70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Update: It's now known that Camidge and probably Leiper were arrested on February 6. I'll leave this entry here until I've established exact dates for the arrests of Foy and Cruickshank.

The final arrests in Stanley Camp (except for matters relating to the black market perhaps) are taking place about this time: exact dates are not currently known, but W. A. Cruickshank was arrested in early January and Gerald Leiper and R. A. Camidge and will be taken some time in the coming month. All three were employees of the Chartered Bank, and it's probable that Hugo Eric Foy of the HSBC was also arrested in this period.

All four men had been kept uninterned at the Sun Wah Hotel to assist in the liquidation of their banks. Foy had been active in raising illegal funds for relief work in Stanley and elsewhere, but the reason for his arrest is not known. It can't have been the same as the others, as they were taken for actions at the Chartered Bank: burning unissued notes during the hostilities to stop them falling into Japanese hands and the keeping of a secret set of accounts of their Bank's activities during the period of liquidation (which ended in the summer of 1943). 

Andrew Leiper describes the effect Cruickshank's arrest (using pseudonyms):

One afternoon early in January 1944 I returned to the bungalow ((E)) from a lecture on astronomy and was brought back to earth very suddenly when I was met at the door by 'Towkay' King ((of the HKSBC)) who tensely blurted out, without preamble, 'Andy, Okamura ((pseudonym for camp official)) has just called and has told me that Walker is under arrest...That night Walker's empty camp-bed stood like a silent threat, more especially to Clarkson ((Camidge)) and myself.

They were right to be worried:

About a month later Helen and I were eating the midday meal in our little room when there was a knock at the door. 'Oh, good,' I said to her, 'that's probably a bit extra on the ration.'

When I opened the door 'Towkay' King was indeed standing there, but there was no sign of the extra spoonful of stew I had been hoping for. Instead he signalled me to come outside.'Andy, Okamura is here and he wants Clarkson and you.'

With the numbing feeling that I was watching someone else acting a part, I told Helen. She rose immediately, picked up a small bundle and said, 'I've prayed that this would not happen. Here's the suit Wong ((a former servant)) gave you back, and some other clothes. I've had them ready.'

My only other recollection of that incident is kissing a sobbing wife goodbye and saying, 'Now don't worry, I'll be back soon.'

The three men are interrogated, tried, sentenced and sent to Stanley Prison. Cruickshank and Camidge get ten years, Leiper eight. They are moved in the last months of the war to Canton. All three survive, Camidge and Cruickshank only just..

Sources:

Walker/Cruickshank: http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/stanley_camp/conversations/messages/1812

Description of the arrests: Gerald Leiper, A Yen for my Thoughts, 1983, 190-191

Sentences: Leiper, 205

To Mrs. Clarke, a son.