70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Franklin Gimson confides to his diary that the camp 'abounds with rumours on the question of repatriation'. Many of them are said to emanate from Japanese headquarters and seem to him have the 'marks of veracity' - although he will soon find they are all false. But he's worried about the apparent leakage of information, especially because there are known to be internees who will pass on information to the Japanese.

In the morning he has a long interview with Hilda Selwyn-Clarke who seems glad to receive his assurance that he had always greed with her husband - now a prisoner - that he should never take part in political activities but confine himself to humanitarian relief work. But he feels that his statement is of little value, and that some of his friends had been less discreet in advising the former Director of Medical Services.

Source:

Franklin Gimson Diary, p. 12 (recto), Weston Library, Oxford