Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp: View pages

From a report dated December 7, 1943 of the debriefing of members of the former Hong Kong Government and their dependants after arrival in New York on the Gripsholm:

The reactions to American bombing are indescribable. The stunt flight of the P. 38s over the camp is the greatest moment in these people’s lives.

Note:

If the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk was not the best fighter in the arsenal of the U.S. Army Air Corps (USAAC) when the United States entered the conflict, it was the most numerous type available. The Lockheed P-38 Lightning could outperform the P-40, especially at high altitude, but the P-40 was less expensive, easier to build and maintain, and — most important — it was in large-scale production at a critical period in the nation's history when fighter planes were needed in large numbers.

http://www.historynet.com/curtiss-p-40-warhawk-one-of-ww-iis-most-famous-fighters.htm

Birth of Kenneth Anthony Tyrtoff Davis to Donald Cater Davis, an HSBC bank official and Mrs Davis.

Mr. and Mrs Davis and their two young daughters had been among those bankers kept out of internment until the summer of 1943.They were in the last batch to arrive in Stanley on July 16, 1943.

Today's Waichow Intelligence Summary (WIS 46, sheet 3 - the BAAG digest of intelligence) has this report about a former internee:

A reliable informant who has just returned from the Colony says that whilst there towards the end of August he saw MR. A. MORRIS at liberty. MORRIS is a former Headmaster of KING'S College (Gov. Education Dept.) and Chief of St. John's Ambulance in HONGKONG. He is said to have been released from STANLEY over a year ago on account of his advanced age and possibly on the guarantee of AW BUN HAW ((more usually Aw Boon Haw, aka 'the Tiger Balm King')), with whom he was connected after leaving St. John's Ambulance when he ran the N. T. Relief Organisation which was financed  by AW.

The first batch of residents move into Rosary Hill Red Cross Home.

Most but not all of the people who live here will be 'dependents' of British Prisoners of War and civilian internees - the group that consistently causes the Red Cross the most difficulties.

Life here will be spartan and rather regimented. It will not suit everyone - one nickname is 'Rosary Hell' - and to make matters worse the Home will be riven by disputes among the staff which lead to bitter feuds and resignations. But it's hard to see any obviously better form of care given the chronic inflation of wartime Hong Kong - which will eventually force Rudolf Zindel to ship most of the home's residents to Macao.

Source;

Zindel's anniversary speech

The Hong Kong News reports that the Gripsholm has sailed from New York on September 3 with 1,340 Japanese on board and the Teia Maru will be coming to Hong Kong to repatriate Americans and Canadians.

Source:

Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, 1973, 69

Birth of Brooke Himsworth to Emily and Eric Himsworth.

Brooke Himswoth attended the Stanley Camp Reunion organised by Geoffrey Emerson in 2015.

Rudolf Zindel visits Stanley, interviews 22 internees and discusses matters with Franklin Gimson. The two main topics are the setting up of Rosary Hill Red Cross Home, which the internees welcome, and the September 24 repatriation of 60 Canadians and 2 Americans from Stanley. Zindel also notes that in September he paid 2,391 British internees M.Y. 25 - but that the recipients are agitating for an increase in this 'pocket allowance' that is not possible given his present funding, even if the Japanese agree.

The London Sunday Express carries (page 7) news of the death of Sir Vandeleur Grayburn, 'who worked all his life in the Far East, who refused to come to wealth and comfort when the Japanese entered the war, and who finally gave his life for his country in a Japanese internment camp'. Much of the article is based on an interview with Arthur Morse, a former Hong Kong banker who'd been sent back to London and acted as the HSBC head during the war.

Grayburn's refusal to leave Hong Kong came earlier - as far as I know he wasn't considering or offered passage on one of the CNAC flights out of Hong Kong after the Japanese attack - and he died in Stanley Prison not the Internment Camp, but the tribute is more deserved than probably even Arthur Morse knew, because, as well as leading a major illegal operation to raise funds for relief and medical work in the camps, Grayburn was an agent of the resistance organisation the British Army Aid Group (code name; Night).

According to Morse, Grayburn refused to retire, sending him to London while 'remaining to face the Japanese' with the Bank's 162 British staff and 'hundreds' of other nationalities.

Morse notes Grayburn was a man of 'great vitality' and the article gives the official cause of death as 'avitaminosis'.

Source:

Zindel: General Letter No. 89/43, 21 October, 1943, Red Cross Archives (Geneva)

The Japanese discover a secret radio at the Argyle Street Camp.

There are a number of arrests later in  the day, including that of the New Zealander Lt. H. C. Dixon, the main radio operative, whose taken to Yaumati Gendarmerie. These continue until September 27 when Major Charles Boxer and Capatain Woodward are taken away. Nine men are arrested in all.

Source:

Ralph Goodwin, Passport to Eternity, 1956, 43-46

Mrs. Anne G. Lacey marries Philip Edward Farrington, a works foreman.

The Teia Maru anchors off Stanley. On September 19 it had loaded repatriates from Shanghai.

Sources:

Greg Leck, Captives of Empire, 625

http://www.combinedfleet.com/Teia_t.htm

The Teia Maru sets sail, having loaded 88 Hong Kong repatriates - 73 Canadian, 13 Latin American and 2 American - and some passengers for the Philipines.

The repatriates include American writer Emily Hahn. Hahn had turned down repatriation in June 1942 so that she could help her POW lover, Major Charles Boxer, but now circumstances are different and she feels the risk to her and her daugher Carola outweighs any advantages in remaining.

Otherwise, most of the repatriates are Canadian, including the Roman Catholic Father Charles Murphy, reluctantly leaving for health reasons. Morris 'Two-Gun' Cohen's on board, eighty pounds lighter than when he entered camp.

Clifton Large, aged 22, refuses repatration because he won't leave Mabel Redwood. Large's parents refuse to leave too, choosing to stay with their son.

One repatriate, Mr. E. D. Robbins, returned to Hong Kong soon after liberation. He told the China Mail that conditions on the ship were worse than at Stanley: the Japanese crew were intent on making as much money out of the passengers as possible, the food was inadequate so the purchase of supplements was essential, but, while those being sent home from Shanghai were provided with 5000 yen, ex-Stanleyites were given only a monthly allowance of 29 yen.

Sources:

http://www.combinedfleet.com/Teia_t.htm

Hahn: Emily Hahn, China To Me, 1986 ed., 421

Murphy: Mabel Redwood, It Was Like This, 2001, 152

Cohen: Daniel S, Levy, Two-Gun Cohen: A Biography, 1997, Kindle Edition, Location 5521

Large: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stanley_camp/message/1414

Robbins: China Mail, October 1, 1945

The British Army Aid Group receives a message from internee Geoffrey Wilson, the former Assistant Superintendent of Police for the New Territories. Wilson is replying to a letter sent on June 21 to Walter Scott ('S.') who's been arrested, and his message was sent out of camp through the Indian guards:

There's a party of six of us here, all of similar qualifications to writer, ready and determined to get away as soon as we hear from you.

Wilson and the other policemen (presumably) are all desperate to escape so as to contribute to the war effort, and he points out that after the repatriation of the women and children, which he believes will take place at the end of November, they will all be physically weaker, and, as the camp will consist almost entirely of men, it will be more carefully guarded - perhaps the inmates will even be transferred to another camp. He also suggests that after the repatriation there will be 'irresponsible' escapes of people who have little to contribute to the war effort, and that once the first such party goes, it will be impossible for the rest to follow because of heightened security.

He also notes that Scott didn't receive previous BAAG communications, and their interception might have been the reason for his arrest, so he urges the organisation to send nothing but the final escape instructions and not to use the initials of anyone in camp.

Dr Harry Talbot and banker E. P. Streatfield finish their sentence for attempted money smuggling and are released into camp. This is the first time that Streatfield, one of the bankers kept in town to help dissolve their banks, has lived in the camp.

Sources:

Wilson: Waichow Intelligence Summary, No. 49, sheet 2

Talbot and Streatfield: M. L. Bevan Diary, entry for September 30, 1943

Dear Alice,

Have written you nearly every month. No word from you yet. Two years since last heard from you. Hope you and family well...Mavis's birthday yesterday. Poor child, second birthday in camp. No presents. Had small party of little things we could make in camp. Mavis is seven now and growing tall. Love to you all. We are keeping well and cheerful.

Your loving sister,

Edith Hamson

Source:

Allana Corbin, Prisoners of the East, 2002, 35

Birth of Margaret Ruth Wallace Cooke.

Niote: According to Barbara Anslow's diary, Margaret Cook (sic) was of South African parentage. The only Cooke I can find on the original internee list is C. J. Cooke, who was born in 1876. The final 'e' might be a mistake.

Doctors Gustav and Helen Canaval are transferred from Stanley to Rosary Hill Red Cross Home to look after the medical needs of those given refuge there.

It will not be a happy association, although Rudolf Zindel will acknowledge the essential medical and surgical work they carry out, the doctors will end up being re-interned in Ma Tau-wai and writing a post-war 'Report' damning Zindel's management of the Home.

Source:

Stanley Camp Log, Imperial War Museum

Franklin Gimson writes in his diary that Hong Kong fell so quickly because people weren't committed to the 'ideas or principles on which this war is being waged'. He thinks they 'fought in a half-hearted manner' and he also notes the pre-war hope that Hong Kong would be made an open city - and thus not defended at all.

Source:

Franklin Gimson, Internment in Hong-Kong March 1942- August 1945, 32b (Rhodes House Library, Oxford)

Death of James Copland, aged 45. Before the war he'd been a marine engineer with Jardine and Matheson. He'd been held at the Tai Koon Hotel before being sent to Stanley.

Source:

http://www.hongkongwardiary.com/searchgarrison/nonuniformedcivilians.html#_Toc43367493

The London Daily Express returns to its slogan 'Remember Hong Kong' for an article on page 13 that, citing a New York report of two days ago, gives a brief account of the experiences during the hostilities of Bishop Cuthbert O'Gara.

The Bishop saw surrendered British officers and men bayonetted during the hostilities ((December 25, 1941)) and he and his 32 fellow Maryknoll missionaries believed they were next, but were saved at the last minute by the sudden departure of the Japanese soldiers after a message on a field radio. They were imprisoned in a graage instead.

The Bishop is currently the Vicar Apostolic at the Yuanling Mission in China's Hunan Province.

A British Community Council notice dated this day begins:

The supply of rice polishings used in the manufacture of biscuits (supplementary rations) is exhausted. In its place will be substituted peanut butter. To furnish this and to provide for requirements of defective vision cases...65 lbs. peanut butter per week is required....

To grind the peanuts into butter two parties of three men will be required on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday each week. The schedule below gives times and allocation of this duty....

Grinding at the mill opposite the Diet Kitchen in the Married Qtrs. compound, Block 3.

The milling is under the direction of Dr. Graham-Cumming, and a supervisor will be in attendance on each party.

Source:

Jim Shepherd, Silks, Satins, Gold Braid and Monkey Jackets, 1996, 66

Two very different events involving former internees are taking place today.

Close by in Stanley Prison two large trials of those accused of resistance activity in camp and in town are taking place. The centre of the morning trial - which has 27 prisoners, 15 of them Chinese- is the proceedings against John Fraser, who the Japanese - rightly - regard as the lynchpin of the Stanley resistance.

Fraser's suffering from dysentery, and as he cleans himself up in his cell block before the trial, he's beaten unmercifully by an Indian guard. His fellow prisoner, former camp Quartermaster W. J. Anderson, is a witness:

I will long remember the look of contempt on Fraser's face as he was forcibly pushed into his cell.

It's  the start of a day in which Fraser is to show that prolonged torture and confinement have left his spirit completely unbroken - Anderson comments that he and the other prisoners all came to realise that Fraser was a 'great man'.

He's questioned at length and his activities, which include supervising and processing the operation of illegal wirelesses. Even now the Japanese hope he'll implicate Franklin Gimson and others:

Fraser replied boldly and clearly, his voice ringing resonantly though the courtroom, that he alone was responsible...

The judges affect to find it amusing that he himself was once a judge, but events at lunch show he's undaunted by everything, including his sentence of death.

Assistant Police Commissioner Walter Scott is accused of handling a letter from the British Army Aid Group - he heatedly protests his innocence, for which he's beaten. He too is sentenced to death.

Former internees Frederick Bradley, Stanley Rees, Douglas Waterton, and Frederick Hall are also told they will be executed, as is Alexander Sinton, arrested in town. Among the Chinese agents to be executed is Gladys Loie, wife of David Loie, one of the most important BAAG agents in Hong Kong, who avoided the possibility of betraying others under torture by jumping to his death from the roof of the Supreme Court. Yeung Sau-tak is also given a capital sentence, although his wife is sent to prison.

William and James Anderson and Police Sergeant Frank Roberts are luckier - they get 15 years, later reduced to ten.

Few people feel like eating at lunch, but Anderson remarks that the President's last words were 'the court is adjourned' and suggesting that it will sit again to review the sentences (a review was in fact standard Japanese practice). Fraser, who seems completely unperturbed by the morning's events, agrees, but Anderson implies that both men were aware that the court would be reconvened in the afternoon to try a second group of prisoners and the two are merely trying to cheer up the others.

That second trial seems to be be focused partly on attempts to help Captain Mateen Ansari escape from Ma Tau-chung camp. Ansari himself - another man who has triumphantly resisted prolonged ill-treatment - is sentenced to death, as are Charles Hyde, whose wife and son are in Stanley's Bungalow 'D', and former internee Chester Bennett. Thomas Monaghan, a BAAG agent who was  active in relief as well, including to Irish policemen in Stanley, also gets a death sentence. David Edmondston, whose wife and daughter are in Bungalow 'E' gets 15 years (later reduced to ten) and a number of Indian agents and the Eurasian George Kotewall are sentenced to execution or imprisonment.

The condemned are taken to 'C' Block to await execution.

In a different world, at the port of Goa in Portuguese India, the Gripsholm and the Teia Maru exchange repatriates.

One can only imagine the drama and tension of an operation involving almost 3,000 people longing to finally reach home after years of internment and months of sea voyage....

The two groups of repatriates are kept apart while the nationality checks, money transfers, room assignments and so on take place - remarkably, the whole operation takes only three hours.

Overseeing the exchange for the Americans is a six person team led by the Vice-Consul. One member, Frances Brotzen, a secretary at the Bombay (Mumbai) Consulate spends time with the American repatriates, and is drawn to the 'daring and vivacious' Emily Hahn.

One press report describes the 'amiable good cheer everywhere on the Gripsholm' and the starved awe of the repatriates as 'stewards passed along the decks with platters piled high with roast turkey, chicken, garnished vegetables and other delicacies'.

Sources:

Trials:

Deposition of W. J. Anderson, in Hong Kong Public Records Office, 163-1-104, page 18, point 157 to page 20, point 206; George Wright-Nooth, Prisoner of the Turnip Heads, 1994, 180-182

Goa:

Paragraph 'The two groups': http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09592290312331295626

Everything else:

http://www.thegoan.net/View-From-Afar/Port-of-freedom/Column-Post/00173.html

Death of Thomas Donaldson, aged 72.

Rudolf Zindel makes his monthly visit to Stanley, interviewing 49 internees. In an optimistic (and ultimately pointless) move, Franklin Gimson has got permission to entrust the Red Cross with such personal documents as cannot be taken out of Hong Kong by those selected for repatriation.

Zindel also notes that in October he'd not paid the British their usual monthly allowance but instead focused on providing Stanley with nutritious foods: soya beans, wheat, bran, peanuts, lard and so on. The 13 remaining Americans, however, were given the usual M. Y, 25 'pocket money'.

Canadian repatriate Eileen Medley writes  to the brother of Australian Phyllis Joan Findlay, still in Stanley:

Motorship Gripsholm

October 22nd 1943

Dear Mr. Findlay,

Just a note to tell you Joan is in good spirits and as well as internment conditions permit. Like most of us she has lost a great deal of weight. The Australians in camp have been trying very hard to get a message out to their Government for food or repatriation - without much success - So if you have any influence use it to the utmost.

I sincerely hope by the time we reach home we'll hear something definite concerning the release of the civilians in Hong Kong, but if I can give you any information at all, please do not hesitate to write....

Note:

H. W. Findlay, a resident of Newcastle, NSW, sent a copy of the letter to D. Watkins, his M.P. On January 25, 1944, a copy was sent to the Australian P. M. J. Curtin with a request for 'information'. An acknowldegement was sent to Mr. Watkins on January 27 and forwarded to H. W. Findlay.

This wasn't the first time Mr. Findlay had been active on his sister's behalf. An interdepartmental memo of January 21, 1944 suggests a reply to him pointing out that the Australian Government has done all it can to improve the conditions of its POWs and civilian internees, that negotiations for an exchange were in progress, and that his sister's name had been cabled to London for inclusion in any such arrangement. Such a reply was sent on January 24. A memo of February 2 states he'd also written directly to the Prime Minister.

The negotiations for repatriation fell through probably because most of the Japanese nationals in Australian custody had knowledge that would have been useful in the event of an attempted Japanese invasion - some sources say they were deep sea divers who knew the coastal areas well.

Note:

The name seems to be written 'Joan' and 'Jean' at different points in the correspondence.

Sources:

Donaldson: Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, Appendix 111

Zindel: General Letter No. 98/43, 16 November 1943 in Archives of the International Red Cross, BG017 07-066

Findlay: Digitalised Papers of P. M. Curtis in Australian National Archive