70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

The above mentioned petition ((see his previous diary entry on 30 Sep)) has aroused quite a storm in the camp and has evoked quite a sharp reply from the C.S. There are many people who did not sign it and their hinted inference (and I regret, the inference of the C.S. too) is that the petitioners here, “Can’t take it”, and that all we are worrying about is getting out of here with whole skins as fast as we can so that we can reach a safer place and live in comparative comfort again.

The C.S. started his reply by assuring petitioners that the American Red Cross, the Canadians (Col Doughty, who went with the Diplomats), Sir Arthur Blackburn (the British Consul from Peking, or some such place, who was with his wife, caught here at the outbreak of war; all these and others had instructions fully to acquaint the Home Government with the state of affairs here: that it might gravely embarrass the British Government at this moment to receive appeals from this Colony for the repatriation of civilians: that it was impossible for him to make direct contact with the Home Govt and he had already done all he could to put the facts before the House and he must now wait for them to take action as they, naturally, were in possession of the facts in all theatres of the war while we are almost completely in the dark. He also made the statement, based on the supposition that Britain and Japan might be negotiating for an exchange of prisoners or internees, that should the knowledge of such a petition reach the ears of the Japanese authorities, it might enable them, quite conceivably, to demand better terms for their side of the exchange. So far so good.  All this was reassuring: petitioners received the answer they had asked for, that so far as was possible in the circumstances, all details of conditions here and their likely effects had been placed before the Home Government;  and I am certain that none of us had any intention of embarrassing the Home Government in any way.

But the C.S. then proceeded to administer a severe and, in my opinion, quite unjustified rebuke by saying that all petitioners, by their actions, laid themselves open to the charge of dis-loyalty to their country by endeavouring to push forward their own case to the prejudice, perhaps, of other more vital factors affecting the national war effort. What the Hon. C.S. and the anti petitioners seemed to overlook is the fact that many of the signatories of the petition were motivated by the intensely loyal and patriotic impulse to get away from here where we are completely useless and get to a place where, far from saving our skins we may considerably endanger them by joining up, in the case of many of the men, and by doing essential war work by the women and many of the others.

It seemed a sensible petition to me: if we can be got away from this place, where we are useless to our countries’ war effort and where we might start dying off like flies (at any moment!), so much the better: if we can’t, well we see it through as best we can and keep our chins up. And that’s all we could see in it - no need for base insinuations.

Today is Mr Lammert’s birthday: he is 63. Poor man, he does not yet know that his son Ernest, who was in the HK Volunteers, and whose name is not on the lists of any of the Prisoners of War camps, has in fact been killed. Elsie and Isa know that he is probably dead but even they still entertain the hope that he is alive. Harold, however, has received definite news of his death. Apparently he did or said something to a Japanese officer which was considered by that individual, to be an insult (as it might have been according to Japanese custom but not to ours). At all events, he was apprehended and given a certain length of time in which to apologise. This, apparently, he refused to do and was executed then and there with a sword. Perhaps he was foolhardy, there is no doubt he was extremely brave and he must have felt his honour or chivalry involved if he was prepared to give his life in that way. This all happened a week or so after the surrender. Ernest was 26. (In fact new evidence suggests that his execution occurred on 19th December, when he was captured, as the Japanese advanced through Causeway Bay.)

I poisoned my thumb the other day by quite an insignificant little scratch. However, the poison began to inflame my arm and Billy Hackett dressed it and gave me a dose of Strepticide pills (11 of them over a period of 12 hours). They have made me feel rather low for the past few days but they certainly prevented the poison spreading any further and my thumb is nearly better again now.

One highly novel and, I hope, never to be repeated discovery that we made today was that we had bed bugs in our beds! Sanitary Inspector Purves (the vermin expert!) came along at our request to inspect our beds, because during the last few nights both the Fortescues and Y and I had been bitten by some mysterious creature. An inspection of our bed frame disclosed the presence of the horrid bugs living in the cracks and joints of the frame. Fortunately there were none in our mintoi. The Fortescues had a mattress from the Mee Chow Hotel that someone had given them a month or two ago. This, I think has been the source of infection, for these Chinese hotels are extremely verminous and the other furniture in our room had all come from rooms and flats previously occupied by Europeans and was, I therefore think, quite free from such horrific pests. At all events, the Fortescues mattress had several enormous bugs in its seams and creases and there were scores of eggs round the edge. Their bed frame will be full of them as well. The Bidwell’s and Isa seem to have escaped. Well, tomorrow we are going to have a field day.The bed frames have to be completely dismantled and taken to bits, scrubbed with soap and have boiling water poured over them and into all cracks.