24 Jan 1942, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp

After a couple of days of chaos, an open-air meeting is called, and elections are held for the Camp Temporary Committee, which will be tasked with creating order and setting up the basic systems necessary for daily life in Stanley.

Most of those elected were merchants and businessmen, with only two officials of the former government - J. A. Fraser and H. R. Butters. Ben Wylie (SCMP) was chair. Other members include Geoffrey Herklots (HKU), D. L. Newbigging (Jardine Matheson), the Reverend Joseph Sandbach and L. R. Neilson.

The first meeting of the Committee is held the same day. Although Franklin Gimson is not yet interned in Stanley he manages to attend. The meeting discusses questions of sanitation and construction work and stresses the shortage of firewood.

The committee will meet almost daily. Regular subjects include the internees' hopes for repatriation of women, children, the sick and men over military age, sanitation, discipline, and the problem of food allocation to dogs.

Most of the British and American civilians still left on the Peak arrive at Stanley.

By general consent, the Americans are moving into a better organised situation than the British:

As soon as they arrived, the Americans were taken care of. If they did not get a room assignment immediately, they at least had a temporary one before nightfall. Unfortunately, the British were not as organized. When they arrived, they had absolutely no idea of where to go.

Sources:

Elections: Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, 2008, 10; http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80004743

Meeting and subjects for discussion: John Stericker, Captive Colony, 1945, Chapter IV, page 3; Emerson, op. cit, 60-61

Americans and British: Norman H. Briggs (cited in Tony Banham, We Shall Suffer There, 2009, entries for January 24)

Note:

The Reverend Sandbach is not on the list of Temporary Committee members provided by Alan Birch, and nor is 'Larry Grayson', another figure he mentions - this is probably a misremembering of L. R. Nielson. However, Barbara Anslow seems to confirm his membersip of the Camp Council in 1945:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/stanley_camp/conversations/messages/1030

As well as those in the entry above, the members listed by Birch are D. N. Blake (solicitor), A. E. Nobbins (merchant),  Dr. Uttley and Dr. Pope. The committee appointed a quartermaster (at some point this was W. J. Anderson) and a Treasurer. The Chief Justice (Atholl MacGregor) acted as Accommodation Officer.

G. B. Endacott and Alan Birch, Hong Kong Eclipse, 1978, 351