T. J. J. Fenwick, who escaped from Hong Kong in October 1942 with the help of the British Army Aid Group, arrives back in the colony. He's been sent by the Chief Manager of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Arthur Morse, to report on the situation there.
The battle of ideas going on during the re-occupation is reflected on the front page of this morning's South China Morning Post and Hong Kong Telegraph. An editorial headed 'The New Hong Kong' begins:
The upheaval through which humanity has lately passed shook our civilization to its foundation and brought crashing to the ground a great many outworn ideas. The brave new world is about to be built. It is most necessary that the people of Hongkong, whose minds have always been more or less isolated, insular and insulated, should realise fully that the old order has gone and can never return.
To re-inforce this point, one of the headlines reads:
NO DISCRIMINATION
Relieving Forces Caring For All Communities
Official Assurance
Whether this is happening is a matter of debate; but the fact that such assurances are given at all has its own signifance.
The first service since liberation is held in St John's Cathedral.
Sources:
Fenwick: Maurice Collis, Wayfoong, 1965, 234
Service: http://www.stjohnscathedral.org.hk/history.html
Note:
See also September 16, 1945