02 Jan 1942, Colin McEwan Diary

About 10 in the morning we got away for Sun Hui. At the top of the pass we were held up by the military and there seemed some doubt as to our guerrilla friends. Reaching Sun Hui things seemed still more mysterious as instead of staying in the village, we camped about a quarter of a mile out and from all appearances were settled there for the day. Admittedly it was pleasant in the sun, but there was such an air of indecision that despite assertion of our friend the “Wolf” that “I’ll look after you” we had (to?) fix him to a definite statement and only then learned that the guerrilla leader had been recalled. Time was wearing on and since this was our first lesson in patience we were still rather untrained in the art. To force the issue we went back to the Army outpost only to meet the leader coming back.

About 5 o’clock we did move and moved fast leaving the Tamshui road for the moors just on dusk. The general atmosphere was not encouraging. First of all we lost our way, the party, by this time some hundred strong including some women, were using torches freely and holding frequent arguments re the correct route. Frequent halts occurred for no apparent reason – it was a miserably cold night – Tai’s feet were going and all in all tempers were being rather frayed. Luckily we got across without mishap, reached Tong Po about midnight and I, for one, did not wait for food but hit the hay – in this case, literally.