70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

The Maryknoll Sisters finally move from temporary quarters to the American Block. They now have three rooms on the ground floor and one room on the third of Block A-3.

The Senate of Hong Kong University holds a secret meeting at a place in camp called 'Stonehenge'. Present are the Vice-Chancellor Duncan Sloss, the Registrar S. V. Boxer and Professors W. Brown, G. T. Byrne, K. H. Digby, W. Faid, Lancelot Forster, L. Robertson, L. R. Shore and Dean Smith.

The Board extends the award of 'War-time Degrees' that had been made on January 1 to medical students who had passed their final exams in December 1941 to all students in their final year at the time of the attack and to a few others. It goes on to record the death of Professor France, the wounding of Professor Simpson, the use of the University as a wartime hospital (under Professor Gordon King with William Faid as Lay Superintendent) and the fact of its becoming a refugee centre after the surrender.

After noting that the University buildings sustained little damage through shelling, but that there had been serious looting, the meeting recorded that Ah Kai, a worker in the Strength of Materials Department, had brought under control a fire started at the Northcote Science Building by looters.

It was also recorded that Duncan Sloss had arranged for those at the University to be temporarily interned there and not transferred to the waterfront hotels with the majority of the 'white' British community on January 5.

After listing those staff members (such as Professors Ride and Simpson) known to be held as POWs, the minutes conclude:

(T)he major part of the war surgery at the Q. M. H. (Queen Mary Hospital) during the actual fighting, where 1,200 severe casualties were admitted, was carried out by four teams of graduates of H. K. U., and that much other valuable work in other hospitals and first aid posts was also carried out by H. K. U. graduates and undergraduates. A full list of those wounded and killed is not yet available.

Sources:

Maryknoll: The Maryknoll Diary, February 23, 1942

HKU: http://www.impact100.hku.hk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/World-War-II.jpg

Note:

According to American oilman Norman Briggs (Taken in Hong Kong), The Maryknoll Fathers were favoured in accommodation and other matters because they provided the voting 'bloc' that kept Bill Hunt in power. According to Briggs, there were a lot of Fathers in the first place, and the Sisters all voted the same way as they did, thus guaranteeing a majority for whoever they supported.

My sense from reading the diary is that, if they were favoured, they weren't aware of it, and voted according to their conscience. But I wasn't there.