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

The Maryknoll Fathers report that the Japanese have announced a loan from the Imperial Government - about HK$105 for each internee, with $30 to go into communal funds. They also discuss their bread ration:

Our one piece of bread, issued daily or every other day, seems also to be dwindling in size, and becoming darker in color. At present our piece of bread is about three inches long by about one inch wide. Incidentally, the bread which we are getting is being baked at the French Hospital and we are getting it through the good offices and hard work of Dr. Selwyn-Clark (sic), the former head of the Hong Kong Medical Department, who has been allowed his freedom so far.

Source:

Maryknoll Diary, April 13

Notes:

1) For a discussion of the source of the loan (which is unclear) see http://gwulo.com/node/12879

2) Technically the bread was being baked at the Qing loong (Green Dragon) Bakery in Wanchai by bakers living at the French Hospital.

 Madeline Jeanette Owens born to Reginald Owens and Allison J. Owens. Mrs Owens is British and her husband is American.

Two notices appear in camp: one announces that facilities are available for the painless destruction of dogs, the other that 'heavy' kitchen workers are entitled to extra rations - it seems they can get more rice and choose two other items, although not special ones like bread, eggs, tinned goods etc. MacNider notes that on April 25 extra rations, on differing scales and with a limit on the number of 'extras' in some cases, were extended to other kitchen workers, heavy manual labourers, and all other workers, with effect from the next day. This was decided at the Committee meeting of April 24. In September 1942 the Committee decided that too many people were claiming the privilege - some fraudulently - and the conditions under which it was granted had to be revised.

The British Government act on information received about conditions in Stanley - today the Legation in Berne delivers a note to the Foreign Interests Division of the Swiss Foreign Office:

The unpalatable rations issued provide a mere 900 calories per head and they are likely to be reduced. Uneatable rations are not replaced. For five days no milk at all was issued, and the small milk ration allowed is often soured before delivery. The basic rations are small amounts of rice, flour and salt....The first meal is half a slice of bread, the other two meals one small bowl of poor quality broken rice or watery soup. Beri Beri has broken out, and when, as seems inevitable in summer, tropical disease appears, the gravest epidemics are to be feared...Owing to lack of fuel the boiling of water, which might serve to avert epidemics is extremely difficult.

The British note that a similar message has been sent to the International Committee of the Red Cross but they don't seem certain about what they want the Swiss to do:

His Majesty's Government leave it to the Swiss authorities to decide what use they make of this information.

For the Swiss reply, see the entry for April 17.

Sources:

Owens: See below

Notices: MacNider Papers, 'Easter/Loan/14/Dogs/Workers'; 'Labour',19

British note: Note from the British Legation (official translation from French original) to the Foreign Interests Division, April 14, 1942 in Swiss Federal Archives (Berne)

Note:

According to a record cited by Cindy Yik-yi Chu this girl, who weighed seven and a half pounds, was the first American born in Stanley (Foreign Communities in Hong Kong, 2005, 146.)

In response to recent escapes the Japanese begin to erect a barbed-wire fence which will eventually run through the garden of Bungalow C and cut it in half. the Bungalow's inhabitants ask the Chinese foreman to approach the Japanese with a view to keeping the garden inside the camp so that they can tend to the graves of the Allied soldiers buried there. He agrees to do so, but the Japanese refuse.

The Hongkong News publishes an article stating that the Japanese loan of $300,000 proves the 'good and fair' treatment being handed out to the internees. It also announces that they have been presented with 100,000 cigarettes and that parcels may now be sent to them by well-wishers in town. On April 14th the first day of the scheme, 300 parcels had been received at the Foreign Affairs Section.

Today the earliest of these parcels arrive in camp.

In town the Norwegian community are called to a meeting and told they can remain uninterned but are all on parole - if one person escapes, the rest will be sent to Stanley.

Sources:

Escapes: George Wright-Nooth, Prisoner of the Turnip Heads, 1994, 113

Parcels: Constance Murray Diary, p. 2 (Weston House, Oxford); Hongkong News, April 16th, 1942, p. 3: '$300,000 Loan To Internees'

Norwegians: J. Krogh-Moe, 'A Brief Report of Stanley Internment Camp From A Norwegian Point of View', page 1, in Hong Kong PRO, HKRS163 1-104

The Swiss have been considering the British request of April 14 and today sees an interdepartmental memo that makes their impotence clear:

It is necessary to remember that a note from the British Government of 21 December 1941 asked us to take on the the task of representing British interests in Hong Kong. The Japanese Government, when presented with this request, replied (in) a telegram of January 30 that they could not agree.

The reason for Tokyo's refusal was that the Japanese, in imitation of the Germans, had abolished all consular representation in the territories it had occupied, and decreed that the neutral country whose ambassador represented the enemy country's interests in Tokyo should extend his responsibility to the whole Japanese empire. In Britain's case, this made the 'Protecting Power' Argentina. 

All the Swiss could do in this case was tell the British their Government would lend its support to the Red Cross in a request to be allowed to help British nationals in Hong Kong.

Source:

Letter from The Federal Political Department to Federal Councillor Pilet-Golaz, 17 April 1942 in Swiss Federal Archives (Berne)

Note: Not long after this letter, Switzerland replaced Argentina as the 'Protecting Power' for Britain in Tokyo. However, it was obviously difficult for the Swiss Ambassador, Camille Gorgé, to intervene effectively in Hong Kong. On June 27, 1942 Rudolf Zindel became the Red Cross representative (later the full Delegate) in Hong Kong, and, took on some of the functions of the representative of the Protecting Power, proving a valuable aid to the Tokyo Embassy until the Red Cross insisted he stop because the role of Delegate was incompatible with such activity.

The 'Doolittle' raids take place today: American bombers launch attacks on targets in Tokyo, Yokohama, Kobe and other major Japanese cities. Although not of great military significance, they are valuable for propaganda and morale-raising purposes, as they are the first time that the main islands of Japan have been hit.

News of the raids seems to have taken a few days to reach the internees. On April 22 R. E. Jones records 'Japan bombed?' and the next day he makes an inaccurate note of the damage done.

American missionary John Bechtel was later to claim that the Japanese-sponsored Hong Kong News was not delivered in Camp, or not produced at all, on this day because of the raids.  The American bombers arrived over Tokyo at about noon Japanese time so it's possible that it was April 19 that the paper didn't arrive.

Source:

Bechtel: John Bechtel, Fetters Fall, 1945, 220

Death of Alexander Ogilvie, aged 66.

The American community hold their monthly meeting and discuss the loan (see April 13) and repatriation.

A few Norwegians and two American women are allowed to leave for town under the 'guaranteeing out' system.

Sources:

Death: Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, 1973, 271

Meeting, leaving camp: Maryknoll Diary, April 20

Death of Jack Fancey, aged 24.

A meeting of the British Communal Council notes the formation of the British Women's Group.

Sources:

Death: Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, 1973, 271

Group: John Stericker, Captive Colony, Chapter V, page 27

Note: Part of today's entry in the Maryknoll Diary reads, Another death, from tuberculosis, in the hospital.

Maryknoll Sisters Mary Paul, Anne, Ann Mary and Maria Regis are released from camp because, although American, they've established Irish descent.

The London Daily Express publishes this article on page 4: 

REMEMBER HONGKONG

Starvation threat to prisoners

Express Correspondent FRANCIS LEE

CHUNGKING, Monday.

 COMPLAINTS by the British and Americans interned at Stanley Camp, Hongkong, against their meagre food allowances led to a demand by their Japanese jailers for £5,000 to cover the cost of extra rations, according to authoritative reports reaching Chungking.

 Although protests were made that the demand was illegal, the money had to be paid out of personal bank accounts, as the Japs threatened to starve out the Camp if it was not forthcoming.

 ‘EXTRAS’

 The internees now receive infinitesimal "extras," including an ounce of fish daily, with their tiny quota of rice. The original rations provided only 900 calories daily instead of the 2,400 required.

The internees are dreading the summer, as the Japanese have not given them any mosquito nets, and malaria is inevitable. They are unable to get clothes, shoes or soap they left behind in the city.

They have no bedding beyond what was brought in when they were rounded up. They are herded in quarters in which six to eight men, women and children are given one room.

The British internees total 2,500, but most of the able-bodied men are in a military camp. The others include older people and women and children.

The internees, lacking outside news, console themselves with reports of the imminent arrival of food ships, or the release of American Red Cross wheat supplies, of which the Japs seized 2,000 tons.

Source:

Maryknoll: Cindy Yik-yi Chu, The Maryknoll Sisters in Hong Kong, 2004, 56

Death of A. W. J. Simmons, aged 61.

Mr. Simmons was a Catholic and former resident of Erinville, near Stanley. He died of heart failure, and the doctors say it was brought on by malnutrition. He was buried at 6 p.m. 'in the local cemetery, where the row of new graves is steadily lengthening'. A funeral mass is held for him on the 23rd.

Diplomat Sir Arthur Blackburn - accompanied by Lady Blackburn - is taken from Stanley to the French Hospital for leg X-rays. Both Dr Selwyn-Clarke and Dr Court impress on him that a serious humanitarian crisis is looming in Stanley and in the rest of the Colony: the Japanese are sending food out of Hong Kong and not bringing stocks in. They forecast conditions will become desperate about the end of July and want the British Foreign Office to be told that if no relief can be provided they should arrange to have the British community repatriated. Blackburn writes a short message on these lines to John Reeves, the British Consul in Macao, and Selwyn-Clarke indicates he can get it through.

Sources:

Simmons: Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, 1973, 271; Maryknoll Diary, April 22/23

Blackburn: 'Patients Brought From Stanley to St. Paul's (French) Hospital' - list drawn up by Dr. Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke, in Archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross BG017 07-61

Note 1:

Sir Arthur Blackburn's own account gives April 21 as the day he was taken to the French Hospital, but the list drawn up by Selwyn-Clarke for the Red Cross, gives today's date, and this is confirmed by Eric MacNider's diary. Barbara Anslow's diary tells us Selwyn-Clarke came to camp himself so presumably escorted the Blackburns on the journey.

This was the beginning of the system whereby patients from Stanley were allowed a short stay in the French Hospital for X-rays. Tomorrow Blackburn will be returned and Dr. Dean Smith will replace him.

Note 2:

Conditions in town did deteriorate over the summer, but those in Stanley improved as rations were increased by the Japanese and the change from having bread sent in from the uninterned bakers working at the Ching Loong to having a camp flour ration also bolstered the health and morale of the internees - the town bakers were not always able to get the supplies they needed so production and quality were erratic. 

A special notice is posted in camp about the '$300,000 loan': every internee is to submit a list of requirements to the value of $75 to their block representative.

Dr. Nicol C. Macleod also posts a notice: notes on the prevention of dysentery.

Source:

MacNider Papers: 'Roll Call, Church 13', '$300,000 Dollar Loan', untitled

Death of Stuart Deacon, aged 57, from cancer.

The camp is gradually moving from having a bread ration sent in from town to baking its own bread with a flour issue:

Quite a goodsized piece of bread today. Now that we are getting a decent ration of flour we shall have to figure out ways and means to bake our own bread, for now the little we used to get from Hong Kong has ceased.

One of the bakers in town, Thomas Edgar, dates May 7, 1942 as the end of bread supplies to Stanley.

Sources:

Death: Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, 1973, 271; Cindy Yik-yi Chu, Foreign Communities in Hong Kong, 2005, 146.

Bread: Maryknoll Diary, April 24.

Edgar:  The British Baker, September 1946

As a result of recent escapes, a barbed wire fence is completed around the whole camp. Electric lights are also being put up around the borders, and a new masonry gateway with a guard post opposite is being built across the main road leading into Camp: 'We lose a little more of our freedom and are now quite interned'.

Source:

Maryknoll Diary, April 25

H. C. Woo, the superintendent of blocks 2 ,3, 4 and 5, posts a notice saying it's essential that he be informed if any resident of these blocks is 'called to Hong Kong'.

The Harbourmaster Commander Jolly and A. K. Dimond, manager of the Hong Kong Hotel, enter Stanley.

It seems that there's still a fair bit of movement between the camp and the outside world.

Source:

Woo: MacNider Papers, 'Roll Call, Church' 13, 'Urgent Notice'

Jolly, Dimond: Constance Murray Diary , p. 2 (Weston House, Oxford).

The Japanese finally grant permission for a small number of internees to go to the French Hospital (aka St. Paul's) in Causeway Bay for X-rays. They go in the Red Cross truck and are only allowed to stay a few days.

While they're there, Dr. Selwyn-Clarke does his best to give them as good a time as possible. They're allowed to take a certain amount of supplies back into Stanley, so Hilda Selwyn-Clarke, assisted by her friend the writer Emily Hahn, becomes a 'shopper for Stanley camp's three thousand plus', scouring the streets for bargains to make the funds 'mysteriously' produced by Selwyn-Clarke go as far as possible.

Sources:

Maryknoll Diary, April 30

Emily Hahn: China To Me, 1986 ed (1944) 359

Note:

Writing during the war, Hahn had to keep the source of funds for these supplies 'mysterious'. In fact the money was either given to Selwyn-Clarke or to the uninterned bankers by friendly Chinese, Indians or neutrals, or raised by the bankers through secret loans. All of these people ran huge risks to carry out this relief work.

Mrs. O. B. Burt has a boy, Christopher John.

Source:

China Mail, September 15, 1945, page 3

At 10.30 a.m. William Hunt says goodbye to his fellow internees. The 'genial and efficient' Council chairman is due to leave for Shanghai with the Kadourie Family at 4.30 p.m.

Source:

Maryknoll Diary, May 2

Note:

Bill Hunt was a controversial figure, but undeniably effective as leader of the Americans. Wenzell Brown (Hong Kong Aftermath) portrays him as a gangster, while the Maryknollers, Emily Hahn, and British sources like George Wright-Nooth are much more positive. American oilman Norman Briggs (Taken In Hong Kong) calls him The Brain and seems equally admiring and disapproving.

He seems to have managed to get repatriated from Shanghai as Gwen Priestwood's Through Japanese Barbed Wire, published in 1944, contains statements he made about the events the day after her escape, and he provided information about radios in camp to the British Army Aid Group.

Birth of Arthur Groves.

The Reverend Wittenbach in today's sermon says that there are three things wrong with Stanley Camp: too little food, too little space, and too much talking and quarrelling. He urges a strong Christian campaign against rumour-mongering. If any such campaign was indeed launched, it can be judged a total failure.

Sources:

Birth: China Mail, September 15, 1945, page 3

Sermon: MacNider Papers, 'Repatriation', 29

Death of Arthur Groves, one day old.

Death of John Blyth.

Source:

China Mail, September 15, 1945, page 3

From today a weekly dose of thiamin, supplied by Dr. Selwyn-Clarke, is added to the internees' soup. This halts an epidemic of wet beri beri: there were 84 cases in May, 65 in June, 8 in July and none in August.

Starting in June the thiamin is adminstered in a daily dose of 3 milligrams, which proved to be more effective.

Source:

Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, 1973, 150

A chess tournament begins. Some Maryknollers send ten word telegrams and wonder if they and the previous postcards will ever arrive.

A 'handful' of Stanleyites are included in the first of three repatritions to Shanghai. Most of those on board the Tainan Maru are third-national sailors and Hong Kong residents, including some members of the wealthy Kadoorie family. The Belgian Consul and his family also leave, and there are both White Russians and the crew of a Soviet cargo ship trapped by the fighting - the NKVD (Russian secret police) put a stop to some incipient romances and other forms of fraternisation between the two politically opposed groups.

Sources:

Chess: Maryknoll Diary, May 5, 1942

Repatriation: Tony Banham, We Shall Suffer There, 2009, May 5, 1942

Note: John Stericker, who dates these telegrams to May 10, says that they were routed throughTokyo and that all were delayed and some never arrived:

John Stericker, A Tear For The Dragon, 1958, 173