[DARWIN]. H.M.S. Suffolk : third commission on the China Station 1933-1935

Cover title: H.M.S. Suffolk “Nous maintiendrons”. Hong Kong : privately printed, [1935]. Royal octavo, blue faux leather, upper board and spine lettered in gilt, illustrated title page, 164 pp, with many photographic illustrations and sketches, maps, a near fine copy. Scarce.

A record of the Royal Navy cruiser H.M.S. Suffolk‘s third commission on the China Station. The author, R.G. Howard, was Instructor Lieutenant-Commander on the Suffolk. “This book is the outcome of a request to keep a record of the Third Commission of H.M.S. Suffolk. In jotting down these events in the form of a narrative the writer is endebted to those who kindly came forward with cartoons, photograves and verse, and it is his hope that the volumes may be of interest to all who sailed he seas in the “Suffolk” during the years 1933-35.” During her time in the Far East, the Suffolk visited numerous ports including Hong Kong, Singapore, Shanghai, Nanking, Nankow, Tsingtao, Nagasaki, Kobe, Penang, Bali and Darwin. Due to the civil unrest in China at this time, the Chinese and British governments reached an agreement to secretly remove a great number of China’s art treasures to Britain. H.M.S. Suffolk was entrusted with this secret mission in 1935, as no insurance company would accept the commercial risk. She carried what was probably the richest cargo in history, her magazines crammed with priceless artefacts from the Forbidden City.

The section on Darwin runs for four pages and is illustrated with 5 photographs, including the Main Street of Port Darwin, an image captioned Aborigines of the Northern Territory, An Aborigine Woman with her Sunday School Class, Botanical Gardens, Port Darwin etc. 

OCLC records only three copies (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich; National Library of Australia; University of Hong Kong).