A Glimpse of Postwar Life in China
JACK. EDDY '46, who went through the Marine V-12 program at Dartmouth, receiving his degree last October, has had his share of experiences since at Quantico, the West Coast, Guam, and now China. In the following description, he gives a picture of the railroad service there, as experienced by some U. S. Marines.
"Well, here I am in China! Our CVE (small carrier) brought us into Taku, from which we went in the middle of the night to Tangku to a Transient Camp. It was cold as hell, and our draft has not been issued winter gear. Early the next morning they put us on a train, on which we rode from 7 in the morning till 10 at night, with the temperature always below freezing, and no windows, etc. The train went at the speed of a rowboat, and anybody could stop it at will; Marines especially would stop it to forage for food or throw coal off the coal car. A Marine outpost (they are all along this R. R., which we are helping the Nationalist armies protect) would simply stop the train by threatening to shoot the engineer.
"The first day I was stuck on a train guard; i.e. I was the officer in charge of a train going to Tang-Shan, with a group of men. A full Colonel was on the train so we had a heavy guard. It used to be that the 'communists'—probably banditswould take pot shots at trains, but that has mostly died down. The guard is, however, heavily armed.
"One man is placed in the cab with the engineer to goad him on with the .45 if he tends to take off. As train guard commander I had complete say over the train's functions—starting and stopping the train whenever the Colonel felt like it. The poor Chinese R. R. officials have no say other than to keep two trains from colliding on the tracks.
"Everywhere you go the Chinese greet Marines with Ding How which actually means 'Very Good,' but is used as 'Hi Buddy' or 'Hello Friend,' etc.
"We are the northernmost post of the 7th Regiment Ist Div., and the Chinese here are very friendly; labor is cheap; houseboy who speaks a little English ic per week. We have a boy stoke our stoves, and clean up; this costs us 20c each a week. Down in Tientsin prices have gone up due to a large number of U. S. servicemen. My company has the job of guarding Chin-Wang-Tao, and we have posts all over the city. In a few weeks we will trade off with another company, and will go down along the tracks, to guard the R. R.
"There is no 'liberty' to speak of in Chin-Wang-Tao, with most of the Chinese areas out of bounds due to high V. D. rate; there is no entertainment district or shopping district—just a town.
"I have a rifle platoon; the work is interesting, and most officers in China are V-12S. I have met lots of Dartmouth buddies.
"My No. 1 boy just came in and asked me if I wanted a cup of coffee—ah what luxuries!!"
