Brown / Alton
Diary pages from this date
It has got much colder again after 2 days of muggy drizzly weather. Friday 5th was C. N. Y. - again this year as 19 years ago the day after Joy's birthday. I had a terrible day yesterday. We have at last got a little allowance - it's supposed to be 20 Military Yen for all over 12, and Y 10 for those under 12 but the I.R.C. delegate miscalculated and only sent enough for Y15. I had to pay out to all in I.Q. - 743 persons - totally Y10,835 - and I had awful trouble as I hadn't enough 5 Yen notes. I let the Police pay themselves and so got rid of Y3,300. When I totted up at the end I thought I was down 10 or 15 Yen and if I was I'd have lost my own allowance. And as each Yen is supposed to equal $H.K.4 it was a hefty loss. I went to bed last night very unhappy and it wasn't till this morning that I found out my little mistake in subtraction!
I am going to have coffee or Cocoa with Dora tonight and perhaps play bridge. I play very little - I can't be bothered.
All my love L.O. B.
HSBC Banker Charles Hyde is one of the most wide-ranging and courageous of the British Army Aid Group's agents in Hong Kong. He's involved with fund-raising, smuggling money and drugs into Stanley, arranging escapes and gathering intelligence.
He sends a report that the BAAG believe is written today about developments in occupied Hong Kong: the escape of Kennedy-Skipton, the departure of more POWs to Japan in late January, the arrival of about 30 more beri-beri sufferers in Bowen Road Hospital, and so on.
He comments on his difficulty in persuading anyone to join an escape he's organising with Thomas Monaghan:
God knows what keeps them here...Give me the chance they get and I'd be out of this hell hole in two shakes.
Source:
The Ride Papers, held at the Hong Kong Heritage Project, and kindly supplied by Elizabeth Ride
Note:
Mr. Hyde was presumably unable to leave because of his wife and young son. Two more people were eventually found who wanted to get out of Hong Kong and the three escapers were escorted to safety by BAAG operatives:
For more on Charles Hyde's resistance activities see:
https://jonmarkgreville2.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/charles-hydes-resista…
In bed nearly all day.
Saw Steve pm.
Colder.
Good news re Russian advances. Felt somewhat better.
((G.))