70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Yvonne drew: a dress length of grey and white small chequered cotton material, a reel of white cotton and some ‘poppers’, two cotton handkerchiefs, a pair of khaki shorts, washing soap, and a small packet of Chinese toilet paper, also one fork. I drew: a pair of khaki shorts, one khaki shirt, one brilliant yellow shirt with a bright blue collar and a purple ‘V’ neck decoration, 2 handkerchiefs, a pair of sandshoes (not yet received), material for repairing one pair of leather shoes, bar of washing soap and a packet of toilet paper.

I was most pleased with my draw for shoes: I have two pairs of leather shoes, one which is almost worn out and which is so old that no further repairs can be executed on them, the other which has never been repaired and whose uppers and heels are good but whose soles are so worn that I can see daylight right through them. Consequently in wet weather my feet are perpetually wet. I have finished Yvonne’s clogs and have half finished my own, so our shoe position is brightening. In addition, we have each ordered a pair of sandshoes in our HK$75.00 parcels and if these arrive we shall be able, more or less, to look the weather in the face again. I took my shoes along to Major Begley and his assistant who are the shoe repairers for our blocks and who are doing all the repairs with the Welfare material. I was lucky to get repairs and shoes - I hope the shoes will arrive in due course.

Every man who applied for them received 1 pair of shorts and two shirts, two handkies, soap and toilet paper: every woman a dress length, shorts, one shirt, soap, handkies and toilet paper. The Bidwells drew a straw sleeping mat which makes it infinitely cooler at night than sleeping on blankets or even sheets. The Fortescues drew a large mug; unfortunately none of us drew an enamel washing bowl.

These brightly coloured shirts, the cheapish khaki shirts and the shorts are made for Messrs. Dodwell or Jardines, I think for export to Africa, in normal times, where they are sold in large numbers to the Africans - hence the gaudy colours of the coloured shirts. They all have collars of a different colour to the shirt; blues and yellows, plum and green, blue and plum, brown and green and numerous other combinations. Yvonne very cleverly spotted a woman with a blue shirt (the same colour as my collar) and a yellow collar, so she suggested unpicking and swapping the collars.  This they agreed to and now I have a really smart looking all yellow short sleeved shirt and the other girl has an equally smart blue shirt. Yvonne also removed the strip of violet decoration (all these shirts have this strip of colour round the neck in third and brightly contrasting colour!) Another African fancy is, apparently, to have shorts with turn ups at the bottom, for all these shorts are carefully turned up! The Africans must be short in the body and have enormous stomaches, for these shorts are enormous round the waist and are very short in the crutch. My normal size is 32 and Yvonne’s 28 and we had to get 38 and 34 respectively to get them to fit. Size 40 would have been better for me but they had no 40’s left. So, quite a lot of adjustment is necessary. Well, this is the first time I have lined up for free clothing!  I remember how, two years ago, we took clothes we could spare to the Cathedral where they were dispatched to a little tramp steamer that had called in on its way from Vladivostock to Australia full of British refugees who had escaped across (then Central) Russia from Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania with hardly more than the clothes they stood up in, when those countries were occupied by Germany.

This morning there was some excitement because a tiger had been seen on one of the beaches near the camp. The report sent in to the Community office by an internee who saw it, described it as being about 4’ 6” long (head to rump) and standing 2’ 6” to 3’ 0” high, with a long bushy tail. It encountered a Chinese guard and mauled his face and later a party of these police guards went in search of it and shot it near Stanley Village. It can be seen (or could this morning) in the distance from the PWD bungalow at the Gendarmerie Headquarters, but it is too hot to toil up there for that doubtful pleasure. Apparently this tiger’s mate (the female) and its two fairly large cubs are still at large in the hills in the vicinity of the camp, but whether they are in the hills of the island at the back of this Stanley peninsula or in the hills at the end of the peninsula (where the fort is situated) is not quite clear. It is many years since a wild tiger visited Hong Kong - they swim the short distance from the mainland.  I cannot imagine why they should come now.

Bradbury, the Dairy Farm butcher who was taken in to town by the Japanese for the purpose of skinning the tiger, has now returned. Apparently there was no one else in Hong Kong capable of skinning this tiger! He performed his duties at the Happy Valley police station - now Gendarmerie Divisional HQ. He had a room to himself in which he was locked from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. and he had to eat all his meals with the Chinese cooks. 

((Written on 21st June 1942:)) After the tiger had been shot at the beginning of the month, there was much speculation about its origin. It was suggested that this family of tigers had escaped from the circus that used to be held at Causeway Bay, and this seemed quite a probable explanation. However the ‘HK News’ suggested that these fine specimens had been roaming the countryside in search of food, explaining that tigers seldom resort to eating human flesh unless other food is very scarce or unless the tiger is getting old, but ended up suggesting that the tigers were attracted to Stanley by the 3,000 well fed internees in the European Internment Camp there! These journalistic efforts are often most amazing especially when one remembers they are written in all seriousness. Bradbury discounted the menagerie origin of the tiger, saying that the animal he skinned was a fine specimen of a wild male tiger, about 3 years old and in excellent condition. He cured the skin and said it was flown in a special plane to Tokyo where it was presented to the Emperor.

Apparently this tiger killed a Japanese gendarme (not reported in the paper) and mauled an Indian guard, so he did his bit for the war effort! The paper displayed a photograph of the tiger, lashed to a pole and it certainly looked a fine beast, beautifully marked and like the big Malayan type of tiger. It weighed about 250 lbs. The paper also said that local Chinese stated that the appearance of the tiger meant that a long period of prosperity was about to begin. Perhaps there is more in that than meets the eye! The other day we saw a triple rainbow (the first I have seen in my life), a fine sight. What would not the Ancients have forseen from that? Well, we too have faith!

Incidentally the tiger episode did not end with the shooting of the tiger, but let me finish with the first tiger first. Earlier in the night on which it was shot (at about 10 p.m.) a couple of Chinese women and an old Chinese man had come into the camp somehow or another with cigarettes and sweets etc. to sell to the internees. Loseby, a little man full of his own importance who is living in ‘B’ bungalow, reported these unfortunate Chinese to the guard and the man was dragged off. One of the women found ‘Goldie’ (Police Sergeant) who is living in the garage at ‘B’ bungalow and asked him to intercede with the guard on behalf of their father or husband. Goldie, who thought it unwise for the woman to stand about in the open said, “You’d better come around here and tell me what has happened,” and led her to the small grotto or alcove in the garden, covered with creepers and only dimly lit by the lights from the bungalow.

As he was almost at the entrance he noticed his shoelace was undone and stooped to tie it up. As he did so, there was a snarl from inside and quickly looking up from his crouching position, he saw to his complete horror and amazement, a large tiger leaping right over him! He said he saw its teeth and claws and all!! It just sloped off into the bushes and shrubbery and disappeared! To finish the story of the Chinese pedlars, I regret to say the old man was taken outside the camp to Stanley Police Station and there was summarily shot.

The morning following the shooting of the tiger a great round up was organized by the Japanese occupying the battery at the end of the peninsula. During the morning we could hear a great noise of gongs being beaten and could occasionally see the flash of an officer’s sword as it caught the sunlight. They combed the whole hillside and report had it that three dark objects had been observed swimming towards some other islands out to sea. Whether or not this is true I do not know. The tigers are now reported to have been seen near Wong Nei Chong Gap, in the centre of this island and apparently a leopard has now joined their ranks! Probably one of their cubs. But before leaving Stanley, they made several more visits to the camp, (after the organized tiger hunt). Two nights later Maudie herself was sleeping outside in the garden of ‘C’ bungalow with several others when a man shouted “the tiger!” and they all rushed for the bungalow. A tiger was seen in the gardens of the bungalows on two nights and we could hear the shouting and see the flashes of torches from our block. One gentleman kept flashing S.O.S. but who was going to save him no one knows!  At any rate the tigers departed with no harm done.

On about March 15 1942, the Chinese supervisor of this camp was replaced by a Japanese supervisor, Mr Yamashita. This change, I believe, had been brought about by representations made by the Camp Committee to the Japanese Gendarmerie, pointing out how unsatisfactory it was for us to have to do all our negotiations about camp affairs through the medium of a Chinese puppet and asking very strongly that a Japanese Supervisor be appointed. Mr Cheng (the Chinese) had been, it was suspected, ‘squeezing’ the internees to a considerable extent. At about that time he became indisposed and is said to have developed TB of the lungs, at any rate, he went and Mr Yamashita came in his place. I was working in the kitchen when he came on his tour of inspection. Imagine my surprise when I found him to be the hairdresser at the Hong Kong Hotel who had often cut my hair. Conditions in camp have greatly improved since he has taken charge of things and it has proved far more satisfactory to negotiate directly with the Japanese than through the Chinese.