17 Dec 1941, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp

Edith Hamson and her family, with others at the Kowloon Hospital, are ordered to gather in the hallway. They are told they are to be sent to the YMCA. As they listen to the guard, an unknown man slips a note from her husband Arthur into her hand. Later in the day the prisoners gather in small groups waiting to be taken to their new internment facility; a young doctor passes Mrs. Hamson another note.

The Hamsons cram into the back of a lorry - there are about 30 people there in all. They drive through a Kowloon with rubble strewing the streets, buildings covered in grey dust and Japanese flags hanging from every pole. The streets are deserted apart from the corpses. They are taken to the YMCA, where they are shown to a filthy dormitory with few amenities - but at least they have a small bunk bed each.

On the Island the day begins with the heaviest raid on Victoria/Central so far. The planes concentrate on the crowded Chinese districts, and as they leave the artillery opens up.

During a lull in the bombing, the Japanese send another peace mission,.They warn that if the terms are rejected the bombardment of Victoria will become more intensive and less discriminating. Sir Mark Young, acting on instructions from London which tell him that every day Hong Kong holds out will be of great value to the Allied war effort, declines to surrender and tells the Japanese 'he is not prepared to receive any further communication on the subject.'

Hong Kong’s off the Daily Mirror’s front page for today, but on page 2 the columnist William Connor (‘Cassandra’) finally comes up with a piece of uplift that’s totally realistic and, as you would expect from his nom de plume, prophetic:

Big Things

BIG things have happened since the first of the month. Big husky events as bold and as tough as the fall of France.

But whether the news is labelled Tokio, Borneo, Singapore, Guam, Oahu, Manila or Hong Kong—it is all secondary to what has taken place in Russia.

There, the greatest war machine of all time has stopped.

And Hitler didn’t put the brake on either.

Sources:

Hamsons: Allana Corbin, Prisoners of the East, 2002, 94-97

Bombing, shelling, peace mission: John Luff, The Hidden Years, 1967, 64-66