The Other Swimmer

Red China's Mao Tse-tung is a bug on swimming. Six years ago, at 63, he swam the Yangtze River three times and wrote a triumphant poem about it. Then one day two years later, in the South China provincial capital of Nanning, Mao stripped down to a pair of striped green and white shorts and plopped into the Yung River, with a local swimming champion, Lo Tat-on, 17, and two other young Chinese for company. Lo was not impressed. "Very poor swimming style," he recalls.

At the time Lo prudently kept his estimate of Mao's prowess to himself; he also did not tell Mao that he was fed up with life in Red China, hoped to flee the country at the first opportunity. Last month, Lo found his chance on a Canton-Tsamkong steamer plying the South China Sea between the mainland and Hong Kong. When no one was looking, Lo went over the rail and started splashing toward the British colony three miles away. After four hours he was hailed by a Communist freighter, but managed to convince the crew that he was a Hong Kong lifeguard in training for the Asian Games. At last, he crawled ashore on British territory. There he could have quoted back to his former leader two lines from Mao's joyful swimming poem:

This is better than idly strolling in a courtyard.

Today I am free!

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