Geneva Conference last June, Canada made a direct appeal to Chinese Foreign Minister Chou En-lai for MacKenzie's release, but the Chinese did nothing about it until the eleven U.S. flyers were recently sentenced to prison in China for espionage (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS). Then, the same day that the Americans were condemned, Peking suddenly announced that MacKenzie would be released. Three Red Chinese soldiers escorted the Canadian to the barricaded China-Hong Kong border where an R.C.A.F. officer waited to meet him.

MacKenzie was advised not to talk about his prison experiences until after questioning by intelligence officers, but he did reveal one important fact: there were U.S. airmen imprisoned with him, none of them among those tried and sentenced for espionage. Obviously, China is holding more U.S. prisoners than the Reds have yet admitted.

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