8 Oct 1942, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp

Two Canadian missionaries who have been effectively confined to a flat in Kowloon's Taam Kung Road since the surrender are finally allowed some freedom of movement.

Harold Fetherstonhaugh Collier and his wife Frances Dorothy Collier missed internment in January by chance - a letter they sent to the Japanese authorities asking to be transported to the Island to join those destined for Stanley was not delivered. They stayed in Kowloon, keeping a low profile and being fed from a ration card arranged by a sympathetic Chinese functionary (who'd grown up in Trinidad) and with the general help of a Chinese Christian, Jimmy. In June they were discovered by the Kempeitai, who believed at first Mr. Collier was an escaper from Shamshuipo; after questioning at the Kowloon Gendarmerie, they were allowed to go, but told they would be shot if they left home. In September a Norwegian missionary sent them food and told them about Dr. Selwyn-Clarke. They made contact and Miss L. - almost certainly Dorothy Lee - was sent to assess their situation. In early October they went to the doctor's office, first meeting his assistant (almost certainly Frank Angus) and then the 'kind and solicitous' doctor himself; through him put in an application for a pass.

The passes arrive today and each contains the information that the bearer is 'an enemy (but) of good behaviour and therefore permitted to go about on the streets'.

Source:

F. D. and H. F. Collier, Covered Up in Kowloon, 1947:

undelivered letter: 43

ration card: 44

Kempeitai: 47-49

Selwyn-Clarke: 67-70

Note:

The Colliers are eventually given permission to move to a flat in Homuntin. They are late to register their names with the Swiss Consul for the September 1943 Canadian repatriation, and told that there are no places for them. Nevertheless, after a chance meeting with an Austrian friend of the Colliers, the Consul decides to add them after all, and they duly sail home.