Lieutenant Peckham deny reports that Japanese residents of the internment camp at Stanley Fort have been allowed to go into Hong Kong without escort - they are always accompanied, he claims, although not neccesarily by the commandoes who run the Camp. They are allowed out, one or two per day, to buy things like food, winter clothing or paint for the Camp. Some are needed to help in the liquidation of the Yokohama Specie Bank or to answer questions about the institutions they ran during the occupation.
Peckham also announces that about 100 civilian internees have already been sent back to Japan and that the number in the Camp is now about 3,500.
Six more schools have opened recently. The school system almost collapsed during the occupation, and it's not easy getting started again, although private schools are opening up more quickly than subsidised ones. At the end of October just over 12,000 pupils were being educated.
The fall in value of the Chinese National Dollar is good news for Hong Kong residents, as black market food prices are falling. You can get eggs for 20 cents, for example.
In London The Observer publishes an article (page 5) headed 'Normal Life Rturning to Hong Kong'. The author , O. M. Green, cites a local businessman who calls the Colony 'The one bright spot in the general chaos of the Far East'.
Green paints a rosy picture. The Government has imported large stocks of rice which it sells at the pre-war price of 20 cents a catty. Coal has been imported from Australia and electrictity and light is now being provided, although not yet for private consumption. The dHK$ is stabilised at 1s. 3d. to the pound. The Governemnt employs 50,000 Chinese in cleaning up the filth left by the occupiers. Their wages are two HK$ a day and they can live on half that.
But the author is clear: the old 'Crown Colony' system is dead, and Hong Kong must have self-government on the elective principle. Only then can it become 'an example of prosperous democratic government which will be an example to all the Far East'.
Sources:
Hong Kong Sunday Herald, November 18, 1945:
Japanese: page 1
Schools, Black Market: page 2