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

Volunteer R. E. Stott is sent from Tweed Bay Hospital in Stanley to St. Paul's Hospital ('the French Hospital') in Causeway Bay where the better food provided is expected to speed his recovery from a ruptured duodenal ulcer.

He is planning an escape:

Had I been able to do so I would have endeavoured to pass as Eurasian, but unfortunately was too well known by local enemy agents to succeed, Dr. Selwyn-Clarke listened intently but made no suggestions to help neither did he request me not to escape.

See also entry for August 11, 1942

Dr. J. B. Mackie manages to get into Argyle Street Camp to bring tinned food and tea for a friend there. He tells Isaac Newton about the Japanese response to the escape of Gordon King:

The result was all passes practically were withdrawn and everything was tightened up, all the camps became cut off from visitors and news. All R. A. M. C. ((Royal Army Medical Corps)) officers had their passes withdrawn and most of the Civil M.O.s ((Medical Officers)) were interned in Stanley ((up to that point many members of the pre-war Health Department were carrying on their work)).

Morris 'Two-Gun Cohen' starts the day still a prisoner of the Kempeitai. Since his interrogation (see Feb 11), he's provided them with an inaccurate written account of his activities with the Chinese Army, been beaten up without any attempt to ask him questions, and at one point been told by Rex Davis, who understands Japanese, that the two of them are to be beheaded.

But today, much to his surprise, he's sent with the Special Branch prisoners (including Davis) back to Stanley. During the first part of their journey, they are suddenly bundled into a side street off Nathan Road: Rensuke Isogai, the new Military Governor of Hong Kong is arriving, and they are not thought worthy of looking at him.

Sources:

Stott: Tony Banham, We Shall Suffer There, 2009, entry for August 14, 1942

Mackie's news: Isaac Newton, Diary, page 61

Cohen: Charles Drage, The Life And Times Of General Two-Gun Cohen, 1954, 298-299

Note: the date of February 20, 1942 for the arrival of  Lieutenant-General Isogai to assume the military Governorship of Hong Kong is given by John Luff in The Hidden Years (172). Philip Snow and Oliver Lindsay suggest slightly earlier and later dates respectively. Ramon Lavalle, the Argentianian Consul, in an affidavit of March 11, 1943 gives February 25.

Note:

Amazingly it is now possible for us to see something of what Cohen and the others were prevented from viewing; this link contains film of Rensuke Isogai arriving at Kai Tak, and of the Chinese procession that welcomed him:

http://www.t3licensing.com/license/clip/750155_001.do

Today is George Washington's birthday. The Japanese have forbidden the celebration of patriotic holidays so the Maryknoll Fathers set up an entertainment programme featuring G. Washing Town. Edward Gingle supplies a large tub of real coffee, baskets of doughnuts and a sack of popcorn.

Source:

Daniel S. Levy, Two-Gun Cohen: A Biography , Kindle Edition, Location 5475

The families in the United Kingdom have had no official news of the fate of their loved ones in Hong Kong, but worrying rumours have been cicrculating and today Sir Percy Harris, the Liberal member for Bethnal Green, South-West, brings them to the House of Commons:

The Japanese, as is known by anybody who has studied the happenings in China during the last four or five years, are a cruel and brutal enemy, ruthless and savage in their methods, and they stop at nothing. They take murder and rapine in their stride. The appalling stories that have reached me of the treatment of the civil population in Hong Kong want a lot of explanation. I thought that we were to have a Secret Session, and if there had been one, I would have mentioned to the Government some of the stories of most sinister, appalling and horrible incidents that are gradually being spread about the country. I am informed that, rightly or wrongly, the Government are preventing the circulation of these stories because of the bad effect they might have on morale not only in this country, but in Australia and the East Indies. I do not believe it is right to spoonfeed our people. If these stories have a foundation in fact - and I believe they have - they are bound to creep out sooner or later.

Earl Winterton (Conservative, Horsham and Worthing) agrees:

We all know what he has in mind, as it is a matter of common talk, but may I suggest to him ((Harris)) that he should invite the Government to make such statement as they see fit about the treatment of our nationals in Hong Kong, and tell us quite frankly whether or not the appalling stories that one hears are true?

Source:

http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1942/feb/24/ministerial-changes#S5CV0378P0_19420224_HOC_231

The British Communal Council, the Camp's new governing body, meets for the first time. 

John Pennefather- Evans suggests prayers be offered for Divine guidance, and the Reverend Sandbach obliges. 

The Council notes with satisfaction that some of those who committed the recent thefts of food from godowns just outside the camp have been handed over to the internee authorities to be dealt with, which, the Council believes, shows evidence that the Japanese intend to follow the Geneva Convention, which says that internment camps should be self-governing.

But Camp Secretary, John Stericker, cynically notes that it became obvious later there was no such intention and that the guards were too scared to let the Gendarmes know they had failed to stop the thefts.

Sir Atholl MacGregor speaks on the introduction of a camp judicial system, Finance and Executive Committees are appointed, and the committee refuses to co-opt two women to represent Stanley's 1000 or so women and children, a suggestion from the social worker, Miss Elliot.

After two hours, the meeting finishes.

Source:

John Stericker, Captive Colony, 1945, Chapter V, pages 5-6

The second meeting of the British Communal Council is held at the Prison Warders' Club.

Dr. Annie Sydenham is appointed to a Watch Committee, which is set up to protect women and girls from sex crimes. She is never called out on an emergency at any time during internment.

It's announced, perhaps at this meeting, that the internees are to be issued with 1/2 pound of bread per person per day, but that 5 ozs of the rice ration will be deducted, which is regarded as excessive. Eventually a compromise is reached: just under half a pound of bread will replace 4 ozs of rice.

Source:

John Stericker, Captive Colony, 1945, Chapter V, page 6; Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, 1973, 177

Missionaries Alice Lan and Betty Hu send a message into Stanley.

A woman comes to their Bethel Mission on a visit. She tells them she'd been used by the British as a warden to take care of 'Japanese prisoners of war' - perhaps supervising Japanese and other Axis civilians who were interned in Stanley Prison on the outbreak of hostilities. Now she is again a warden 'but taking care of the British prisoners in the same camp'.

She agrees to take in messages, so they write down the names of their missionary friends and ask her to find out if they are still alive. They also give her $HK20 for one of them. On March 29 this woman, who they then call "Maria," will  return with the news all the friends are alive and with thanks for the money. On May 18 Lan and Hu will see "Maria" searching women passengers at the Star Ferry and surmise she's been transferred because the Japanese suspected her and others of carrying messages.

Source:

Alice Y Lan and Betty Hu, We Flee From Hong Kong, 2000 ed. (1944), 53-54, 57, 61

Note:

It seems that routes for messages into and out of Stanley were established quickly. R. E. Jones records that he wrote to my father, Thomas Edgar, (at that time in the compound of St Paul's Hospital) on February 15, 1942 and he must have sent the letter either with one of the drivers of the Red Cross ambulance or using this kind of 'ad hoc' route: http://gwulo.com/node/9808

Just over six weeks after Stanley was set up, life is still grim, as the American community hears at its monthly meeting, where reports are made about conditions and prospects. Continual representations are being made by Bill Hunt and the British leaders to try to get the Japanese to provide milk for babies, medicines and other basic supplies. Many people are still sleeping on concrete floors.

It’s announced that there are 324 Americans in camp and their food rations are listed:

80-100 pounds of meat daily (bones and fat included)

80 lbs of green vegetables

4 ozs of rice per meal

8 or 9 loaves of bread, enough for a slice or half a slice daily.

Some of these rations are reserved to increased shares to babies, growing children and convalescents.

Source:

Maryknoll Diary, March 9, 1942

After an exhausting truck drive from Kweiyang {Guiyang} Phyllis Harrop finally reaches her goal, China's wartime capital:

We arrived at Chungking {Chongqqing} about seven o'clock...desperately tired and filthy with dust and grime.

She meets Colonel McHugh of the US Army and gives him news of his friends from Hong Kong. She sleeps like a log.

In London the papers lead on Eden's speech of yesterday:

The Daily Express launches the slogan 'Remember Hongkong', and then reports:

JAP ATROCITIES HORRIFY WORLD

Two of the most terrible revelations made by Mr. Eden in the House of Commons yesterday were these :—

Fifty British officers and men were bound hand and foot and then bayoneted to death.

Women, both European and Asian, were raped and murdered. One entire Chinese district was declared a brothel, regardless of the status of its inhabitants.

 In Canada the news was also met with horror. From the same Daily Express report:

There were shocked cries when Premier Mackenzie King read the statement in the Canadian Parliament. "Words cannot begin to express our sense of outrage and feeling of bitter resentment," he said. "Retribution for this barbaric behaviour will follow in full measure in due course."

Source:

Harrop: Phyllis Harrop, Hong Kong Incident, 1943, 188

Note:

Harrop's text gives March 10 for her arrival but the Chapter sub-heading has March 11 which fits in better with her other dating.

Note:

The claim, taken from Eden's speech, that an entire district was made a brothel is untrue. One BAAG source was later to state that the reality was that one district - Wanchai or part of it - was declared the only one in which brothels were allowed. I don't know if this is true or not.

Former Colonial Secretary Franklin Gimson and his Government team arrive in Stanley; Gimson declares himself the representative of the King and the London government, and calls on the internees to accept his authority.

He finds a Camp in which many people are angry at the colonial Government for its perceived failure to prepare properly to resist the Japanese and for other shortcomings. As a result, he was, in his own later words, 'Not welcomed universally'. In fact, a sometimes bitter power struggle now begins, as Gimson attempts to impose his authority on Stanley.

Sources:

Jones and MacNider diaries. John Stericker Captive Colony, Chapter V, page 11 gives March 11, but I think our two diarists are correct.