Dickuan TSE (aka BAAG No. 76.iii / 謝滌君) [1900-????]

Submitted by emride on Sat, 01/24/2015 - 21:59
Names
Given
Dickuan
Family
Tse
Alias / nickname
BAAG No. 76.iii / 謝滌君
Sex
Male
Status
Deceased
Born
Date
Birthplace (country)
Hong Kong

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From the entry for Tse Dickuan in the BAAG Personell Register, Ride Collection:

Chinese-British subject, born 24.1.1900 in Hongkong, clerk, BAAG 15 June 44 - 31 October 45.

“After the surrender of Hongkong, this man was given employment in the headquarters of the Japanese department for P/Ws and Internees.  After some time in the course of his work he gained access to their official records and Nominal Rolls of British and Canadian P/Ws.  Realising that these would be of immense value to us, of his own accord he made copies by taking a few sheets at a time to his home and typing them out.  This took some months to complete and throughout this period he did this voluntary work at the risk of his life.  When completed he got in touch with the BAAG and offered to hand them over the complete lists.

Within a month of this original contact, the lists were in our hands and provided the first really authentic and complete records we had of the P/Ws, and of the fate of many of them.

He remained on at his post in the Jap P/W office, working for us, but eventually, under the strain, his health failed and he was discharged after a period of illness in hospital, but before he left he laid on the necessary contacts with us whereby we were able to obtain constant and up to date information of the Hongkong P/Ws.

This voluntary work demanded great and sustained bravery and was of the utmost value to us and P/W relatives.”

(signed) L T Ride, Colonel.  1946.

Post-war statement by Tse Dickuan:

“...On August 10th 1942 I obtained employment as a typist at the “Intelligence Office” attached to the Prisoner of War Section, HQs, Forfar Road.  The staff consisted of the undermentioned: (Tokunaga, Tanaka, Hara, Niimori, Hasigawa, Kochi, Watanabe, aKatayama, Matsuda, Inouye + 4 Chinese: myself, Arthur Lee, Eugene Mak, Tam Chung Man (characters)).

The work of the Chinese staff was purely work in connection with Prisoners of War.

From Nov 1942 when I was given a casualty list to type I surreptitiously took copies of all papers relating to prisoners.  These I hid at my home (address).  I thus managed by the end of 1943 to collect a full list of the prisoners of war, casualty lists etc.  When a friend of mine, who was formerly employed by the CPR, named John Mackenzie (Eurasian) left for Macao in March 1944 I instructed him to get in touch with HBM Consul in order to ascertain if he was prepared to receive messages from me.  John MacKenzie later replied that this would be too dangerous.  So I had to give up this idea.  In May 1944 I sent my eldest sister to Waichow in order to contact the Officer i/c BAAG.  But unfortunately she died.  On July 7 1944 a cousin of mine named Chan Hong Chung (characters) took a letter for me to the officer i/c BAAG Waichow.  About ten days later I received a reply signed “Bobbin”.  This instructed me to deliver all records to him, if the circumstances permitted, and also enclosed some money in order to enable my family to proceed to Waichow.  It took me fifteen days and nights of incessant toil to put the finishing touches to my reports.  After this I had a breakdown in health.  The reports were then put into the lining of an old canvas handbag and this was smuggled through the Japanese lines by my cousin who delivered them to “Bobbin” at Waichow, on or about the 17th August 1944.  In August 1944 a new internment camp was opened at Matauchung for the detention of one hundred and sixteen third nationals.  As I was very ill I consulted my doctor and obtained one month’s leave.  During this time I planned my escape.  On Sept. 19th 1944 I returned to work, although I was still ill.  At 10.30 am I purposely dropped from a height of 10 ft. and hurt myself.  I feigned unconsciousness and I was sent home to get medical attention.  I was given an injection of morphine and slept for two days.  When I awoke I feigned madness.  After one week a doctor took fluid from my spine and not finding any injury to my brain diagnosed my illness as a “nervous breakdown”.  On a medical certificate being obtained I was further granted a period of leave up to the end of Sept.1944.

On 2nd October 1944 I tendered my resignation, together with another medical certificate and luckily this was approved.  On Nov. 4th 1944 I together with my family left for Taipo.  I had in my possession MY500o and NC20,000, but when I arrived at Taipo all the MY had been spent in bribery.  Owing to trouble between the Govt. troops and communists, I was detained at this place for six days.  On Nov. 9th 1944 a young boy arrived with a message telling me to leave at once.  Leaving my wife and family I proceeded to Waichow where I arrived on the 12th.  My family, who had been robbed of most of my possessions, arrived on the 15th Nov. 1944.  At Waichow I contacted Major Cooper and as a result I maintained communications with a Miss Ho and Mr. Eugene Mak, who had helped me in this work, and thus was able to eventually keep up the records of the Prisoners of War and other intel­ligence.  I later learned that Miss Ho Chun Yue (何珍如) was arrested on Jan 18th 1945 and that no news has since been received of her.  Her sister, Miss Ho Bik Wan (何碧雲) took up the work and managed with Mr. Mak to maintain communications.