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

The Maryknoll Fathers continue to clean up their house which has been left in a dreadful state both inside and outside.  Their Ford V-8 is still there though: the Japanese tried to start it, but 'someone had previously subtracted an essential mechanism'.

Vice-Chancellor Duncan Sloss and the Deans of Hong Kong University hold a secret Senate meeting on the campus, which Sloss has arranged with the Japanese is a temporary internment camp. Fourteen medical students who were taking their finals at the time of the attack are granted war-time degrees - they'll be awarded at another secret ceremony behind Eliot Hall tomorrow.

A later meeting of the Senate will approve war-time degrees for all final year students. Some degrees will also be granted posthumously to those who died in the defence, for example to engineering student Z. Kossakowski who was killed in a flame-thrower attack during the heavy Christmas Day fighting at Stanley.

Sources:

Maryknoll: The Maryknoll Diary, December 31, 1941

University: Peter Cunich, A History of the University of Hong Kong, Volume 1, 2012, 404, 400