Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp: View pages

The banker Charles Hyde is arrested for his role in a plot to help Captain Mateen Ansari escape from Ma Tau-chung Camp. The plot has been infiltrated by Japanese intelligence - in fact, it might have been instigated by them - and a letter written by Hyde with regard to the plan falls into the hands of a pro-Japanese Indian.

Hyde's wide-ranging resistance work included raising money to buy supplies for the camps, smuggling medical drugs into Stanley, organising escapes and sending military intelligence to the British Army Aid Group.

Source:

Ride Papers, 10/37/10 (kindly supplied by Elizabeth Ride)

Note:

This is the most plausible of a number of dates given for Hyde's arrest. Others are April 30, May 3, 'some time in April', 'May' and 'early May'. An undated entry in Harry Ching's diary suggests that Hyde's involvement in plots to free Captain Ansari was known at an early stage in the arrest process:

http://gwulo.com/node/15319

Hyde's detention was reported, along with that of Selwyn-Clarke and Bunje, in a report that reached the British Army Aid Group on May 3.

For more details of Hyde's resistance work, see

http://brianedgar.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/charles-hydes-resistance-work/

The Ride Papers are held at the Hong Kong Heritage Project:

https://www.hongkongheritage.org/html/eng/index.html

Dr. Harry Talbot, caught smuggling money into Stanley in early February but later released back into Camp, is re-arrested and sent to join Grayburn and Streatfield in Stanley Prison.

Source:

Frank H. H. King, The History of the Honkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Volume 111, 627

Extract from a letter with today's date from Stanley Camp. The name of the sender is not given. [Later identified as R G Ward]

I have been head baker for about 800 people for just over a year. Our food is as what we can expect, and we collect it in billy-cans. We all received a fine food parcel from the Red Cross and also a sum of money, which went into food and clothes for us. We are extremely lucky to have a small room to ourselves. Camp work is done by those who are fit, that is cooking, sanitation and general.

A layout of things made in camp was held; some articles were vey well made - most of the tools had to be made first.

I miss my radio but we have a Hong Kong paper that gives us news of outside. Douglas gets soya milk from a baby clinic and Francis gets schooling; There are about a dozen doctors, hospital, dental clinic, cemetery and jail in camp and a Social Hall, so we want for little. We even get cigarettes issued for cash.

Source:

The Prisoner of War - Special Monthly Edition, April 1944

There are more arrests in the wake of yesterday's taking of Selwyn-Clarke. Many of Selwyn-Clarke's Chinese and Eurasian associates are arrested around this time, but in most cases the exact details are not known.

The British citizens living at the French Hospital and not under arrest are summoned to the Foreign Affairs Department and told they are to enter Stanley on May 6. (They end up going on May 7.)

Sources:

Arrests: Ride Papers, NA, NA/343/1/72, sheet 4.

British citizens: Ride Papers, Waichow Intelligence Summary 30

(both kindly supplied by Elizabeth Ride)

Note:

For a discussion of these reports and their interpretation see

http://brianedgar.wordpress.com/2012/08/19/the-french-hospital-arrests-a-synthesis-of-sources/

The Ride Papers are held at the Hong Kong Heritage Project:

https://www.hongkongheritage.org/html/eng/index.html

In January 1943 the Senate of Hong Kong University had decided to hold matriculation examinations in approved subjects. These exams begin today.

Source:

Lindsay Ride, in Clifford Matthews and Oswald Cheung (eds.), Hong Kong University During The War Years: Dispersal and Renewal, 1998, 18.

18 people (and one child and one baby), the main body of those living at the French Hospital, are sent into Stanley today, arriving  at 2 p. m. They are assigned to Bungalow D. ((R. E. Jones records 5 more arriving on May 19.)).

The new arrivals include Hilda Selwyn-Clarke and her daughter Mary. They move into D6, a tiny amah's room, with their friend Margaret Watson, who's been in Stanley from the start (it was Watson who was Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke's main informant as to the needs of the Camp in its early period).

Thomas and Evelina Edgar are in Room D1. Thomas is able to take advantage of a scheme described by George Gerrard and immediately sends home a letter pre-dated to April 30 announcing his arrival in Camp - internees who do this will be allowed to send home another card at the end of May. It is the first time his parents, brothers and sisters have heard directly from him since the start of the war, as none of his previous cards arrived.

Another couple who take advantage of the pre-dating scheme is Mr. E. Gelling and his wife, who write to their daughter in Barrow-on-Furness:

Daddy is secretary in the Camp Hospital,  is also a keen gardener, studying Chinese language and now has joined a mixed choir. I spend my time cooking, mending and doing other chores in the room where Camerons and two friends live. We keep fairly well but weights could be improved.

Mrs. Cameron passed away in March, after an operation. It was a terrific shock. Moira is well looked after by her Auntie and Daddy.

Love to all, Dearest love to you.

MUMMY AND DADDY

Of  course, 'gardener' has a special meaning in Stanley Camp - a cultivator of a vegetable patch for extra food.

A third 'April 30' message goes back to Chesterfield in Derbyshire from Frederick Ivan Hall. It gives them an important update: they know he's engaged to Phyllis Bliss, the daughter of a retired army officer, who's he met in camp, but he now tells them they're married. 

It will be the last message they receive ever from their son.

Note:

Gerrard describes the 'misdating' plan, which enables another letter to be sent out in late May, towards the end of his weekly 'retrospective' entry on May 8, which probably means it began to be put into effect May 6/7/8.

Sources:

http://brianedgar.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/note-on-date-of-arrival-in-stanley-and-images-of-places-of-internment/

Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke, Footprints, 1975, 73, 92

Imperial War Museum, Private Papers Mrs. E. Gelling, Documents 9610

Hall: Derbyshire Times and Chesterfield Herald, 14 September 1945, 5

Bird's Eye View:

Who Came In Today?

Ten names (marked *) are provided by an internee diary; the same diary lists those who came in on May 19 (see that day's entry). I've added the names of those recorded by the Red Cross delegate Rudolf Zindel and conveyed to Geneva on May 10.

Most of these people went to live in Bungalow 'D'; I've recorded the room number where I know it (thanks to Philip Cracknell.)

Hilda Selwyn-Clarke* (D6)

Mary Selwyn-Clarke (D6)

Thomas Edgar (D1)

Evelina Edgar (D1)

James Pickburn Hammond (D7)

Serge Peacock (D9)

John Fox (D1)

Barbara Bridget Fox (D1)

John George Hooper

E.dward  Charles Kerrison*

Edward Frank Warburton*

Leslie William Robert Macey* (D3)

Dr. John Beveridge Mackie*

Molly Churn* (later Mrs. Mackie)

Ian Mackie (aged 6 months)

Dr. Philip Francis Shelsey Court*

Dr. Murdo Nicholson*

Dr. George Graham-Cumming*

Frank  David Angus*

Owen Evans

The Red Cross document describes John Fox as 'Assistant Malariologist', so presumably he was helping Dr. Mackie. Edward Kerrison is described as 'Officer in charge of Sea Transport' - probably because he had been forced to help collect the corpses of those the Japanese packed on to boats and murdered.

This makes twenty people, not the 18 given in the diaries: but that's easily explained by the assumption that people = adults!

The International Red Cross Delegate in Hong Kong visited Stanley Camp on 13 May 1943. He reports the opening of the bathing beach with large attendances. He further reports that the composition of rations has recently improved. The authorities are giving sympathetic consideration to this problem and there is, therefore, no immediate cause for anxiety.

Source:

The Prisoner of War, July 1943

Lady Mary Grayburn, Mr. and Mrs Compton, Mrs Eva Pearce, Mrs Eileen Hyde and her son Michael (4) are sent to Stanley from the Sun Wah or the French Hospital. They are all billetted in Bungalow D.

Source:

David Tett, Captives of Cathay, 2007, 297

Note:

According to Emily Hahn (China To Me, 1986 ed., 390) this was a voluntary move consequent on her husband's arrest:

Lady Grayburn went out at once to Stanley, at her own request. From there she pelted the Foreign Affairs people with letters, her own and the Colonial Secretary's.

However, Sir Vandeleur was arrested on March 17 (see that day's entry) and the two month gap casts doubt on Hahn's account, although I don't doubt the frequent letters (the Colonial Secretary was Franklin Gimson).

The Canberra Times picks up a report on conditions in Stanley:

Conditions In War Prison Camp At Hongkong

LONDON, Monday.

 The "Daily Mail'' has published details of the Stanley prison camp, Hongkong, which were given by Sir Arthur Blackburn, the former British Counsellor at Chungking, who has been repatriated.  

Stanley camp contains 3,000 prisoners, including 2,600 British. The rest are American and Dutch. It has its own court. Sir Athol((l)) MacGregor,   Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, who was among the leading officials in Hongkong interned, presides over the High Court. He hears civil cases and has made a decree nisi in divorce proceedings.

Magistrates preside over the camp police courts, which pass sentences for theft. The clergy hold services and solemnise weddings. There is a school and a hospital, and cooking teams provide hot meals twice a day.

Labour parties do wood-cutting, building, scavenging and road repairs and distribute food.        

Over-crowding and shortage of food were the first big problems. Nine persons, including Sir Athol(l) MacGregor and his wife, shared one large room. Food rations were increased to   seven ounces of rice, seven ounces of   bread and a few ounces of meat a day. Sugar allowance was one and a half ounces a week.  

Whenever Japanese officers visited the camp the internees were expected to bow. There had been several cases of men and women having their faces slapped because their attitude was considered disrespectful.