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

Ssiter Mary Paul of the Maryknoll Convent writes to General Officer Commanding, Major-General F. W. Festing.

By the end of January 1943 all of the Maryknoll Sisters had left Hong Kong. They started to return soon after the surrender, but found that the Maryknoll Convent School had, like a number of other Hong Kong public buildings, been turned into a Japanese military hospital. At first there were 1200, but in November the British sent 800 more. The Sisters were living in a small bungalow on Prince Edward Road and they wanted their building back so they could start teaching again. A letter to David MacDougall on November 16 met with short shrift, so Sister Mary Paul is trying again today.

Major-General Festing is a Catholic and grants her an interview, at which he will eventually agree to let the Sisters use part of the top floor and have their own entrance and chapel. On Decmeber 18 the army will help the sisters move in, and they're allowed to use more rooms than originally planned. The doors and windows been there, but much has been destroyed and much looted. Japanese POWs help them move furniture and clean.

They will get the entire buildin back one day, but until May 1946 the sisters and sharing it with 600 Japanese soldiers.

Source:

Cindy Yik-yi Chu, The Maryknoll Sisters in Hong Kong, 2004, 59-60

The Hahn-Boxer romance is international news. Today's Daily Mirror (page 5 ) reports that Major Boxer, arrived in Los Angeles, has told Associated Press that, although he's not sure if he's officially divorced ((from Ursula Tulloch)) he'll marry Emily Hahn as soon as he can.

Major W. G. E. Eggleton, Government Biochemist and Adviser in Nutrition, sums up part of the experience of the Chinese majority during the occupation, and shows some of the new spirit. He told the China Mail:

Nutritionally the people of Hong Kong suffered greatly under the Japanese, especially during the last six months of the occupation when all essential services were becoming increasingly disorganised.

He continued:

Under the Japanese the daily rice ration was restricted to 6.4 taels (eight and a half ounces) per person,whereas the average Chinese needs twice this amount. There was also a great shortage of vegetables, meat and fish due to lack of transportation.

High prices, due among other causes to a lack of confidence in a spurious currency, placed many essential articles of food out of the reach of honest people with modest means.

During the last two months ((since British re-occupation)) however, the food situation in the Colony has steadily improved, largely as a result of the Government's enlightened policy of price control, and relief for those in distress...No small contribution has been made by the various public charity and relief organisations.

Then he raises perhaps the most important question facing liberated Hong Mong:

Soon we shall be back to pre-war conditions. But are we to stop there? Were pre-war conditions good enough? Did all have enough to eat? There are few in this Colony to-day (sic) who believe that to attain pre-war conditions should be our goal. What else then can be done to help secure a lasting improvement in the Colony's standard of nutrition?

Eggleton goes on to tell the story of the head of a small Government Department who, finding his staff too weak to work a full day, forbade any he forbade heavy lifting, stipulated ten minutes rest every hour and fed supplemented their food and that of their dependants (to the number if 24) out of his own pocket.

Eggleton is right to praise the Chinese charities. In the early days of re-occupation, the charities, which had been hard at work at the end of Japanese rule, 'played a key role in distributing such food as the BMA managed to bring in to Hong Kong', leading David MacDougall to remark that in their 'long and honourable history...(they had) never given better service than now'.

Sources:

Eggleton: China Mail, November 24, 1945, page 2

Charities: Philip Snow, The Fall of Hong Kong, 2003, 280

A meeting called by David MacDougall is held this morning to consider the current situation with regard to the investigation, arrest and prosecution of 'quislings and collaborators'. Those present include BAAG agent Marcus da Silva and Stanley Camp escaper  W. P. 'Tommy' Thompson, now a Lieutenant-Colonel.

In the first days after the liberation, there was a clamour for the prosecution of anyone who was suspected of having collaborated with the Japanese, but this died down quickly, and now the authorities are left with a complex problem. Firstly, although most of the victims of Japanese brutality were Chinese, so were many of those accused of helping the perpetrators carry them out or contributing to their rule in other ways. Of course, as almost 99% of the pre-war population was Chinese, this is hardly surpising. The other main group under suspicion were Indians, who had been wooed by the Japanese and given favourable treatment at first in the hope that the soldiers would join the Indian National Army and the civilians would join the Indian Independence League which gave political support for Japanese plans for India. Most Indians, military and civilian, resisted these attempts, or went along with them half-heartedly for their own security. The Indian community provided a significant portion of the funds for Dr. Selwyn-Clarke's relief work during the occupation, and most POWs resisted sometimes brutal attempts to get them to join the INA. But some had decided that the cause of Indian independence justified co-operation with the Japanese enemies of the Raj - this was an issue that would prove intractable for the British in India itself, and today's meeting in Hong Kong takes place against the backdrop of the first of the 'Red Fort trials' in Delhi - an attempt to try prominent members of the INA that was to meet with huge resistance all over India and eventually to hasten Britain's exit. The new Government of India was eventually to send a lawyer to represent those Indians who came to trial in Hong Kong, and the accounts of the war crimes trial show he was a skilled and formidable advocate.

As well as having to tread carefully to avoid having a negative influence on the politics of the sub-continent, the Hong Kong authorities faced a further problem: it would be embarrassing for a colony seeking to distance itself from its pre-war racism to only be trying Asians for collaboration. The 'solution' of trying three or four 'white' (or at least only partly Asian) people proved controversial and unsatisfactory, particularly as none of them were 'British': the authorities are considering the case of civil servant George Kennedy-Skipton, but nothing will come of this in the form of immediate legal action, although he will eventually face a Tribunal which judges him innocent of any charge but dereliction of duty as a civil servant. Of those charged, one man was amnestied, another had his prosecution abandoned and two people were jailed under controversial circumstances - in one case, many felt he had done no more than others who escaped any legal proceedings, and in another the defence of extreme duress seemed rather plausible. To make matters worse, through no fault of the Hong Kong authorities, the one 'British' man tried for collaboration in the colony (in Shamshuipo) was eventually acquitted in London after a brilliant performance from his legal team

Nevertheless, there were those who had helped the Japanese torture and kill Chinese people, and public opinion would not have been satisfied unless at least the most notorious of such collaborators were brought to justice. In the end most of those punished were people who had helped the Kempeitai (Gendarmes) with their campaign of violence - this was in line with a request from the (British) Government of India that only those involved with 'atrocities and brutality' be punished. In theory anyone who gave the Japanese militarily relevant help during the hostilities was also liable to prosecution, although in the only case I've come across so far the accused was amnestied. Merchants who directly supplied the Japanese war effort were also investigated and one was sent to prison.

But today's meeting deals with more immediate problems: the police are still 80% under strength for a start, and there's a public opinion disaster in the making: some supects have been held under arrest without access to solicitors for two months. This seems to have been for fear that unless kept incommunicado the suspects would intimidate already nervous witnesses. Understandably the committee want to show the public they are not 'aping Jap methods'. The best they can do is to rule that the police should hold suspects for a 'reasonable time' and that future arrests should only take place after consultation with da Silva or with Eldon Potter (K.C.) as to lawfulness. 

Sources:

General: Hong Kong Public Records Office: HKRS 169, 2-266 Collaboration with the Enemy, Memo of David MacDougall, November 29, 1945, p. 1 and various documents

HK and the INA: https://brianedgar.wordpress.com/2013/11/04/captain-mateen-ahmed-ansari/

Today's China Mail (page 2) returns to the subject of the contrast in the treatment of former internees in Australia and the UK: a letter dated November 26 from a 'well-respected' businessman sparks both an article and an editorial. The unnamed businessman is in Australia, but in correspondence with someone in England who complains about being forced to apply for public assistance on the same terms as an unemployed worker (including having to accept work, in his case clerical, if offered after the first couple of weeks) and to find that because his wife was earning three pounds a week the authorities washed their hands of him completely. Everything was different for those who went to Australia: they were not presented with a drinks bill on the Vindex, welcomed by a band, taken to decent hotels and given double rations, helped in an ungrudging way thereafter - it seems everything was done for them right down to arranging for people to meet them at stations on their train journeys (free tickets provided) to help with further travel arrangements!

The editorial points out that the former Stanleyites were strongly encouraged to take home leave for the sake of their health - they were, in fact, informed that this was the Commander-in-Chief's wish - and that this recommendation was particularly strong in the case of women and children. Although they'd been told financial assistance wouldn't pay for a 'lavish' lifestyle, they'd been led to expect it would be enough to cover reasonable expenses.

An interesting sign of the times is that the editorial spares a special thought for those who have no family ties in Britain and 'do not come within that delightful category "pure British"'.

Page one of the China Mail reports, under yesterday's date, that General MacArthur has ordered the arrest of Colonel Gennosuke Noma as a suspected war criminal. Noma was head of the Hong Kong Kempeitai for most of the occupation, and he was eventually executed for crimes that included the mistreatment of prisoners and actions taken as part of the Japanese policy of forcing large numbers of Chinese to leave Hong Kong.

An editorial on page two of the China Mail discusses prostitution ('the social vice') and claims that 'Never in the present century has the moral tone of this colony been lower than it is today,' with 'promiscuity' blatant and instrusive. The paper believes that the pre-war closing of the brothels has failed as badly as American 'prohibition' of alcohol, and recommends the introduction of a legalised and officially-regulated system.

Both Selwyn and Hilda Selwyn-Clarke are in London attending a reception held by the China Campaign Committee to welcome them home. Also present are Mr and Mrs Michael Lindsay, both recently returned from visiting the Communist headquarters in Yenan.

Mrs Selwyn-Clarke tells the audience that Britian as a democracy should be trying to bring about reconciliation between the National Democratic League, the Communists and the Nationalists not supporting one particular side. She says that Britain must aid China, not through 'the ricebowl distribution' model but by such measures as showing them how to establish medical services. She also calls for Madame Sun (Soong Ching-ling), whose work she praises, to be invited to Britain.

Source:

China Mail, December 18, 1945, page 2

The South China Morning Post gets out a Christmas edition:

Christmas Scenes

First Real Holiday For Four Years

Colony Celebrates

Many of the population of the Colony took advantage of Christmas and the inevitable release of supplies for the hoiday as a means of celebrating, not only Christmas itself, but also their first real holiday to be enjoyed with freedom for four years. In some houses there was sorrow and some of the celebrations were a little forced when they remembered the Christmas of four years ago, but in the hotels, dance halls and restaurants the scenes were of genuine relaxed happiness.

Last night there were one or two signs of wild enthusiasm such as the broken glass in the passages of the Gloucester Hotel and sundry broken bottles in the main roads, but on the whole the behaviour of the general public was impeccable.

The paper reports that church services on Christmas Eve were well attended. Bishop Ronald Hall conducted midnight mass at St. John's Cathedral, which took the form of Choral Eucharist, while Bishop Enrico Valtorta officiated at the Midnight Solemn Pontificial Mass celebrated at the Catholic Cathedral.

During the Christmas Day service at the Cathedral Bishop Hall recalled that four years ago Governor Mark Young had spent a few minutes in prayer there before surrendering.

Sources: SCMP, December 25, 1945, p. 1; SCMP, Deember 27, p. 2