21 Aug 1941, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp

At 3 p.m. Captain C. C. A. Hobbs is found by his wife dead at their  home in May Road with a bullet wound in his head and a revolver clutched in his right hand.

Captain Hobbs was an architect seconded to the Government Air Raid Precaution Department and earlier today he'd given evidence to the Commission appointed by the Governor to look into allegations of corruption in the Architectural Branch of the ARP.

He'd given evidence for one hour in the morning and been instructed to re-appear at 3 p.m. with 'certain documents'.

Source:

Hong Kong Telegraph, August 25, 1941, page 3

Note:

Today's dramatic events had an impact on Stanley Camp. Whatever, the truth of the matter, many people now believed that allegations of corruption in the construction of Hong Kong's air raid system were proved, so the Government's reputation - shaken by the way some wives of important people had dodged the 1940 evacuation to Australia - suffered a further blow.

What was perceived as the Colony's swift defeat in war, compounded by the apparent promise of rescue by a Chinese army that was in fact nowhere near close enough to influence events, completed the job of discrediting the authorities. This meant that when Franklin Gimson arrived in Stanley in March 1942 he found a camp in mutiny against the old Government and had to work long and hard to assert his authority, and even then was forced to share what power there was with elected representatives. Gimson arrived to take up his appointment as Colonial Secretary the day before the Japanese attack - perhaps on the day itself - and had no role in military decisions, so he was reponsible for none of the things that led to what has been called the 'revolutionary' mood in the camp in its first few months, but this made little difference.

The truth about the ARP allegations will never be known, as the presiding Judge, P. E. F. Cressall, died in Stanley and the draft report he had with him was never found. Historian Tony Banham and Barbara Anslow (who worked for the ARP Department of the time) have both cast doubt on the widespread perception that everyone was guilty as rumoured - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stanley_camp/message/1202

However, G. B. Endacott states that the evidence of inefficiency and graft that the commission uncovered was clear enough, and 1941 also saw a worrying report into the operations of the Immigration Department, so there does seem to have been some weight behind doubts about the operation of the pre-war Governmental machine, however unfair it was that Gimson should have to bear the brunt of this disillusion. (G. B. Endacott and Alan Birch, Hong Kong Eclipse, 1978, 51-52; 13-14)