70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Shows diary entries from seventy-one years ago, using today's date in Hong Kong as the starting point. To see pages from earlier dates (they go back to 1 Dec 1941), choose the date below and click the 'Apply' button.

  • 18 Mar 1943, R. E. Jones Wartime diary

    Submitted by Admin on Fri, 2013-03-01 00:03
    Book / Document: 
    R. E. Jones Wartime diary
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Thu, 18 Mar 1943

    Misty & damp.

    Cookhouse all day.

    1st night of “Esther” performed.

    Walk with Steve pm.

    ((G.))

    • Log in or register to post comments

  • 18 Mar 1943, Barbara Anslow's diary

    Submitted by Barbara Anslow on Thu, 2013-03-21 10:24
    Book / Document: 
    Barbara Anslow's diary
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Thu, 18 Mar 1943

    (('Esther' mentioned by Mr Jones in today's diary, was performed as a ballet. It was out of this world to us watching it, just superb dancing, music - and costumes some of which I believe were made of old bits of dyed mosquito netting. Some Japanese officers who attended the performance were critical about the use of mosquito nets for this purpose, and of certain medicines to dye them. What a great morale-booster these Stanley concerts were!))

  • 18 Mar 1943, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp

    Submitted by brian edgar on Thu, 2014-06-05 13:19
    Book / Document: 
    Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Thu, 18 Mar 1943

    Vandeleur Grayburn is interrogated for a couple of hours this morning. Then it's Edward Streatfield's turn: his interrogator points to lengths of cord and baseball bats and advises him to tell the truth. The questions last for two hours, and the unpleasantness is compounded by poor interpretation, but there's no torture and the banker is never to suffer physical mistreatment.

    Not surprisingly, the Japanese seem to regard Grayburn as the main culprit and he's taken for questioning again. Streatfield hears a lot of abuse followed by a crash and later learns that his boss was made to stand on a chair with his wrists tied behind and above him to a ring bolt and then had the chair kicked away leaving him hanging for some minutes. Contrary to some lurid accounts elsewhere, this is the only torture he ever experiences.

    Grayburn doesn't seem distressed afterwards and later characterises the manoeuvre as 'very elementary third degree stuff.'

    Luckily the interrogators never find out he's a British Army Aid Group agent (code name: Night) or things would be much, much worse for the courageous banker.

    Source:

    Account of E. P. Streatfield, Hong Kong PRO, HKMS, 100-1-6, pages 3-4

  • 18 Mar 1943, Eric MacNider's wartime diary

    Submitted by Admin on Wed, 2016-03-09 14:39
    Book / Document: 
    Eric MacNider's wartime diary
    Date(s) of events described: 
    Thu, 18 Mar 1943

    “Esther” ballet (Bateman, Brown, Drown, Heasman, Goldie, Peggy Hunter, (Esther), Garton, Moring, N Reynolds – 3 Acts) ((Not sure which 'Brown' he is referring to.))

    Norman – “Prisons”


Subscribe: If you'd like to receive future pages by email, just enter your email address below and click the 'subscribe' button:

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Subscribe to 70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries