70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

This document is a report of conditions in Stanley Internment Camp from "an unimpeachable source", understood to be Bishop O'Gara**.

To; Military Attache, H.B.M. Embassy, Chungking.

Reference : INT/HQ/21 dated 21st August, 1942. 

From:    Lt.-Colonel L.T. Ride, C. O.,  B.A.A.G., Kweilin.

Subject:-    STANLEY INTERNMENT CAMP.

SECTION I(a)

The following first hand information concerning conditions in STANLEY and treatment of internees comes from an unimpeachable source.

Food.

At first the daily rations consisted of rice and vegetables only, with a little meat or fish but this latter was so small in amount that it had to be made into soup. Salt and condiments were considered as luxuries. After continued protests, $300,000 (HK) was obtained through banks for the use of internees. This worked out at about $105 per head, $75 of which was handed over to internees to enable them to pruchase ((sic.)) food from outside and $30 per head was witheld by the Japanese for the communal purchase of "luxuries such as salt". After further representations bread was also supplied, but the rations still lack essential vitamins and are very unbalanced, being preponderatingly carbonhydrates. ((sic.))    

Health.

Medical conditions in the camp have left much to be desired. The small hospital is under the charge of Dr. Utley; Professor Digby has done remarkably good work in improvising materials required for running an operating theatre.

Dr. Dean Smith submitted a medical report on the Camp after the introduction of the bread ration and in it he stated there was a marked improvement in morale but none. in the actual health of internees. Deaths and cases of sickness have been fewer than expected. Dr. Selwyn-Clarke's work is appreciated in the Camp but every now and again an under current of distrust which is always present comes to the surface; the general rank and file still remember that he was one of the Government officials who took advantage of his position to flout authority and keep his wife and child in HONG KONG.

In some quarters there is a strong feeling of resentment when the difficult problems of health of women and children arise; the feeling amounts to this "we cannot make special allowances for you, because you had no right to be here in HONG KONG".

My informer is of the opinion that no person with any bodily weakness at all will come out STANLEY unscathed.
 
Morale.

This has slightly improved in the Camp; rumours mostly based on speeches attributed to Churchill are responsible for this. It is confidently expected that the British Government will send ships out specially to repatriate the HONG KONG internees.

SECTION III(c).

General Treatment of Internees.

There have been numerous cases of ill treatment of internees by guards, face slapping etc., and the Indian guards are now the worst offenders.    A typical example is the following: When Japanese officials visit the Camp no one is allowed to move about; on one such occasion orders were passed around, but Dr. Balean (Senior) did not hear them; he continued on his walk and was in consequence subjected to very humiliating face slapping.

Atrocities.

Maryknoll Mission STANLEY.

During the fighting around STANLEY, the mission was captured by the Japanese and in it were a number of our wounded as well as 16 unwounded soldiers of various units.The Japanese killed the wounded and then bound all the rest including the MaryKnoll fathers. The soldiers were questioned. The first to be questioned was a tall officer who said his name was Lawrence; when asked his unit, the Japanese could not understand his reply so he said "I build bridges"; "Ah," they said, "build bridges". The second was an officer of the Middlesex Regiment, my informer thinks his name was "Newman". The rest of the sixteen he does not remember excepting that they were from various different units. These sixteen were later marched off and my informer says he has a lasting mental picture of these men going to their doom being lead by Lawrence, a tall soldier with his head hold high. A short time after they passed round the corner screams were heard and later my informant was told by his servants that they were made to witness the usual ill treatment and murdering of the sixteen by bayonetting. The Chinese servants were compelled to dig shallow graves and bury the bodies near the mission.

The Maryknoll Fathers had every reason to believe they were to share the same fate but for some reason they were left alive but bound.

Colonel Black and Captain Whitney.

Owing to the fact that internees fear to put anything
on paper and to the fact that this atrocity is continually being discussed, many variations of the story now exist and my informer would not commit himself to any one although he has his opinion as to the fate of any man captured in uniform during the execution of his duty in the STANLEY area.

He quoted the bravery of on elderly woman ((Sister Elizabeth Mosey)) who had been a nurse during the last war and who was in charge of a number of wounded in REPULSE BAY HOTEL. When our troops left, she remained behind in charge of the wounded and met the Japanese in her uniform complete with medals. The Japanese commenced their usual practice of ripping the bandages off all the patients but the nurse resisted so strongly and continuously that in the end the Japanese left them alone and my informer is of the opinion that her brave action, which might well have cost her life, certainly saved the lives of all the wounded. (My informer does not remember the name of the nurse nor was he present in REPULSE BAY at the time but he believes the story, which was told to him in STANLEY, to be true. The nurse Is now in STANLEY. I shall try to identify her).

Murder of the three V.A.D.s at STANLEY.

C.S.M. S.D. Begg of the H.K.V.D.C. is interned in S'TANLEY. He was wounded in the fighting nearby and was in the STANLEY Hospital. At the time of the surrender; his wife was a nurse there and after the surrender she end some other nurses were in an adjoining room and he was able to speak to his wife. They consolled one another with the fact that although they had lost everything they still had each other. At this point my informer says that Begg, when telling the story breaks down, for on the morning following, his wife and two other nurses were found murdered. Begg has the complete story together with the name and unit of the officer responsible; this he cunningly obtained by asking the Japanese for the name of the officer to whom they were indebted for their safety in the area.

A short time ago five bodies were discovered in STANLEY and they were all identified as those of the three V.A.Ds., Lt.-Colonel Black and Captain Whitney. The bodies wore buried and in the case of Mrs. Begg who was a Roman Catholic, the grave was blessed by a bishop in the internment camp.

Murder of Doctor and Wife near STANLEY.

My informer has no doubt that this story reported to you in Appendix "D" attached to B/36 dated 7.8.42. - Report No.8 - is completely false.

Rev. and Mrs. Martin.

Several stories of ill treatment by Japanese soldiers of Rev. and Mrs. Martin have been in circulation amongst refugees. My informer told me that he was told the following by Rev. Martin himself!: When the Japanese captured STANLEY Rev. Martin and his wife were living in a part of St. Stephen's College, togther with a number of overseas students. They were all severely handled by the Japanese soldiers and Rev. Martin and his wife were tied to chairs with their hands behind their backs and beaten. The Japanese left them there for a while and Mrs. Martin feared that they would cut her fingers off in order to steal her rings. Rev. Martin by a superhuman effort managed to wriggle close enough to remove his wife's rings Later the soldiers returned and it appeared that they were going to undress Mrs. Martin whereupon Rev. Martin shrieked and shrieked at them until He was exhausted. They were then beaten mercilessly and left in the room; the Rev. Martin considers that he and his wife owe their lives to the fact that the Japanese believed that they had been beaten to death.

Headquarters, B.A.A.G., Kweilin,  21 August, 42.    

Lt.-Colonel, C.O., British Army Aid Group.

Distribution:
Copy No.l - Military Attache, Chungking.
"        No.2 -    "    "    "
"        No.3 - File.
"        No.4     "

**Although Bishop O'Gara isn't mentioned by name in this document, in a later BAAG document (B/61, dated 29th Aug 1942), Lt. Ride writes:

I left KUKONG on Saturday 15th, spent Sunday and Monday at HENG SHAN (near HENG YANG) returning to HENG YANG on Tuesday morning to go to KWEILIN by American Air Transport. Unfortunately I had been given false information about this plane, and had to come on by train on Wednesday 18th; it had this good outcome, however, that I was able to see Bishop O'Gara of whom I have already written concerning his views on STANLEY. (See B/51 dated 21.8.42.)

Thanks to Elizabeth Ride for supplying this document from her collection of material on the life and work of her father, Sir Lindsay Ride.