The British Military Administration publishes a scale of punishments, including the death penalty for anyone inciting insurrection or publishing, possessing or circulating printed matter critical of the Administration, or 'in the interests of the enemy'.
'The enemy' - as Philip Snow, points out, this seems an example of the tendency to 'elide Japan and China into a single antagonist'!
Source:
Philip Snow, The Fall of Hong Kong, 2003, 273
There are some big announcements on the front page of today's China Mail: the Military Yen, the hated Japanese occupation currency, is no longer legal tender and the Hong Kong dollar is restored. Further, the Australian Red Cross supplies brought in on the Vindex have been packaged and are ready for distribution. The food has been placed in a common pool and is going out daily at the various distribution centres, so what is about to be distributed are items like towels, cigarettes and toileteries. The first priority are the roughly 900 people still at Stanley, followed by those in town with Essential Services, and finally dependents (presumably of the first two groups) in town.
It's also announced that Bill O'Neill, a former Stanleyite transferred to Shanghai, is on his way back down to re-open the Reuters Office.
Page 2 has its own improtant news: Franklin Gimson sends a farewell message on the eve of his recall to London. One of his tasks will be to tell the British Government about 'The Military Internment Camp' (the official name for Stanley in 1944 and 1945). He promises to tell them about the high standard of morale and the ingenuity and resourcefulness shown by the internees in the face of scanty resources. He will also mention the efficient provision of resources and believes that no-one will mind if he singles out the medical workers for special praise. He urges everybody to follow him in forgetting the unpleasant incidents and holding on to the good qualities which were amply displayed.
Note: For the proposed, or at leats assumed, abolition of the MY, see tomorrow's entry.
Franklin Gimson's farewell speech is broadcast on RTHK:
It is with feelings of both joy and sorrow that I take this opportunity of broadcasting a few farewell words to listeners in Hong Kong, of joy that we have come through the worst tribulations of the war and are free men again; and of sorrow that I leave you with my normal mission as a professional Colonial Administrator unfulfilled because of the upheavals of war.
He thanks those who have loyally supported him in his task of keeping the Government going until Harcourt's arrival and pays a warm tribute to the assistance provided by the many Chinese, Indian and Portuguese nationals who remained loyal and risked torture and imprisonment in their support for the Allies - he's aware that it was the uninterned communities who were left 'to 'bear the brunt of the Japanese oppression in Hong Kong':
Some of us who were shut in behind barbed wire will never forget the assistance we got from many such kindly people who with grave risk, heavy expense and much self-denial sent parcels of supplies to us that may truly be said in many cases to have made all the difference between comparative good health and permanent disablement or even death.
He goes on to look forward to a period of rapid progress and reform. Hong Kong has been given a 'clean sheet' and an opportunity for both political and social advance - towards greater self-government and early implementation of medical, housing, educational and town-planning improvements.
He particularly hopes for improvemnts in the life of people of the 'labouring class' and he plans to enter discussions back home with the 'Authorities' who already have an 'enlightened long-term policy' for the construction of a 'New Hong Kong'.
He ends by expressing regret that his period in the colony has been at a time of 'unparalleled distress and calamity' and that he has been so powerless. But he assures his listeners much of his time in Stanley was spent pondering schemes of social, political and economic improvement.
This is a remarkable end to Gimson's time in Hong Kong. He's expressing ideas that before the war only a few radicals - like 'Red' Hilda Selwyn-Clarke - would have dared admit to. It's certain that some of his listeners reacted with a horrified, 'Never!', but the sufferings of internment - and the courage and generosity of 'Asian' friends that Gimson refers to - have changed many people. Whatever the politics of the listener, they must have known that things could never be the same again.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Lancelot Alban Searle marries Sheila Mary MacKinlay in St. John's Cathedral. It's a Stanley romance, and the Reverend Alaric Rose who officiates is also just out of camp.
The abolition of the Military Yen creates chaos. There aren't enough Hong Kong dollars, the Chinese population were taken completely by surpise, employers of labour aren't co-operating, and the morning's torrential rain is making eveything more difficult. The China Mail (page 1) is now calling the abolition assumed 'by broad inference' - not actually proclaimed! In any case, it reports the immediate creation of a black market in which essential items are traded for the MY.
Some members of the Hong Kong University staff have left Stanley and others have arrived with the relief force, so today there's an informal meeting at the Gloucester Hotel. Most important members are Duncan Sloss, Lindsay Ride, Gordon King and Chan Kwan Po. Chan is appointed university secretary at today's meeting.
But the University campus has been left 'almost completely devastated' and there seems little prospect of the University re-opening.
Sources:
Gimson: Hong Kong Sunday Herald, September 16, 1945, page 1
University: Peter Cunich, A History of the University of Hong Kong, 2012, 435, 546
Wedding: Hong Kong Sunday Herald, September 16, 1945, page 6
Note:
For the 'European' left in pre-war Hong Kong, see
http://brianedgar.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/the-european-far-left-in-hon…
T. J. J. Fenwick (see September 9) reports to Morse on the situation of the HKSBC:
The health of the staff is better than I expected, but they are in no condition for strenuous work and must be relieved within a month or two....The state of the Bank exceeds all expectations. I visualize no difficulty in reconstructing the old position as the records appear virtually intact. The building is undamaged. The staff has done a very good job in getting the office habitable again. It will take ages to get things straightened out.
The Sunday Herald (page 1) declares that the currency situation ((see September 14)) is stabilising, inspite of the failure of the authorities to get enough Hong Kong dollars into circulation. The paper puts down the improvement to the problem-solving capacity of the Chinese and says that both the $ and the Military Yen are being used, with an informal exchange rate of 200-250 of the latter for one of the former.
Rudolf Zindel tells The Sunday Herald (page 5) that the International Red Cross is preparing to close down. He claims that his acceptance as 'delegate' was due to a Japanese mistake - originally they'd said it was only appropriate for the IRC to have a delegate in Shanghai, which, at the time, was not considered a 'conquered territory' of the Japanese Empire. He'd been looking after the interests of his employers, Messrs. Arnhold Trading Company, and merely acting as the IRC 'correspondent' until told one day by Mr. Oda of the Foreign Affairs Department that he should start in his new role immediately. Mr. Oda and ((his successor)) Mr.Maejima had, against the rules they'd been given, allowed him to visit Stanley twice a month, but this had been reduced to once a month because so many internees asked him to look into their own problems. After August 1944 he'd made only three visits, because he had to ask permission from Tokyo each time, and that took up to three months. In addition, his previous free access on visits to Franklin Gimson was ended.
Mr. Zindel goes on to give a grim picture of the problems he faced, especially with regard to Rosary Hill Red Cross Home, and reveals that towards the end of the war he was financing Red Cross activities by borrowing from the Swiss community on his personal credit.
The official Japanese surrender ceremony takes place today. Franklin Gimson, although summoned to London, is still in the Colony and joins those at Government House.
Sources:
Fenwick: Maurice Collis, Wayfoong, 1965, 234-5
Surrender: http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/node/2345;
http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/node/5305
Gimson: China Mail, September 17, 1945, 2
Sixty two former internees are transferred to HMS VIndex ready to set sail for Australia. Originally 150 were expected to go, but a last minute change of plans left 90 disappointed and the rest frustrated by further changes, lack of information and communication problems. Among the relatively lucky ones on board is Leon Blumenthal.
Source:
China Mail, September 18, 1945, 4
H.M.S. Glengyle sails with 600 British internees. The Llanstephan Castle takes 800 Indian fomer POWs to Madras.
One of them is Vice-Chancellor Duncan Sloss, who, leaving Lindsay Ride in charge, is going to London for crucial talks about the future of Hong Kong University. In a farewell message he says:
I should like to express for myself and for the University the satisfaction we feel in the achievement of past and present students of the University during these years of horrors. Those who went into China in various services and in the Universities, with very few exceptions, have won a high name....Those who stayed behind have helped us who were prisoners of war and interned in a way that has made the difference between survival and extinction, and this at great risks to themselves.
Hong Kong is under martial law, and a proclamation this afternoon seems to deserve the overworked adjective 'draconian': eleven offences are announced to be punishable by death. Offering armed resistance to the troops is likely to lead to execution under any military regime, but damaging war supplies or wilfully misleading any of the occupation troops as they go about their duty don't seem like obviously capital offences. Of course, whether or not anyone was actually executed under such heads is another matter.
'Lesser offences' include uttering any statement detrimental to the British Military Administration, the Forces or the Allied Governments and publishing any statement relating to the BMA or the Forces that's likely to cause 'alarm or despondency'. As the China Mail (and no doubt the SCMP) has been doing the latter on almost every page since publication was resumed it seems that this part of the decree is almost certainly not being enforced.
Source:
http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWD-BPF4512OccupationofChinaCoast1945.htm
Sloss: Clifford Mattthews and Oswald Cheung, Dispersal and Renewal, 1998, 427
Proclamation: China Mail, September 19, 1945, 2
The South China Morning Post is not impressed by some aspects of the new regime:
The seeming neglect of the Chinese population for the first fortnight of our freedom revived some dying bitterness, and the queer contradictions and changes in the evacuation system for Stanley internees has added to it.
Those remaining in Stanley have their own, rather less serious, problems: 200 out of the 400 women are disappointed to find that there aren't enough coats, pullovers and sandals for them in the consignment sent by the Australian Red Cross. The reporter is quick to add that this wasn't the fault of the Australian Red Cross or the camp authorities.
Les Fisher, recently released from Shamshuipo, writes to his wife:
Local News: Sheila Mackinlay whose husband was killed on Xmas Day 1941 has today married a police officer - a Stanley romance.
In the course of a description of the suicide (after the murder of his mistress and the attempted murder of his secretary) of Japanese intelligence chief Ekichi Endo (or Ando), the China Mail's front page notes the attendance of one Watanabe of the Foreign Affairs Office at his death. It notes, 'not to be confused with the Watanabe who did what he could do for the British POWs'. This must be one of the first references in a public printed source to the heroic interpreter, Kiyoshi Watanabe.
Governor Harcourt and other dignitaries tour the New Territories by car. Among the places they visit is Taipo Orphanage, which the recently-departed Mildred Dibden and her team kept open throughout the occupation..
Sources:
SCMP: Editorial, September 19, 1945, cited Philip Snow, The Fall of Hong Kong, 2003, 427
Stanley clothes: China Mail, September 20, 1945,3
Fisher: Les Fisher, I Will Remember, 1996, 252
Harcourt: China Mail, September 20, 1945, 2
A report in the China Mail claims that 'Stanley feels hurt': half of the 400 women found that there weren't enough pullovers, coats and sandals in a package form the Australian Red Cross. The report makes it clear that neither the Red Cross nor the Camp Authorities are to blame.
The paper also reports the birth of a son to former internees Mr. and Mrs. Alan Thomas on board the H.M.S. Oxfordshire.
Source:
China Mail, September 20, 1945, pages 3 and 4
SIX P.O.W.s DIED ON VOYAGE TO AUSTRALIA
Grim Evidence of Jap Brutality
SYDNEY, Thursday,
Royal Navy hospital ship, Oxfordshire, brought to Australia the first, grim evidence of Jap brutality when it berthed at Brisbane to-day.
Six of the 400 P.O.W and ínternees from Hongkong died during the voyage, and 87 were so emaciated that they had to be taken off the ship in stretchers.
Even well passengers showed signs of their ordeal.
Many civilian patients and Indian Army personnel were too ill to be interviewed.
Others described the almost unbelievable horrors which became commonplace to them.
A "water cure" was the favourite torture with the Japs.
A private of a Middlesex Regiment said the Jap policy was one of slow, scientific murder.
He added that the bombing of Hongkong had been the greatest factor in keeping up the morale of the prisoners.
Source
Canberra Times, September 21, 1945, page 1
The hospital ship Oxfordshire reaches Sydney. The Melbourne Argus quotes unnamed Hong Kong passengers as saying 'it seemed that they had not had nearly as bad a time of it as prisoners in other areas'. The reporter goes on to remark 'Yet some are very sick indeed':
Every single person taken on the ship was suffering from malnutrition, many of them from deficiency diseases such as beri-beri, and some had war wounds still unhealed since the Japanese capture of Hong Kong in December, 1941.
The South China Morning Post (Morning edition, p. 1) claims that bread is still at the prohibitive price of HK$6 a pound.
Source:
The Argus, September 24, 1945, page 3
In the evening Lance-Sergeant H. W. Jackson of the Fingerprint Department of the Hong Kong Police is savaged by a large shark while swimming alone off Tweed Bay Beach, close to the part generally named 'The Diving Rocks'.
Captain Arthur Nathaniel Braude, his wife Irene, 15 year old John Stanton with his friends, and a number of Canadians are on the beach, and the Captain dives in as soon as he hears the Sergeant's agonised screams. Stanton and the others jump in, swim to the rock and splash to try to frighten the shark. Braude manages to get the wounded man to the rocks, and the Canadians help to pull him onto them. Mrs. Braude, a trained nurse, does what she can, but the wound to his left side, is too large, and Sergeant Jackson is beyond help. He dies within a minute of being brought to shore.
Sources:
China Mail, September 24, 1945, 1
http://hongkongsfirst.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/first-man-killed-by-shark…
http://battleforhongkong.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/shark-attack-at-tweed-b…
Notes:
Captain Braude was held in Argyle Street and Shamshuipo, his wife in Stanley.
There is some confusion as to the victim of the post-war shark attack, others sources giving Lance-Sergeant H, M, Goldie. However, it seems the best sources give Lance-Sergeant Jackson and it's unlikely although not impossible there were two fatal attacks in a short period of time as deaths caused by sharks are rare in Hong Kong waters.
Cecil Harcourt gives a press conference and offers an honest but down-beat view of his administration's achievements:
As yet we have been unable to do much more than maintain law and order, protect life and property, and round-up and disarm the Japanese....The real trouble is that he has neither the men nor the resources to do anything more.
He points out that no-one expected the sudden collapse of Japan, and when it happened the Fleet was engaged in planning for further military operations, and it was hard to suddenly have to do something completely different. The government workers interned in Stanley came out and did a fine job, but many of them have now had to go home ((to recuperate)). Adminstrative personnel are on their way from Britain but have not yet arrived. Supplies of coal from Australia are expected soon but shortage has hampered attempts to restore normal services. Firewood is another problem, and efforts are being made to get some from Borneo.
It's not all gloom though. The rice situation is adequate, and the Colony is managing to feed 18,000 destitutes. He hopes to send the 22,000 Japanese prisoners home soon - because they're taking up valuable property and, even though they get no more than is legally required, they are extra mouths to feed.
Chief Justice Atholl MacGregor has been greatly weakened by the privations of Stanley - he will die on the voyage of repatriation. Nevertheless, he played a full part in the resumption of British sovreignty, and today he acts as coroner from his bed in Tweed Bay Hospital. The inquest is into the death of Herbert Winkfield Jackson, killed by a shark on Sunday evening. Flying Officer C. Kelly, the Medical Officer at Camp H.Q., states that a faint pulse was discernible when he arrived at the beach but Lance-Sergeant Jackson had died before arriving at Tweed Bay Hospital. Captain and Mrs. Braude also give evidence.
Source:
Harcourt, Inquest: China Mail, September 25, 1945, 4
The China Mail notes that the navy is providing Stanley with electricity from a lorry next to the power station outside the prison. But 'it's the same old story' as during internment - the excessive use of 'hot plates' means that the supply has to be tempoarily cut off t some areas.
There were three groups holding church services during internment: the united Protestants, the Catholics and the small band of Christian scientists. Today it's reported that the Christian Scientists, who'd been continuing their services in Stanley, are now moving them back to town because of the declining numbers at the camp. They can't use their old premises in Macdonnell Road though, as these have been thoroughly looted; instead they'll be meeting on the first floor of St. George's Building in Chater Road
Ten year old Peter Hall and his mother Mabel have been re-united with George Hall, who spent the war in Shamshuipo. Today they leave Stanley and board a mine-sweeper HMS Strahan at 2 p.m. This takes them to Hong Kong harbour where they board HMS Striker. They arrive at Sydney on October 9 and are housed with other former internees in a Red Cross Home, Glen Mervyn, in an eastern suburb.
Sources:
Electricity, Christian Scientists: China Mail, September 25, 1945, 2
Halls: Peter Hall, In The Web, 2012 ed., 73
The China Mail (page 2) pays tribute to the Hong Kong resistance. It mentions David Loie, who contacted the BAAG at Waichow 'early' but states that, in general, 'Hong Kong's Heroes of the Fifth Column are nameless'.
The article goes on to claim that most resistance agents were Chinese, but that the Indians were well represented, and that no community of 'third nationals' (neutrals) that was more than half a dozen in size failed to produce at least one operative.
It quotes a Chinese interpreter/clerk who had access to the Gendarmerie files as saying that 2,000 people were executed for resistance activities and that 2,000 more were suspected. However, the real number of those involved, the writer believes, was 'legion'. Some were links in a chain of communication that extended from Gendarmerie HQ to outside Hong Kong, while others provided shelter for fugitives in a network organised by 'an American Chinese whose intelligence, wits and resources would rank with the best in the world'. A Jewish man, with the help of Chinese and Indian warders, managed to get nutritious food smuggled in 'to political prisoners as far as Canton'.
The writer believes that death wasn't the most frequent outcome but nervous breakdown - which might be followed by death from disease or suicide - or flight to Macau. Men would sometimes break down when asked to undertake some task that was beyond the limits of their courage. Traitors were rife in 1942 and 1943 as recruits had to be accepted without proper knowledge of their antecedents. However, the Gendarmerie were often confused by the number of aliases used, and secrecy within cells gave further protection.
The article goes on to list the great variety of tasks undertaken by the resistance. In conclusion, it points to the modesty of the former agents:
To-day (sic) the undergrounders have sunk underground. None will agree to having his name published and they mostly take the attitude that they don't particularly care to have their services to the Allied cause awarded official recognition.
Duncan Sloss, his son John, and Day Sage (Joyce) are among those leaving Hong Kong by plane for Britian.
Les Fisher begins 'spinal treatment' with Dr. Molthen.
Sources:
Sloss, Sage: China Mail, September 28, 1945, 4
Les Fisher, I Will Remember, 1996, 253
Notes:
1) I have not yet been able to identify the American-Chinese organiser of the 'safe house' network. I suspect that the Jewish man who smuggled food to political prisoners in Hong Kong and beyond was Boris Pasco, but I'm far from certain and any further information would be most welcome.
2) Frank Molthen and his wife Ruth introduced chiropractic to Hong Kong in the early 1930s. He is said to have treated both Chiang Kai-shek and Madame Chiang. In Stanley Molthen provided 'adjustments' for both internees and guards.
He was 'guaranteed out' of Stanley in August 1942:
Those left in Stanley live the dream today: they're served 'bangers and mash' (sausages and mashed potato). This traditional English meal was one of the dishes most fantasised about during internment.
Source:
China Mail, September 28, 1945, 2
Men of No. 44 (Royal Marine) Commando give an evening stage show for those left in Stanley. The show only features a few simple props and the performers use borrowed costumes and make-up but their material ranges from religious song to slapstick humour.
Under the headline, 'Staney Shrinks', today's China Mail runs a story on page 2 stating that people are leaving the camp every day, and singling out John Stericker, who is returning to his tobacco factory in Kowloon. He was the only person never to miss a council meeting in camp.
Postage has been free in Hong Kong until today when charges are introduced after the 10 a.m. collection. But the first day's trading in stamps yields a disppointing sum of less than HK$350. As an official points out, stamp collectors have missed the boat.
Sources:
Stage Show: Hong Kong Sunday Herald, September 30, 1945, 6
Postage: China Mail, September 29, 1945, 1
There's a revealing letter on page two of today's China Mail.
In reponse to Marcus da Silva's radio appeal (September 23) for everyone to work together in the rebuilding of Hong Kong, the correspondent points out that a fair wage which would make appeals to 'pride and patriotism' unnecsessary.
He accepts that 'Europeans' should be given preference, but reminds the readers that 'local' people like himself, who can't claim to have been POWs or Internees, endured worse. There's no need for such people to prove their patriotism - that was done during the hostilities (when the writer) was in Essential Services) and the occupation.
Clerks - he seems to be one - have been told by 'a former taipan' that HK$2 a day is the best the Government can offer them, and that is simply not enough to live on. Espeially as many people like himself have not yet been paid for their work during the hostilities or received their December 1941 slaary from their former employers.
The letter is signed 'Ex-Torturee'.
The clock on the Kowloon-Canton Railway Tower, the only public timepiece on the Peninsula, starts to tell the time again after almost 4 years.
The China Mail reports that Mr E. D. Robbins of the Health Department has returned to Hong Kong. He left on the repatriation ship Tei-a Maru on September 23, 1943 and found conditions worse than Stanley, with the Japanese trying to make as much money out of the passengers as possible. There was not enough to eat, and he had to buy supplementary food. People being repatriated from Shanghai were given 5,000 yen, but those from Hong Kong only had a monthly allowance of 29 yen. He found the Canadians very helpful, but nobody knew the truth about life in Stanley.
A commission is set up to examine cases of civilians suspected of collaboration with the Japanese - an Associated Press report to this effect will be cited in tomorrow's Daily Mirror (page 8) which will also note that a British Major is being held on suspicion of the same charge. This is Major Cecil Boon, who spent the war in Shamshuipo. Some of his associates have also been arrested by the incoming troops. Boon's case will come to trial in London and acquitted of all charges.
In a speech of farewell before leaving for recuperation, former Secretary for Chinese Affairs R. A.C. North, takes the opportunity of naming two prominent Chinese citizens who should NOT be considered guilty of collaboration. He pays tribute to Hong Kong's Chinese population and says he understands that they suffered far worse than he did (in Stanley) because they were exposed to the full brutality of the Gendarmes. He tells his audience that he had hoped to stay uninterned to intercede for them, but had instead gone with Grenville Alabaster and (the late) John Fraser to the China Building to ask Sir Robert Kotewall, Sir Shouson Chow and their colleagues to take on 'what should have been my duty'. He hopes that his speech will put an end to the 'misunderstandings' that had arisen - Kotewall in particular had been unjustly accused of collaboration for obeying North's injunction to work with the Japanese for the sake of the Chinese masses.
The (London) Times publishes this notice in its page 1 Personal columns:
Mrs. L. A. NEWNHAM, civilian internee, Stanley Camp, Hong-kong: two letters received: safe and well.
Colonel Lanceray Arthur Newnham was executed on December 18, 1943 for his resistance activities in Argyle Street Camp. In January 1918 he had married Phyliss Edith Henderson at St. Mary's in Finchley .
Sources:
Clock: China Mail, October 3, 1945,1
Robbins: China Mail, October 1, 1945,1
North: China Mail, October 2, 1945, 4.
East Asia's been swept by a tidal wave of emotion since the Japanese surrender, and it's not over yet. Today sees a reunion in circumstances that would be considered improbable in a Hollywood film.
Mrs. 'Topsy' Man served as a nurse at the temporary hospital in the University during the hostilities. Her husband, Captain C. M. M. Man, led a band of soldiers from the Middlesex which, with the help of Canadians and Indians detached from their regiments, mounted a last ditch defence of Leighton Hill on the Japanese approach to Victoria and then fought building-by-building against the advance through Wanchai. Immediately after the surrender, he persuaded his Medical Officer to issue him with a false 'casualty' certficate so he could travel in a Red Cross ambulance to say goodbye to his wife.
Mrs. Man has not seen her husband since. She's spent the war in Stanley, while he was one of the POWs sent to work in Japan. Today she's in a hotel room in Colombo with a fellow nurse, and they're about to raise a tooth glass to their lips to drink a toast to her fifth wedding anniversary, when her husband, who unknown to her had arrived on the Empress of Australia, walks through the door.
Source:
Stanley/Japan work: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1030002196
Reunion: Oliver Lindsay, The Lasting Honour, 1980, 137-138
