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

Death of Thomas Donaldson, aged 72.

Rudolf Zindel makes his monthly visit to Stanley, interviewing 49 internees. In an optimistic (and ultimately pointless) move, Franklin Gimson has got permission to entrust the Red Cross with such personal documents as cannot be taken out of Hong Kong by those selected for repatriation.

Zindel also notes that in October he'd not paid the British their usual monthly allowance but instead focused on providing Stanley with nutritious foods: soya beans, wheat, bran, peanuts, lard and so on. The 13 remaining Americans, however, were given the usual M. Y, 25 'pocket money'.

Canadian repatriate Eileen Medley writes  to the brother of Australian Phyllis Joan Findlay, still in Stanley:

Motorship Gripsholm

October 22nd 1943

Dear Mr. Findlay,

Just a note to tell you Joan is in good spirits and as well as internment conditions permit. Like most of us she has lost a great deal of weight. The Australians in camp have been trying very hard to get a message out to their Government for food or repatriation - without much success - So if you have any influence use it to the utmost.

I sincerely hope by the time we reach home we'll hear something definite concerning the release of the civilians in Hong Kong, but if I can give you any information at all, please do not hesitate to write....

Note:

H. W. Findlay, a resident of Newcastle, NSW, sent a copy of the letter to D. Watkins, his M.P. On January 25, 1944, a copy was sent to the Australian P. M. J. Curtin with a request for 'information'. An acknowldegement was sent to Mr. Watkins on January 27 and forwarded to H. W. Findlay.

This wasn't the first time Mr. Findlay had been active on his sister's behalf. An interdepartmental memo of January 21, 1944 suggests a reply to him pointing out that the Australian Government has done all it can to improve the conditions of its POWs and civilian internees, that negotiations for an exchange were in progress, and that his sister's name had been cabled to London for inclusion in any such arrangement. Such a reply was sent on January 24. A memo of February 2 states he'd also written directly to the Prime Minister.

The negotiations for repatriation fell through probably because most of the Japanese nationals in Australian custody had knowledge that would have been useful in the event of an attempted Japanese invasion - some sources say they were deep sea divers who knew the coastal areas well.

Note:

The name seems to be written 'Joan' and 'Jean' at different points in the correspondence.

Sources:

Donaldson: Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, Appendix 111

Zindel: General Letter No. 98/43, 16 November 1943 in Archives of the International Red Cross, BG017 07-066

Findlay: Digitalised Papers of P. M. Curtis in Australian National Archive

Thirty three people are executed on Stanley Beach soon after 2 p.m. All have been involved in one way or another with resistance activities organised by the British Army Aid Group.

The Stanley internees among that number are:

Frederick William Bradley

John Fraser

Frederick Ivan Hall

Stanley Rees

Walter Scott

Douglas Waterton

The condemned are taken out of solitary confinement and assembled inside Stanley Prison. They are refused a visit from a priest, but are allowed five minutes together to compose themselves Captain Mateen Ansari gives an impromptu talk:

We will die strong and healthy for an ideal; not as traitors but nobly in our country's cause. 

Wong Shiu Pun, who had worked at St. Paul's College, leads prayers. Then it's time to go.

As well as the six men arrested in Stanley, there is at least one other whose fate is of deep personal concern: the wife (Florence) and son (Michael) of Charles Hyde are living in Bungalow D. And Thomas Monaghan, who sent in relief to Irish policemen and smuggled in medicines for Tweed Bay Hospital, is also in the execution party.

Former Camp Quartermaster W. J. Anderson has heard the rumours about impending execution that swept the prison in the morning and has managed to get himself on gardening duty so as to witness the condemned starting on their final journey.

The van sets off on the short drive to Stanley Beach soon after 2 pm.

Chester Bennett was briefly interned in Stanley before being released to buy extra food for the Camp. War reporter Hal Boyle tells the story from Bennett's perspective, starting with the American's last moments in his cell:

He gave the note ((a final message to his wife)) to a friendly guard and soon it was time to go. The crowded black van pulled out from the steel gates of Stanley Prison and moved slowly down the rough, narrow road leading to the small bay where British redcoats had planted the empire flag more than a hundred years before.

As the van passed a number of internees toiling up the slope someone put his face up to the rear wire grill and called out: "Goodbye boys. We shan't be seeing you again." ((Believed to be Scott or Fraser.))

At the bottom of the hill the prisoners were forced to dismount and follow a trail winding around the edge of the bay. It must have been torture at every step to Chester Bennett. Rope burns on his left leg had become badly infected, the leg had become gangrenous and needed amputation. But he walked upright and limped only slightly. To all outward appearances he was utterly calm. The prisoners marched in single file to a small clearing. Ringing the hills around them were scores of Chinese gravestones. Before them in the center of the clearing the prisoners saw two trenches dug by Indian warders and knew how they were to die.

The beheadings begin, but the executioner tires and the swords lose their sharpness: some of the victims have to be finished off with bullets - Anderson hears these shots from the prison garden, as do some internees, leading to the idea that the prisoners have all been executed by firing squad.

Anne Ozorio describes the unflinching demeanour of Wong Shiu Pun, who does his best to pray with and comfort the victims, as these dreadful events play themselves out:

By the time it came to him the swords were blunt. But he kept praying.

There were 33 victims in total: seventeen Chinese, eight British, four Indians, one Canadian, one American, one Portuguese, one Eurasian. 32 were male; Lau Tak Oi, the wife of resistance leader David Loie, was the only woman.

Rumours fly around the Camp, but official confirmation of the deaths is not given until November 2.

Dorothy Jenner is lying in her cot; she believes she sees Walter Scott appear in the doorway and say, 'I'll see you again'. A quarter of an hour later a friend tells her that Scott has been executed and gives  her, at Scott's request, a small parcel containing his police uniform, badge and arm-tags.

Sources:

Ansari's talk, Wong Shiu Pun: George Wright-Nooth, Prisoner of the Turnip Heads, 1994, 186.

Anderson: rumours and garden: Deposition, page 24, points 211-213, shots: 215; some of Wright-Nooth's account is based on points 212-215 of this (HK Public Records Office 163-1-104) and Hal Boyle's account (below) are the most reliable near contemporary sources for the executions;

Hal Boyle: https://brianedgar.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/part-4-of-hal-boyles-series-...(Boyle's source was Bennett's friend and fellow BAAG agent Marcus da Silva, who made it his business to find out what happened; Anderson and da Silva give substantially the same description and I believe all other accounts to be inaccurate. Some details are different though, and there are, for example, a number of possible versions of the exact wording and circumstances of the farewell message from the van).

Anne Ozorio: https://www.facebook.com/groups/308617469269780/

33 victims: this is the best estimate of nationalities and ethnicities I have been able to arrive at so far. I suspect that it underestimates the number of Eurasians who gave their lives; for a list of names see http://brianedgar.wordpress.com/2013/07/17/the-executions-of-october-29-1943-update/

Jenner: Dorothy Jenner and Trish Sheppard, Darlings, I've Had A Ball, 1975, 214

Note:

I'm gradually writing posts on my blog about all of the 33 victims. For some of the people mentioned here see:

http://brianedgar.wordpress.com/2012/03/31/alexander-christie-sinton/

http://brianedgar.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/thomas-christopher-monaghans-resistance-work/

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

http://brianedgar.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/chester-bennett-the-american-hero-of-hong-kong/

http://brianedgar.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/lau-tak-oi-gladys-loie/

A talk by Miss P. A. Ayrton does NOT take place. It was to be called 'Confessions of A Militant Suffragette' but was banned by the Japanese authorities perhaps because of the word 'militant'.

Leslie Steyn reports from Port Elizabeth, South Africa, giving brief statements form some of the Gripsholm repatriates.

Emily Hahn says the Japanese are bad winners and worse losers, while Dr. Jim Henry, formerly of Lignan University and Hong Kong, says that the Chinese are dying like flies from starvation in the streets of Canton. Canadian F. F. Sullivan states that the prison camp in Hong Kong is 'the worst in the Far East'.

Steward Carl Morgan reveals that the passengers were never served rice and fish on the voyage as that was what they'd been living on for the previous two years.

Source:

Poster in M. L.Bevan's Album, Imperial War Museum 69/6/1

The Lowell Sun, November 4, 1943, page 13

Franklin Gimson notes in his diary that Lady Grayburn seems to have recovered her mental balance and can now see things more impartially.

Gimson also prepares a notice with today's date outlining arrangements for a hoped for repatriation of some of the aged, the sick, the young, the mothers of the young - and even of the women.

A committee including Ben Wylie,  J. Jolly and Doctors Ashton and Valentine will serve under him to select the lucky internees to be sent home in a prisoner swap - but in the end all hopes but will be dashed,

Source:

Franklin Gimson, Internment in Hong-Kong March 1942- August 1945, 21b

Note 1:

Vandeleur Grayburn died on August 21, 1943. Lady Mary was not called to the prison next door to see him at any stage in his last illness. Gimson seems surprised that she reacted strinly to her husband's death.

Note 2:

There's a typescript of Gimson's notice in the Red Cross Archives with 'Stanley, 12th. November, 1943'  unambiguously typed at the bottom - but R. E. Jones knew all this on November 2!

Dr. Harry Talbot is admitted to the hospital at Stanley Prison by an arrangment with the warder Kader Bux, probably to treat the banker David Edmondston, who he finds in poor physical condition made worse by anxiety. He has a large carbuncle on his neck which Talbot treats over the next two weeks, leaving it much cleaner. 

Source:

Harry Talbot, Medical Report on David Edmondston, in HKMS163-1-104

Note: Kader Bux was an Indian warder who conistently tried to help the Allied prisoners. The details are not clear from Talbot's account, but Mr Bux seems to have somehow managed - no doubt at considerable risk to himself -  to get Talbot into the prison hospital either on a day to day basis or for the whole fortnight. The doctor had been in the prison himself, but at this time had served his sentence and was back in Stanley Camp.

Death of Thomas Victor Harmon, a 46 year old civil servant. He is survived by his wife, Mary (39), a pharmacist, who is also interned. Before being sent to Stanley he'd been held at Hong Kong University - presumably as a 'refugee', perhaps because he'd joined Mary, who was working at the University Relief Hospital.

Source:

http://www.hongkongwardiary.com/searchgarrison/nonuniformedcivilians.html#_Toc43367489

Red Cross delegate Rudolf Zindel visits Stanley, spending all day in the camp and interviewing 59 internees. He notes the beneficial effects of the extra foods supplied by his office - these include soya beans, peanuts, bran and lard. 

He reports a full discussion with Franklin Gimson on 'several current subjects concerning the internees'.

Source:

LAC, RG25 Volume 2929, Telegram from the International Committee of the Red Cross, received December 8, 1943

Death this morning of Hong Kong tramways engineer George Sinclair Rodger(s). He'd been held in the New Asia Hotel before being sent to Stanley.

It seems that there rumours about his death will soon begin to circulate; on December 26 a notice will be issued by John Stericker saying that an enquiry has completely vindicated Tweed Bay Hospital. The enquiry was carried out by Edward Raymond, John Fleming and J. D. Danby. They find that he died of acute Nephritis with beri beri and myocarditis as secondary causes.

Sources:

http://www.hongkongwardiary.com/searchgarrison/nonuniformedcivilians.html#_Toc43367489

MacNider Papers: unheaded, typewritten copy of statement

Just before 10 a.m. the Gripsholm is guided by tugs to pier F in Jersey City. At 12 noon the passengers start to come down the gangplank, but before they can leave they’re interviewed by military and FBI agents looking for spies and collaborators. The interviews take so long that two hundred passengers, including Emily Hahn and her daughter Carola, have to spend another night on the ship. Thirty repatriates are taken to Ellis Island for further questioning.

Hahn herself is one of those under suspicion: her interrogators want to know why she wasn’t interned like the other Americans, why she received favours from the Japanese and why she fraternised with high-ranking enemy officials.

The Canadians are kept on the ship waiting for the Canadian authorities, who are finding American security and intelligence hard to deal with. And there are a number of Canadians suspected of collaboration. It takes twenty hours to get everyone off the Gripsholm and on to a sealed train controlled by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Father Charles Murphy is met by a reporter who hands him some cuttings from Canadian newpapers - he modestly disclaims the title 'the hero of Hong Kong' some of them have awarded him. He gives a long interview on his work running a refugee camp for 2,000 Chinese displaced by the fighting. The camp was set up by the Government Medical Department in the grounds of the Maryknoll Mission on December 10 (1941) and all of the occupants quietly slipped away on December 24, as if forewarned.

Sources:

Hahn: Ken Cuthberston, Nobody Said Not To Go, 1998, 278-279

Canadians: Daniel S. Levy, Two-Gun Cohen: An Autobiography, 1997, Kindle Edition, Location, 5583

Murphy: http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19431202&id=RS8rAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zpgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5523,235264

Note:

See also December 2, 1943