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

The British Military Administration publishes a scale of punishments, including the death penalty for anyone inciting insurrection or publishing, possessing or circulating printed matter critical of the Administration, or 'in the interests of the enemy'.

'The enemy' - as Philip Snow, points out, this seems an example of the tendency to 'elide Japan and China into a single antagonist'! 

Source:

Philip Snow, The Fall of Hong Kong, 2003, 273

There are some big announcements on the front page of today's China Mail: the Military Yen, the hated Japanese occupation currency, is no longer legal tender and the Hong Kong dollar is restored. Further, the Australian Red Cross supplies brought in on the Vindex have been packaged and are ready for distribution. The food has been placed in a common pool and is going out daily at the various distribution centres, so what is about to be distributed are items like towels, cigarettes and toileteries. The first priority are the roughly 900 people still at Stanley, followed by those in town with Essential Services, and finally dependents (presumably of the first two groups) in town.

It's also announced that Bill O'Neill, a former Stanleyite transferred to Shanghai, is on his way back down to re-open the Reuters Office.

Page 2 has its own improtant news: Franklin Gimson sends a farewell message on the eve of his recall to London. One of his tasks will be to tell the British Government about 'The Military Internment Camp' (the official name for Stanley in 1944 and 1945). He promises to tell them about the high standard of morale and the ingenuity and resourcefulness shown by the internees in the face of scanty resources. He will also mention the efficient provision of resources and believes that no-one will mind if he singles out the medical workers for special praise. He urges everybody to follow him in forgetting the unpleasant incidents and holding on to the good qualities which were amply displayed.

Note: For the proposed, or at leats assumed, abolition of the MY, see tomorrow's entry.

T. J. J. Fenwick (see September 9) reports to Morse on the situation of the HKSBC:

The health of the staff is better than I expected, but they are in no condition for strenuous work and must be relieved within a month or two....The state of the Bank exceeds all expectations. I visualize no difficulty in reconstructing the old position as the records appear virtually intact. The building is undamaged. The staff has done a very good job in getting the office habitable again. It will take ages to get things straightened out.

The Sunday Herald (page 1) declares that the currency situation ((see September 14)) is stabilising, inspite of the failure of the authorities to get enough Hong Kong dollars into circulation. The paper puts down the improvement to the problem-solving capacity of the Chinese and says that both the $ and the Military Yen are being used, with an informal exchange rate of 200-250 of the latter for one of the former.

Rudolf Zindel tells The Sunday Herald (page 5) that the International Red Cross is preparing to close down. He claims that his acceptance as 'delegate' was due to a Japanese mistake - originally they'd said it was only appropriate for the IRC to have a delegate in Shanghai, which, at the time, was not considered a 'conquered territory' of the Japanese Empire. He'd been looking after the interests of his employers, Messrs. Arnhold Trading Company, and merely acting as the IRC 'correspondent' until told one day by Mr. Oda of the Foreign Affairs Department that he should start in his new role immediately. Mr. Oda and ((his successor)) Mr.Maejima had, against the rules they'd been given, allowed him to visit Stanley twice a month, but this had been reduced to once a month because so many internees asked him to look into their own problems. After August 1944 he'd made only three visits, because he had to ask permission from Tokyo each time, and that took up to three months. In addition, his previous free access on visits to Franklin Gimson was ended.

Mr. Zindel goes on to give a grim picture of the problems he faced, especially with regard to Rosary Hill Red Cross Home, and reveals that towards the end of the war he was financing Red Cross activities by borrowing from the Swiss community on his personal credit.

The official Japanese surrender ceremony takes place today. Franklin Gimson, although summoned to London, is still in the Colony and joins those at Government House.

Sources:

Fenwick: Maurice Collis, Wayfoong, 1965, 234-5

Surrender: http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/node/2345;

http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/node/5305

Gimson: China Mail, September 17, 1945, 2

H.M.S. Glengyle sails with 600 British internees. The Llanstephan Castle takes 800 Indian fomer POWs to Madras.

One of them is Vice-Chancellor Duncan Sloss, who, leaving Lindsay Ride in charge, is going to London for crucial talks about the future of Hong Kong University. In a farewell message he says:

I should like to express for myself and for the University the satisfaction we feel in the achievement of past and present students of the University during these years of horrors. Those who went into China in various services and in the Universities, with very few exceptions, have won a high name....Those who stayed behind have helped us who were prisoners of war and interned in a way that has made the difference between survival and extinction, and this at great risks to themselves.

Hong Kong is under martial law, and a proclamation this afternoon seems to deserve the overworked adjective 'draconian': eleven offences are announced to be punishable by death. Offering armed resistance to the troops is likely to lead to execution under any military regime, but damaging war supplies or wilfully misleading any of the occupation troops as they go about their duty don't seem like obviously capital offences. Of course, whether or not anyone was actually executed under such heads is another matter. 

'Lesser offences' include uttering any statement detrimental to the British Military Administration, the Forces or the Allied Governments and publishing any statement relating to the BMA or the Forces that's likely to cause 'alarm or despondency'. As the China Mail (and no doubt the SCMP) has been doing the latter on almost every page since publication was resumed it seems that this part of the decree is almost certainly not being enforced.

Source:

http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWD-BPF4512OccupationofChinaCoast1945.htm

Sloss: Clifford Mattthews and Oswald Cheung, Dispersal and Renewal, 1998, 427

Proclamation: China Mail, September 19, 1945, 2

A report in the China Mail claims that 'Stanley feels hurt': half of the 400 women found that there weren't enough pullovers, coats and sandals in a package form the Australian Red Cross. The report makes it clear that neither the Red Cross nor the Camp Authorities are to blame.

The paper also reports the birth of a son to former internees Mr. and Mrs. Alan Thomas on board the H.M.S. Oxfordshire.

Source:

China Mail, September 20, 1945, pages 3 and 4

The hospital ship Oxfordshire reaches Sydney. The Melbourne Argus quotes unnamed Hong Kong passengers as saying 'it seemed that they had not had nearly as bad a time of it as prisoners in other areas'. The reporter goes on to remark 'Yet some are very sick indeed':

Every single person taken on the ship was suffering from malnutrition, many of them from deficiency diseases such as beri-beri, and some had war wounds still unhealed since the Japanese capture of Hong Kong in December, 1941.

The South China Morning Post (Morning edition, p. 1) claims that bread is still at the prohibitive price of HK$6 a pound. 

Source:

The Argus, September 24, 1945, page 3

Cecil Harcourt gives a press conference and offers an honest but down-beat view of his administration's achievements:

As yet we have been unable to do much more than maintain law and order, protect life and property, and round-up and disarm the Japanese....The real trouble is that he has neither the men nor the resources to do anything more.

He points out that no-one expected the sudden collapse of Japan, and when it happened the Fleet was engaged in planning for further military operations, and it was hard to suddenly have to do something completely different. The government workers interned in Stanley came out and did a fine job, but many of them have now had to go home ((to recuperate)). Adminstrative personnel are on their way from Britain but have not yet arrived. Supplies of coal from Australia are expected soon but shortage has hampered attempts to restore normal services. Firewood is another problem, and efforts are being made to get some from Borneo.

It's not all gloom though. The rice situation is adequate, and the Colony is managing to feed 18,000 destitutes. He hopes to send the 22,000 Japanese prisoners home soon -  because they're taking up valuable property and, even though they get no more than is legally required, they are extra mouths to feed.

Chief Justice Atholl MacGregor has been greatly weakened by the privations of Stanley - he will die on the voyage of repatriation. Nevertheless, he played a full part in the resumption of British sovreignty, and today he acts as coroner from his bed in Tweed Bay Hospital. The inquest is into the death of Herbert Winkfield Jackson, killed by a shark on Sunday evening. Flying Officer C. Kelly, the Medical Officer at Camp H.Q., states that a faint pulse was discernible when he arrived at the beach but Lance-Sergeant Jackson had died before arriving at Tweed Bay Hospital. Captain and Mrs. Braude also give evidence.

Source:

Harcourt, Inquest: China Mail, September 25, 1945, 4

The China Mail (page 2) pays tribute to the Hong Kong resistance. It mentions David Loie, who contacted the BAAG at Waichow 'early' but states that, in general, 'Hong Komg's Heroes of the Fifth Column are nameless'.

The article goes on to claim that most resistance agents were Chinese, but that the Indians were well represented, and that no community of 'third nationals' (neutrals) that was more than half a dozen in size failed to produce at least one operative.

It quotes a Chinese interpreter/clerk who had access to  the Gendarmerie files as saying that 2,000 people were executed for resistance activities and that 2,000 more were suspected. However, the real number of those involved, the writer believes, was 'legion'. Some were links in a chain of communication that extended from Gendarmerie HQ to outside Hong Kong, while others provided shelter for fugitives in a network organised by 'an American Chinese whose intelligence, wits and resources would rank with the best in the world'. A Jewish man, with the help of Chinese and Indian warders, managed to get nutritious food smuggled in 'to political prisoners as far as Canton'.

The writer belives that death wasn't the most frequent outcome but nervous breakdown -  which might be followed by death from disease or suicide - or flight to Macau. Men would sometimes break down when asked to undertake some task that was beyond the limits of their courage. Traitors were rife in 1942 and 1943 as recruits had to be accepted without proper knowledge of their antecedents. However, the Gendarmerie were often confused by the number of aliases used, and secrecy within cells gave further protection.

The article goes on to list the great variety of tasks undertaken by the resistance. In conclusion, it points to the modesty of the former agents:

To-day (sic) the undergrounders have sunk underground. None will agree to having his name published and they mostly take the attitude that they don't particularly care to have their services to the Allied cause awarded official recognition.

Duncan Sloss, his son John, and Day Sage (Joyce) are among those leaving Hong Kong by plane for Britian.

Les Fisher begins 'spinal treatment' with Dr. Molthen.

Sources:

Sloss, Sage: China Mail, September 28, 1945, 4

Les Fisher, I Will Remember, 1996, 253

Notes:

1) I have not yet been able to identify the American-Chinese organiser of the 'safe house' network. I suspect that the Jewish man who smuggled food to political prisoners in Hong Kong and beyond was Boris Pasco, but I'm far from certain and any further information would be most welcome.

2) Frank Molthen and his wife Ruth introduced chiropractic to Hong Kong in the early 1930s. He is said to have treated both Chiang Kai-shek and Madame Chiang. In Stanley Molthen provided 'adjustments' for both internees and guards.

He was 'guaranteed out' of Stanley in August 1942:

http://gwulo.com/node/20317

Men of No. 44 (Royal Marine) Commando give an evening stage show for those left in Stanley. The show only features a few simple props and the performers use borrowed costumes and make-up but their material ranges from religious song to slapstick humour.

Under the headline, 'Staney Shrinks', today's China Mail runs a story on page 2 stating that people are leaving the camp every day, and singling out John Stericker, who is returning to his tobacco factory in Kowloon. He was the only person never to miss a council meeting in camp.

Postage has been free in Hong Kong until today when charges are introduced after the 10 a.m. collection. But the first day's trading in stamps yields a disppointing sum of less than HK$350. As an official points out, stamp collectors have missed the boat.

Sources:

Stage Show: Hong Kong Sunday Herald, September 30, 1945, 6

Postage: China Mail, September 29, 1945, 1