05 Jul 1944, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp
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Mrs. Lily ('Ma') Flaherty is detained at the Japanese headquarters for black market activity.
Her room is raided by the gendarmes, who find a rich haul of rings, brooches, gold articles, money and I.O.U.s.
Sources:
Date of arrest: Gimson Diary, Weston House, Oxford, p. 85 (recto) (the Stanley Camp Roll, IWM gives July 12 but Gimson seems to have been updating his diary faily at this point)
Other details: George Wright-Nooth, Prisoner of the Turnip Heads, 1994, 216
Note:
Wright-Nooth's account states that Mrs. Flaherty was arrested within two weeks of her husband's death (June 22, 1944) because Yamashita, about to be replaced by a military commandant (which Wright-Nooth says happened on August 1) decides to act to curtail the syndicate run by his Japanese rival, a sergeant-major with whom Mrs. Flaherty was working. Wright-Nooth adds that before going to prison she entrusts her hen to Dr. Talbot, and, when she emerges three months later, demands it back, resulting in a Camp Tribunal hearing which leads to the revelation that the hen has been eaten. This Tribunal ended on May 3, 1945, which is a suprisingly long time after her release on December 12 (Camp Roll).
On the next page (217) Wright-Nooth claims she returned to her black marketeering after the Tribunal, and was arrested alongside another black marketeer for possession of 80 lbs of egg yoke in 'early June, 1944'. I think this is a misprint for '1945'. R. E. Jones notes on June 7, 1945 that Mrs. Flaherty was hospitalised as a result of her severe beating during interrogation, something which Wright-Nooth also mentions. She wasn't actually imprisoned on this occasion as this would have been recorded in the Camp Roll, which was updated until late August 1945.
