Cleveland Elroy John CHANGYIT [????-1943] | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

Cleveland Elroy John CHANGYIT [????-1943]

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Submitted by David on Sat, 2015-03-14 10:52
Names
Given: 
Cleveland Elroy John
Family: 
Changyit
Sex: 
Male
Status: 
Deceased
Death
Date: 
1943-10-29
Cause of death: 
Executed by the Japanese
Tags: 
BAAG
Police reserve
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Submitted by emride on Thu, 2017-03-23 18:23.

CHANG YIT, CLEVELAND ELROY JOHN

BAAG Roll of Honour.

Statement by Mrs. Changyit (nee Remedios Bautista) 13.10 45: 

I was married to Cleveland Elroy John Changyit on 21. Jan 42.

Before and during the HK hostilities my husband was an Inspector in the HK Police Reserve force.  After the hostilities my husband became an espionage agent for the British.  He was a group leader.  He was working in collaboration with Mr. David Loie, ASP, HK Police Reserve.

On June 17 43 at 9.15 pm my husband was arrested at the Metropole Hotel.  The persons responsible for my husband’s arrest were a Japanese and two Chinese detectives.  I do not know their names.

At the time of my husband’s arrest, the Japanese asked me for photographs of David Loie and Lee Man Tak (i.e. Edward Joseph Lee, a sergeant in the Police Reserves and had opened the Greater Shanghai Cafe with my husband prewar).  They also asked me whether I knew them or not.  They thoroughly searched the room at Metropole (where we were living) but nothing was found.

After my husband’s arrest I was able to send him food at Stanley.  On 6/7 October 1943 I was unable to send any parcels to him.

In Jan. 44 I received attached chit from the Japanese.  I did not know what it meant and when I asked the Metropole manager Mr. Wong, he just told me that my husband was sentenced to imprison­ment and that I would not be able to send parcels to him.  Mr. Wong told me not to worry.

After my husband’s arrest I was not molested.  One day about a little over a year after my husband’s arrest, the “boys” of the Metropole told me that a Jap (probably a Gendarme) jokingly said that he had executed my husband.  The “boys” said the Jap name was (characters).

After the surrender, Mrs. Wong, the wife of the manager of the Metropole, told me that my husband was dead.  She explained that the letter from the Japanese was actually the official notice of my husband’s execution and that she did not wish to tell that to me until after the surrender of the Japanese.

Changyit was executed by the Japanese on 29th October 1943.