Stolen Toy

White flag in hand, a 28-year-old Chinese officer crossed into the allied lines one day last week, just bursting with talk. Lieutenant Fan Wei-ning cheerfully gave out vital facts on the officers and men in his division--their ages, their equipment, their battle plans. Then he asked for a map of the village where his division was based, and eagerly pinpointed supply dumps, command posts and gun positions.

Since the few Chinese officers captured by U.N. forces in Korea have generally been closemouthed, U.N. interrogation officers wanted to know why Fan was being so talkative. Fan was glad to explain. Last May, he found three Chinese WACs in the division to which he was assigned as "entertainment officer" (i.e., a job somewhere between U.S.O. director and political commissar). "One," he said, "was a beautiful young girl named Toy. We fell in love. It was not at all bad being so far away from home under those conditions. Then the division commander began to notice Toy."

After that, Fan and Toy seldom saw each other; the commander staggered their duty hours so that one was always on duty when the other was free. Fan stuck it as long as he could. "Finally," he said, "I decided to desert."

Just as Fan was being led from the tent in which his interrogation took place, he stopped, returned to the map, studied it intently for a minute, and then marked it with a neat cross to guide U.N. artillery. "That," said Fan, "is where the division commander lives."

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