26 Feb 1941, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp

David MacDougall gives a lunch party  for Ernest Hemingway, who he describes as 'the simplest most direct human being I've met' and as 'the best drinker I've ever seen'. The object of the lunch is 'to put Hemingway wise to the China situation' before he goes to China and, MacDougall believes, will be entertained at 'official banquets and revelries' in an attempt to divert him from the truth.

Hemingway was later to become godfather to his second daughter, Sheena.

Also present were Agnes Smedley, a left-wing journalist and supporter of China in its war with Japan, American writer Emily Hahn, and two Chinese he can't name for security reasons - one is a very high 'undercover' politician from Chungking and the other 'the ablest Marxist analyst in China'.

Source:

Letter from MacDougall to his wife Catherine, MacDougall Papers, Oxford