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…