Lady & Pandas

By what must be taken as a coincidence, the arrival in Hankow, China of Mrs. William Harvest Harkness Jr., dress designer turned huntress, with her second captive baby giant panda in hand, was admirably timed to advertise the publication of her book about her first successful panda expedition (TIME, Dec. 7, 1936).* A womanly book, full of distaff concern with clothes, medicines, the handsomeness of hunters, The Lady and the Panda gives credit for taking panda No. 1. Su Lin, where credit is said to be more than due--to Chinese Professional Hunters Jack and Quentin Young (Yan Di Lin). Businesslike Jack, who had hunted the panda before, arranged the party's affairs; and it was tall, slouchy Quentin, interpreter and trapper, who actually captured fat little Su Lin for her. Notwithstanding, the book amply testifies the romantic courage of Mrs. Harkness--a city-bred woman who ventured into a foreign wilderness with no preparation beyond the reading of adventure stories.

The new panda, named Diana after Quentin Young's athletic wife, was two months old, weighed 13 pounds when captured by native farmers in the Samulin Mountains. Arriving in Hankow in the midst of a Japanese air raid, Mrs. Harkness said that she had caught Diana "so that Su Lin might have a real sister to play with." and that she hopes to catch a third, male specimen, so that Su Lin and Diana will have more than a playmate.

*THE LADY AND THE PANDA--second book on the list of an ambitious new Manhattan firm, Carrick & Evans ($2.50).

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