T. J. J. Fenwick (see September 9) reports to Morse on the situation of the HKSBC:
The health of the staff is better than I expected, but they are in no condition for strenuous work and must be relieved within a month or two....The state of the Bank exceeds all expectations. I visualize no difficulty in reconstructing the old position as the records appear virtually intact. The building is undamaged. The staff has done a very good job in getting the office habitable again. It will take ages to get things straightened out.
The Sunday Herald (page 1) declares that the currency situation ((see September 14)) is stabilising, inspite of the failure of the authorities to get enough Hong Kong dollars into circulation. The paper puts down the improvement to the problem-solving capacity of the Chinese and says that both the $ and the Military Yen are being used, with an informal exchange rate of 200-250 of the latter for one of the former.
Rudolf Zindel tells The Sunday Herald (page 5) that the International Red Cross is preparing to close down. He claims that his acceptance as 'delegate' was due to a Japanese mistake - originally they'd said it was only appropriate for the IRC to have a delegate in Shanghai, which, at the time, was not considered a 'conquered territory' of the Japanese Empire. He'd been looking after the interests of his employers, Messrs. Arnhold Trading Company, and merely acting as the IRC 'correspondent' until told one day by Mr. Oda of the Foreign Affairs Department that he should start in his new role immediately. Mr. Oda and ((his successor)) Mr.Maejima had, against the rules they'd been given, allowed him to visit Stanley twice a month, but this had been reduced to once a month because so many internees asked him to look into their own problems. After August 1944 he'd made only three visits, because he had to ask permission from Tokyo each time, and that took up to three months. In addition, his previous free access on visits to Franklin Gimson was ended.
Mr. Zindel goes on to give a grim picture of the problems he faced, especially with regard to Rosary Hill Red Cross Home, and reveals that towards the end of the war he was financing Red Cross activities by borrowing from the Swiss community on his personal credit.
The official Japanese surrender ceremony takes place today. Franklin Gimson, although summoned to London, is still in the Colony and joins those at Government House.
Sources:
Fenwick: Maurice Collis, Wayfoong, 1965, 234-5
Surrender: http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/node/2345;
http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/node/5305
Gimson: China Mail, September 17, 1945, 2
