Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch Vol.

29 (1989 )
RASHKB and author ISSN 1991-7295

77
HONG KONG, DECEMBER 1941 - JULY 1942

A. D. BLACKBURN*

The following is an account of the personal experiences of my wife

and myself at Hongkong during the Japanese attack and afterwards.

I was still in Queen Mary Hospital when hostilities began. My leg

had so far recovered that I was able to hobble about on crutches and
the doctor had decided that he could now safely proceed to operate on
my ear which had become completely obstructed with scar tissue. The
operation was fixed for 8 a.m. on December 8th. I was waiting to be
taken to the theatre when, almost exactly at 8 a.m., the wailing of the
sirens and the noise of planes announced the beginning of the blitz and
the operation had to be abandoned. Meanwhile my wife was at the War
Memorial Nursing Home recovering from an operation for appendicitis.
All patients whom it was possible to remove were evicted from the
hospitals to make room for war casualties. My wife was turned out on
December 10th and I on December 12th and Witham (Tea Adviser to
the Chinese Government and a friend of ours) arranged for us to be
billeted with him and his wife in their flat on the Peak, which the
Hongkong Government had declared an evacuation area. There we stayed
throughout the hostilities. There was fairly heavy artillery fire and air
bombing but the Japanese seemed to be concentrating on military
objectives (particularly Mt. Austin barracks and two field gun batteries
in our neighbourhood), and civilian property around us was not
* Editor's Note. Sir Arthur Blackburn was Counsellor of the British Embassy in Chungking
in 1941. On June 29th, 1941, his house there was totally destroyed by a Japanese bomb.
Two people were killed, and fifteen injured, including Sir Arthur, who received injuries
to his knee and ear. The injury to the ear required operation, as did the injury to the knee,
which had become infected. Sir Arthur and his wife were evacuated to Hong Kong to enable
these operations to take place, arriving at the end of November, 1941. Sir Arthur was
a witness to the Japanese attack on Hong Kong in December, 1941, and he and his wife
were interned from January 22nd to the end of July 1942 in Stanley Camp. He and his
wife with other captured diplomatic staff were then repatriated, leaving Shanghai on August
17th, 1942. Sir Arthur was asked by both the Foreign Office and the Red Cross to report
on conditions in Hong Kong and in Stanley Camp. These reports were completed by the
end of September, 1942, even before the Blackburns docked in England. Because of the
general interest of these reports, and particularly because of their contemporary character
and absence of post-war hindsight, it is felt useful to print them here. The Journal owes
copies of these interesting documents to the kindness of Mr. C. Blackburn.
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extensively damaged; and close range fighting never actually reached
us. The Japanese (as we discovered later) never actually located the two
field gun batteries though they could tell their approximate position. They
also seemed to suspect that something was concealed in the woods running
down the valley from the Peak to Pokfulam, so this area was fairly
intensively searched. So there was a rain of trench mortar and field gun
shells and of air bombs (both high explosive and incendiary) all round
us, and sufficient direct hits on the block of flats itself as well as near
misses to make things unpleasant.

The Japanese landed on the Island on December 18th-19th and we

had hardly absorbed this unpleasant information when we learnt that they
had already crossed the hills and were in Aberdeen and Repulse Bay,
thus cutting the island in two. On the morning of Christmas Day the
Police sent round an urgent warning that the situation on the Peak was
critical and that everyone who could move should go down the hill. Mrs.
Witham and her baby got a lift in what must have been the last car to
get through but there was no room for my wife and myself, and as we
could not walk we had to stay where we were. Our fellow evacuees
struggled down to Pokfulam and the servants disappeared so we were
left alone in the flat. Our situation was, however, not so bad as it sounds,
as there was a Police post in the same block of flats and the Police were
very helpful during the following days in getting food and water for us.
Hongkong surrendered on Christmas afternoon and the fighting, so far
as we saw it, ended with a heavy burst of fire about 5 p.m. from one
of our own anti-aircraft guns posted on one of the adjacent islands which
was in Japanese hands.

The troops in our neighbourhood gradually collected, firing off their

ammunition, blowing up batteries and dumps and making bonfires of
stores. There were so many stores that if we had been mobile my wife
and I could have provisioned ourselves comfortably. Even as it was,
we got some tins of biscuits, jam and other odds and ends which came
in very useful during the next fortnight. The troops were marched off
to internment next morning but it was not until late that evening that
we saw our first Japanese, when a Gendarmerie post was established
in a nearby building. There followed a very disagreeable period. Though
the Japanese established Gendarmerie posts here and there they seemed
to make no serious effort to patrol the Peak area effectively, and it was
in consequence being very thoroughly looted by bands of Chinese. The
Japanese themselves were also very troublesome. Though thet
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Commandant of the near-by Gendarmerie post promised us protection,
he took no steps to implement his promise, and we had a number of
invasions from parties of Japanese soldiers, on and off duty, sometimes
searching for arms, sometimes frankly looting watches, jewellery and
other small valuables. My wife had a polite but firm way of dealing with
these intruders, and in the end they got nothing from us but some
cigarettes.

On January 3rd Mr. Gimson (the Colonial Secretary) and Mr.

Alabaster (the Attorney-General) came up the hill to find out what had
happened to us. They told me that they had spoken to Mr. Yano (who
had come back to Hongkong temporarily as Consul-General) and the
Gendarmerie people about us and the other Embassy and Consular
personnel who were in Hongkong (Mr. and Mrs. Martin, Mr. and Mrs.
Rich, Evans, Herrctt and Miss Howkins) and we were to be given special
consideration. This was comforting but in the event did not mean very
much as there was the usual confusion between the different Japanese
authorities, none of whom seemed to pay the slightest attention to the
others. Then on January 5th notices were posted up in different places
instructing all enemy aliens to report at the Murray Parade Ground
between 10 a.m. and noon for internment. The notice said they could
take what luggage they could carry in their hands and that they must
leave the rest of their property in charge of some responsible person.
This notice only came to our knowledge on the Peak at 9 a.m. People
didn't know what on earth to do. If they started off immediately, walking
down the Peak, they could get to the Murray Parade Ground in time.
But there were old people, babies and invalids. Most people thought it
would be dangerous to disobey a preremptory order like that, and they
struggled down the hill as best they could, taking a suitcase or pushing
a pram and abandoning everything else to the looters. For my wife and
myself there was no problem as we couldn 't walk, so we decided to stay
and hope for the best, and a good number of others followed our example.
As it happened, things turned out all right, as Sir Arthur Macgregor called
later in the day to say that he had arranged with the Gendarmerie that
the people still on the Peak might remain temporarily but must be ready
to move at a minute's notice. However, the Police post had gone, we
were in difficulties about food and water (we had eaten the last crust
of three-weeks-old bread that morning), and we had had an unpleasant
visit from a party of Japanese soldiers at 2 a.m. We were completely
alone in the flat, other flats in the building had already been looted, and
generally the situation was unpromising. So we asked Sir Atholl to try
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and get permission for us to move into the War Memorial Nursing Home,
where the British staff were still functioning under the wing of a Japanese
Doctor-Colonel and a gendarmerie post. He was able to arrange this for
us, and we were fetched in a car and installed in the Nursing Home next
day, January 6th. Dr. Talbot, an ear specialist attached to the hospital,
looked at my ear and said the postponed operation should be performed
without delay as the earhole had become completely blocked with scar
tissue and pus was accumulating dangerously inside. On January 10th
I was sent down to Queen Mary Hospital for X-ray photos to be taken
both of the ear and the knee. The Martins were still there, and this was
the last time I saw them. The expedition was of great interest to me since
it was the first time I had visited the town since the Japanese occupation.
The streets were crowded with Chinese, most of them in mile long queues
trying to get cooked rice from "co-prosperity" congee kitchens. All the
shops were shut and barricaded but the pavements in Queen's Road and
the central district generally were lined with hawkers selling bread ($4
a loaf) and other foodstuffs, and large quantities of looted articles;
bedding, silverware, cutlery, etc: one could have got almost anything
one wanted, and all this without any apparent interference from the
Japanese.

As the X-rays confirmed Dr. Talbot's diagnosis I let him operate on

January 13th. He found it necessary to do a radical mastoid operation
and make me a new earhole. At the time we expected to be left in peace
for a month or so as there were a number of severely wounded British
soldiers in the Nursing Home and we thought the Japanese would not
insist on them and us being moved until they were fit to be moved.
Eight days later, however, they announced that they needed the hospital
and that "it would have to be evacuated next morning. The military patients
were sent to the military hospital at Bowen Road, and the rest of us to
Stanley. I was told I need not go to Stanley Camp unless I wished, and
I was given my choice of two other hospitals but I said I must go where
my doctor went; so I was put on a long chair which was put on a lorry,
and with my wife and our few belongings and half a dozen lorry loads
of doctors, sisters and patients we went off to Stanley. That was on
January 22nd. The place was in a turmoil as lorry loads and boat loads
of people were arriving from all the Chinese hotels in Hongkong and
Kowloon where the Japanese had congregated them and they were all
scrambling for billets. The British personnel from Queen Mary Hospital
(from which they and all the British wounded had been moved the
previous day) were busy trying to get a hospital organised in a block
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which had been allocated for that purpose, but as they had to start with
exactly nothing it was difficult. I was dumped off my lorry in front of
the hospital-to-be at about 11 o'clock, and it was 5 p.m. before the staff
had cleared a room and found enough beds to get the most elementary
of wards going. There I stayed exactly two months. Meanwhile my wife
had found a corner for herself in a room with three other married couples
and a baby. She got on very well with two of the other couples (and
the baby), but the third couple were very disagreeable and behaved in
an almost incredibly disgraceful way towards the other people in the
room, but particularly to my poor wife. So when I was fit to be moved
from the hospital we tried to get quarters elsewhere but the billeting
committee couldn't fix us in anywhere and the Japanese Chief Supervisor
was unhelpful, so I just had to make one more in an already overcrowded
room. And there we stayed, with one brief excursion to the French
Hospital to have my knee X-rayed, until the Americans were repatriated
early in July when we were moved into the block vacated by them where
we shared a room with Mr. and Mrs. Witham and their baby and one
other couple. Here we were perfectly happy and were facing with
equanimity the prospect of internment for the duration when on July 20th
we were told that we could, if we wished and if we paid our own fares,
go to Shanghai. No further explanation was forthcoming and the
permission did not extend to the rest of the Embassy and Consulate
personnel in the camp. Of course I said we would go (the Swiss Consul
sent in enough money for the fares) and we were shipped to Shanghai
with some 60 other people who had also been allowed to leave the camp.
I assumed that once I was in Shanghai I would be entitled to be repatriated
with the rest of the Embassy people; but as soon as the ship berthed in
Shanghai a Japanese Vice-Consul came on board and told me that though
I had been allowed to come to Shanghai I was not going to be repatriated.
It looked as if I was going to share with Sir Mark Young (who is interned
at Woosung) the melancholy distinction of being the only British officials
in Japan and occupied China. We were taken to the Cathay Hotel where
the outport Consulate staffs and other persons destined for repatriation
were being collected. We were given a comfortable suite and, except
for the restriction in our movements, had nothing to complain about.
I telephoned to Mr. Le Rougetel who had not been told that we were
coming. He got the Swiss Consul-General to inform the Foreign Office
and it seems that a special exchange agreement was made for me and
my wife. So on August 17th we embarked on the "Kamakura Maru".

As regards conditions in Stanley Internment Camp I wrote a few notes,

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and left copies with the Swiss Consul-General in Shanghai for his own
information and for that of the Red Cross representative. In their original
form I showed them to three responsible British subjects who left the
Camp at the same time as I did, and they agreed that the notes gave a
fairly accurate picture of the situation, though perhaps the colours were
not dark enough. A copy of these notes, somewhat amended, is attached.
A point which perhaps ought to have been made is that prior to internment
at Stanley most of the "enemy nationals" in Hongkong and Kowloon
had already been interned in Chinese hotels for periods varying from
two weeks to six weeks in conditions of great discomfort and hardship
and that they were seriously debilitated when they reached the Camp.
They, and all the other "enemy nationals" who had so far escaped
internment, were then thrown into the camp without adequate
preparations having been made for their reception. In the Science Block
of St. Stephen's College men, women and children found themselves
herded together in large class rooms without beds, mattresses or furniture;
there was only one lavatory for the block and no arrangements had been
made for cooking food. Though the Japanese never actively ill-treated
the civilian internees their whole attitude was unhelpful and
unsympathetic. Consequently conditions were very bad during the first
2'/2 or 3 months. Then the Japanese began to realise the seriousness of
the situation and conditions improved considerably, as I have indicated
in my notes. Conditions were about at their worst in the middle of April,
and when I was taken to the French Hospital on April 21st to have my
leg X-rayed Dr. Selwyn Clark and Dr. Court both impressed on me that
the food situation, not only in the camp but in the Colony generally was
extremely serious since the Japanese were shipping all foodstuffs to Japan
and were bringing nothing in. They said they expected the crisis to come
at the end of July and they urged me to represent to the Foreign Office
that if no relief was forthcoming the whole of the foreign community
ought to be removed before the end of the Summer. I accordingly wrote
a short message on these lines to H.M. Consul at Macao, which Dr.
Selwyn Clark said he would be able to send through.

I did all I could to get the Japanese to admit my diplomatic status

and to include the whole of the Embassy and Consulate group in any
exchange arrangements but, except for Mr. Yano's original assurance,
they took the attitude that, as we had not been at our posts we had no
special status, and beyond that there was a blank wall; we were not
allowed to knew even what had become of the Embassy and Consular
establishments in occupied China.
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Martin (H.M. Consul-General at Chungking) died on April 6th. Mrs.
Martin fought the Japanese tooth and nail to keep him and herself out
of the internment camp and she got her way though she was nearly put
up against a wall and shot for her pains. They were allowed to remain
in Queen Mary Hospital till the Japanese took it over on January 21st.
They were then moved to one of the temporary hospitals (St. Stephens
Girls College) in charge of a Chinese doctor, and there he died. The
Japanese then again wanted to send Mrs. Martin to Stanley but she
threatened to commit suicide, and the Japanese were so impressed that
they allowed her to live in the French Hospital till she was sent away
with the American repatriates on the strength of her American nationality
of origin.

There are two questions which I am always being asked: (1) How
is it that Hongkong was captured so quickly? and (2) How did the
Japanese behave?

As to (1) the exasperation of the civilian population found vent in

the bitterest after-the-event criticism of the conduct of affairs by both
the Hongkong Government and the Defence Forces. Probably most of
this criticism is ill-informed and it would be dangerous to pass it on
particularly as I had no opportunity of learning the official explanation.
There are however certain definite impressions left on my own mind,
and these are that our troops were quite inadequate in numbers to hold
the Colony against a determined enemy, that the anti-aircraft defences
were completely ineffective and that both the military operations and
the civilian organisation were sabotaged by Wang Ching-wei Chinese.
I saw nothing of the close range fighting, but I was repeatedly told that
our troops were completely bewildered by the apparent ubiquity of the
enemy, as they were being fired on from all sides at once, and that, with
their heavy equipment and army boots they were no match in the hills
for the lightly clad and rubber shoed Japanese who clambered about as
agilely as monkeys. I was also told that we lost heavily in the fighting
in the New Territories, that there were no reserves to fill the gaps and
that it was due to our troops being utterly exhausted by continuous fighting
that the Japanese were able to effect a landing on the island so easily.

I believe our forces claim to have brought down 6 Japanese planes

during the eighteen days fighting. I watched the Japanese bombing Mt.
Davis Fort, Stonecutters Island, Mt. Austin barracks etc. For the most
part they flew at low altitudes and made no apparent efforts to dodge
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anti-aircraft fire, but as far as I could see, they were completely
unscathed. The bombing seemed to me to be directed entirely against
what were, or might be taken to be, military objectives, and this indeed
may be said of the artillery fire also. During the 18 days fighting Queen
Mary Hospital, 400 yards from Mt. Davis Fort, did not receive a single
direct hit. The two hospitals on the Peak (i.e. the Matilda Hospital and
the War Memorial Nursing Home) were repeatedly hit by shells, but
I think this was due to the fact that the Japanese were searching for two
field batteries which were located uncomfortably close to the two
hospitals: this, at any rate, was the explanation given by a Japanese officer
who came to the War Memorial Nursing Home while I was there after
the surrender. One point which struck me very forcibly was the small
size of the bombs and shells which the Japanese were using. I saw many
direct hits by bombs on buildings on the Peak but in no case did I see
any building completely demolished as my house in Chungking was; and
the shells, which I am told were mostly from field guns and trench
mortars, did not seem to have much penetrating power: they hardly
scarred modern reinforced concrete buildings such as the Hongkong and
Shanghai Bank building and the block of flats where my wife and I were
living. I am told that the Japanese were using heavier weapons elsewhere,
but my general impression was that the Japanese were mainly using what
I think Mr. Hore-Belisha called "Woolworth" material.

As regards the bahaviour of the Japanese in Hongkong I think I must

distinguish between two phases, i.e. the actual attack and afterwards.
There are many well-authenticated stories of the shooting or bayoneting
of British prisoners during the attack, though how general the practice
was I have no means of judging. (A Commissioner of Customs, Mr.
Flanagan, who is in the "Narkunda"*, told me he had seen a number
of corpses of British soldiers still with their hands tied behind their backs).
There was also a very nasty affair at Stanley where two doctors, three
nurses and a number of Canadian officers and possibly others were
massacred. There were also apparently numerous cases of rape including
a few European women and girls. The situation however was quickly
brought under control and there was nothing at all resembling the licensed
disorder which followed the capture of Nanking in 1937. We were indeed
told by people who were in Kowloon when the Japanese came in, that
the behaviour of the latter towards European women was good though
numbers of Chinese and half-caste girls were taken off, obviously for

* The staff repatriated via the "Kamakura Maru" were transferred to the "Narkunda"
in Lourenco Marques. (Editor's Note)
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use in soldiers' brothels. Stories regarding these events are in the highest
degree contradictory.

As regards the post-occupation period, the main Japanese objective

seemed to be to impress the Chinese population with the advantages which
the Japanese regime was going to bring them but they were overwhelmed
by the magnitude of the problem presented by the teeming Chinese
population who, with the disappearance of the British food services, were
on the edge of starvation. Though congee centres were opened, these
were on a quite inadequate scale and it soon became obvious that the
Japanese were going drastically to reduce the numbers of Chinese in the
Colony, by the threat of starvation if necessary. Dr. Selwyn Clark told
me, during my one excursion from the camp on April 22nd that his office
was besieged from morning to night by the Chinese employees of the
Hongkong Government and by the relatives and dependents of Chinese
volunteers all completely destitute. The Japanese would do nothing
for them and he could do very little. The French hospital was full of
malnutrition cases who were doomed to death as they could get neither
appropriate food nor drugs. The Japanese had also forbidden the
admission of any more civilian patients. Many Chinese actually died of
starvation, and tens of thousands voluntarily returned to China. One large
party of alleged destitutes and vagabonds (about 600) were brought to
Stanley by motorbus and put in the prison. After a few days they were
put aboard junks at Stanley and the junks went off somewhere. Within
a very short time a number of bodies of men and women were washed
up on shore where they were left to putrify for several days. There were
rumours of a "noyade", but I think a more reasonable explanation is
that the Japanese were deporting these people and that the more desperate
committed suicide.

I have already referred in these notes to the looting of the Peak area
by Chinese. This looting was general all over Hongkong and Kowloon
except, I believe, in the Central District. In the space of a few hours
Government rice, stocks, hospitals and private houses would be picked
clean. To a great extent the looting was done in the short interval between
the withdrawal of the British forces from any point and the arrival of
the Japanese but in many cases, as on the Peak where we were
the looting went on after the occupation and almost under the noses of
the Japanese gendarmerie. There is hardly a house on the Peak, I am
told, that has not been reduced to a mere shell, all woodwork including
floors and staircases being removed and plumbing and electrical fittings,
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wiring and piping ripped out. The ravage was so extensive that many
people in the camp thought it must be part of a deliberate policy on the
part of the Japanese. This I doubt: whatever pickings there were to be
had the Japanese wanted for themselves, and I think the true explanation
is simply that they could not at first spare enough men for effective
policing. The looters were dangerous, and a party for five Swedes who
were foolhardy enough to remain on the Peak were murdered.

It was not long before the Japanese themselves entered into competition
with the Chinese looters, but on an official basis. Foodstuffs were their
first objective, followed by metals of all kinds and medical stores.
Hongkong had been stocked with supplies for 6 months: it held out for
only 18 days so enormous stocks fell into Japanese hands and these were
shipped off to Japan as fast as they could be loaded. Of the Hongkong
Dairy Farm's herd of 1500 cattle, over 1000 had been shipped away
by the end of March.

All the European members of the Police Force were interned at

Stanley. The Sikhs and Chinese accepted service under the Japanese.
The guards round the internment camp and the gaol warders were
principally Sikhs. If drawn into conversation they would say they must
work for the Japanese or starve; but Pennyfeather-Evans, the Chief of
Police, told me that the Sikhs had been practically in a state of mutiny
during the last days of the fighting.

As regards the Chinese or semi-Chinese members of the Legislative

Council, Sir Robert Hotung was, I think, in Macao when the war broke
out. He subsequently returned to Hongkong but I do not know what line
he took or what became of him. Sir Shouson Chow, Mr. Kotewall and
Mr. M.K. Lo joined the "Rehibilitation Committee" set up by the
Japanese and had to attend official ceremonies such as receptions for
the Japanese Governor. Lo, who met A.J. Evans on the street one day
shortly after the Japanese occupation, told him that he had at first refused,
and that he had then been imprisoned without food till he gave way. I
have no doubt similar measures were taken with the others.

I have already referred to the eviction of the staff and patients from
Queen Mary Hospital and the War Memorial Nursing Home. The Matilda
Hospital was cleared at the same time. Japanese wounded were pouring
into Hongkong from other places and it is clear the Japanese needed all
the accommodation and the medical supplies they could get for their own
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wounded. Professor Digby, the senior surgeon at Queen Mary Hospital,
told me that the hospital was crowded with wounded when the Japanese
ordered it to be evacuated. There were many terribly injured soldiers
for whom any movement was practically a death sentence and he had
protested most forcibly against their removal. Some of the doctors and
sisters also volunteered to remain and look after them under Japanese
supervision. But it was of no avail, and all the doctors could do was
to fill the poor men up with morphia before they were loaded on
ambulances and lorries and taken to the military hospital at Bowen Road.
Professor Digby described it as one of the most heartless performances
in his experience.

STANLEY INTERNMENT CAMP

The camp is situated in pleasant surroundings on the Stanley Peninsula.

It consists of the Warders' Quarters of Stanley Prison and the premises
of St. Stephen's Boys School, well built, modern blocks with
electricity, running water, flush closets, etc. While there is a considerable
differences between the blocks inter se (e.g. between the Foreign and
Indian warders quarters) there is no real ground for complaint regarding
the quarters themselves, which are probably well above the average for
internment camps. The area is surrounded by barbed wire with Indian
guards at intervals, but the grounds are spacious (it would take about
25 to 30 minutes to walk round the perimeter), there is a good bowls
lawn and room for soft ball etc.

This having been said, we come to the reverse of the medal. One
of the most serious grievances of the internees was that of overcrowding.
In the Foreign married warders' quarters (which are the best in the camp)
there were as many as 9 people living in the larger rooms, and five or
six in the smaller rooms. In a flat normally occupied by one married
warder and his family there were between 30 and 40 persons. To take
my own case: In our flat there were: in Room 1:- One married
couple, one mother and baby, and 4 other women; in Room 2:- five
women; in Room 3:- Four married couples and one baby; in Room 4:-
Two married couples, one grown up daughter and a boy; in each of 2
Servants' rooms:- One married couple; in the Pantry:- One married
couple. The furniture found in the flats was divided up roughly. Some
rooms got beds but no tables. Others got chairs, and so on. In our room,
for 9 people we had two chairs and no tables. Of course people
improvised and to some extent the gaps were filled, but even when we
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left there were still many people who had neither beds nor mattresses.
With the departure of the American internees at the beginning of July
it had been possible to relieve a few of the worst cases of overcrowding,
but the relief was quite insufficient, and for many I am tempted to
say "formost" of the internees the overcrowding, the lack of privacy,
and the consequent friction and nervous strain rank as a more serious
hardship than the food shortage which I will deal with next.

The food question falls into two phases. During the first 2!/2 months
the food was very bad indeed, totally insufficient in quantity, poor in
quality, ill cooked and deficient in nourishment. When I was in hospital
my normal food was: breakfast two thin slices of bread (sometimes
with a scrape of jam or margarine, sometimes dry) and one cup of tea;
dinner, a bowl of rice and soya beans cooked with two or three small
pieces of buffalo beef, pork or fish and some greens; tea, one cup of
tea only; supper, one slice of bread, sometimes with a sliver of cheese,
and a cup of soup of sorts. (This was better than the ordinary camp fare).
During this period there was no way of supplementing the basic rations
of rice, soya bean, meat (or fish) and greenstuff, and everyone lost weight
severely some men lost as much as 70 lbs. The hospital was full of
dysentery and diarrhoea cases and there were a large number of cases
of beriberi and other mulnutrition diseases.

In April, however, an issue of Vi lb. of flour a day was substituted

for part of the rice ration and arrangements were made to bake bread
in the camp. An immediate improvement in the general health of the
camp appeared, and this was aided by certain other factors of which the
principal were

(a) the opening of a canteen where those who had any money could
buy limited quantities of oatmeal, margarine, powdered milk, sugar,
cocoa etc. at fancy prices, and

(b) permission for parcels of foodstuffs, toilet necessities etc. to be

sent in from the town.

Those persons then who had money to spend at the canteen and friends
in Hongkong were able to supplement their diet fairly satisfactorily. But
there remained a large a very large residue of people in the camp
who had neither money nor friends in Hongkong and who were
accordingly entirely dependent on their rations. These consisted when
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I left the camp at the end of July of: 7 oz. rice, 7 oz. bread, a meagre
portion of beef or pork, some greenstuff, a small quantity of peanut oil,
and sometimes a slice of sweet potatoes daily, and about 1 xh oz. of sugar
and a sufficient quantity of salt weekly. Sometimes excessive pork fat
was boiled down in the kitchens and distributed as dripping. This diet,
it should be noted, includes none of the following milk, butter,
margarine, cocoa, tea, coffee, cheese, fruit, eggs or jam and it is entirely
inadequate for persons accustomed to a European dietary, as well as far
short of the scale believed adopted for internees in the United Kingdom.
The Japanese maintained that internees were receiving the equivalent
of 2000 calories per head per diem and that this was sufficient for persons
not doing hard manual labour. Our own doctors maintained that the
minimum allowed by the League of Nations scale was 2400 calories,
that we were, during the earlier days, getting only 1400 and that internees
were, even at the end of July, getting only 1940. Anyhow, apart from
the calories question, the basic rations do not afford suitable nourishment
for Europeans, and those persons who were entirely dependent on them
were definitely suffering severe hardship. I would add too that the
suggestion that internees were not doing hard manual labour was only
partly true. All the work of the camp including road and building repairs
and constructions, moving stores, cooking, baking, sawing firewood,
grass cutting etc., was done by the internees themselves and many of
the latter worked hard and for long hours. There is one further class
which needs special mention those people who cannot digest a rice
diet. There were many such in the camp and they were having a hard
time. Though a special diet kitchen had been opened to cook for these
and other special cases, its resources were very limited and the diet,
though somewhat better cooked, did not vary much from the regular
camp food.

The rice supplied by the Japanese was very variable in quality. Only
occasionally did we have first grade. The normal ration consisted of
"cargo rice", a reddish rice full of grit, beetles, maggots and other
extraneous matter. It cooks badly and has an unpleasant musty flavour.
Many representations on the subject were made to the Japanese
Authorities, but without effect.

During May the Japanese were so impressed by the physical

deterioration of internees that a sum of H.K.$300,000 was allocated for
their relief. This came to approximately $105 a head and it was arranged
that a certain sum be allotted for the purchase of extras for the communal
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kitchens, that each individual internee be allowed to order from Hongkong
stores, etc. to the value of $75 and that the balance of $17.40 a head
be paid in cash so that internees could purchase a few small items at
the canteen. One internee was allowed to go into Hongkong to place
the orders and he arranged with a neutral firm to fill them as best they
could. As the money was placed at the disposal of the camp in $100
and $50 Hongkong notes which were subject to a heavy discount, the
average purchasing power of the nominal $75 was reduced to $52. Great
difficulty was experienced by Messrs. Habade not only on this account,
but also on account of the rapid denudation of the market of foreign
foodstuffs and the soaring prices. Parcels were accordingly slow in
coming in, and when we left probably only about 600 people had been
served. A number of us, including my wife and myself, had not received
our parcels although three months had elapsed since the grant was made.

Without wishing to minimise the value of these parcels (and for many
their value was as much moral as physical) I must emphasize that these
stores are quickly consumed, and that a windfall like this cannot be
regarded as a proper substitute for proper rations regularly supplied.

On the medical side: a hospital was improvised in the Indian bachelor

warders' quarters, and doctors allocated to the different residential blocks.
A dental clinic and a babies' clinic were also established. There was
no shortage of doctors and nurses among the internees, but there was
a severe shortage of medical supplies, drugs, instruments, etc. Major
operations (except for the most emergency character) and dental work
had to be suspended for this reason. Even crockery and table cutlery
were unobtainable. After three months pressure the Japanese agreed to
allow patients requiring X-ray examination to be sent to the French
Hospital in Hongkong for this purpose.

Recreation: There is a good bowls lawn and lots of bowls were found
on the premises, so this game was popular and regularly played. There
was a certain amount of soft ball played but there was no enthusiasm
for it. There were a couple of hard tennis courts, but nets, rackets and
balls were worn out. Dances were held about once a week and there
were occasional concerts and variety shows put on by internees. The
Americans managed to bring in most of the books from their Club
Library, and after the Americans left these books were placed at the
disposal of a Committee for the use of the rest of the community. Apart
from these, small libraries were formed in the different blocks, but the
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number of books was quite inadequate and the Japanese, with their usual
suspicion of the written or printed word, would not allow any more to
be brought in. Sea bathing is now (i.e. since the middle of July) permitted
at one beach.

Children: Schools a senior and a junior school were established

by the Hongkong University authorities and some attempt made to arrange
organised recreation for the children; but, there were hardly any toys,
games or children's books in the camp, and the children were usually
ragging about and getting into mischief. A little pingpong and badminton
apparatus, half a dozen old tennis rackets and a few dozen old balls would
have been a boon to children and grown-ups alike, but there was no way
of getting them.

General: Various 'shortages' have been mentioned in previous

paragraphs, but in point of fact there was a deficiency of nearly everything
beds and bedding, clothing, shoes, toilet materials, brooms and other
cleaning materials, plates, cups, dishes, cooking pots, knives, forks and
spoons, glass for repairing war-broken windows, tools of all kinds, etc.
etc. An "International Welfare Committee" formed in Hongkong by
sympathisers under the auspices of Dr. Selwyn-Clarke (of whom I shall
speak again) was doing a good deal to meet the most urgent needs and
sent in cotton dress lengths, sandshoes, handkerchiefs, Chinese toilet
paper, tin mugs, washing soap and numerous other articles; but the needs
were far in excess of the resources of the Committee. The shortage was
particularly serious in regard to clothing and foot-wear. Many people
reached the camp with only what they stood up in, few were able to
bring much. Clothes and shoes wear out. I remember seeing two ladies
wearing shorts made of Australian flourbags and one girl in a frock made
from the ticking of a mattress. Many people were going barefooted, others
were wearing sandals made from gunnybags or home-made wooden
pattens. The footwear situation was about July slightly but only slightly
relieved by the receipt from the Welfare Committee of some shoe
leather, with which amateur cobblers did their best to effect repair.

Letters: One of the worst features of the camp was the lack of
communication with the outside world. We were allowed (in 6 months)
to send one short telegram and two short letters, but the messages which
I sent (to Mr. Le Rougetel) were never delivered. A few people got letters
from Shanghai but this was exceptional. Internees were not allowed
to write even to friends in Hongkong except (and even this was a very
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recent concession) to the limited extent of replying to a message which
must originate with a neutral. No communication with the various
prisoners-of-war camps or hospitals in other parts of Hongkong was
permitted, so that wives in the camp could neither send messages to,
nor receive them from, their prisoner-of-war husbands. Some were
unable to find out whether their husbands were prisoners or not. This
seems a quite unnecessary creulty.

Dr. Selwyn-Clarke. I have made a passing reference to Dr. Selwyn-

Clarke (Director of Medical Services in the Hongkong Government),
but he deserves more than that. The Japanese found it worth their while
to allow him and his wife and a small group of British relief workers
under him to remain outside the camp and they were primarily engaged
on relief work in the Colony. But he had secured the confidence of the
Japanese Military Authorities and was allowed to visit the camp frequently
on the strict understanding that he gave no news and discussed nothing
but medical and relief matters. He visited the camp once or twice a week,
talked to the doctors and the Welfare Committee's representative, found
out what wanted doing and then in Hongkong tried to get it done.
Everyone in the camp knew that almost all the improvements in diet and
other matters were the result of untiring efforts on his part, but not so
many knew that he had been equally untiring in his efforts to relieve
distress among the Chinese population of Hongkong whose plight was
immeasurably worse than anything the Stanley internees had to endure.

Camp management, discipline, etc. When the camp was first opened,
the Japanese put in a number of English-speaking Chinese as block
supervisors. Their duties were never clearly defined, but they formed
the only channel of communication between the Japanese and the
internees. Then the internees elected Communal Councils (one for each
of the three communities British, American and Dutch) and these
Councils, working in cooperation, ran the camp and were recognised
by the Japanese as the spokesmen of their national groups. Later a
Japanese Superintendent was appointed (Mr. Nakazawa). He lived in
a separate house in the camp and had two or three Japanese satellites.
About the same time Mr. Gimson (Colonial Secretary) and Mr. Alabaster
(Attorney General), who had hitherto been allowed to remain outside
and to act as liaison officers with the Japanese, came into the camp. This
brought to a head a conflict which had been going on subterraneously
between the Hongkong Government officials and the rest of the
community. For reasons which I need not go into here, the community
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as a whole was bitterly critical of the Hongkong Government, and it
strongly opposed any suggestion that Government officials should
dominate the camp. Mr. Gimson, however, took the view that the
Hongkong Government had not ceased to exist, that its authority
continued in so far as circumstances permitted, and that, as a matter of
practical politics, it was essential that this position be maintained for
disciplinary and other purposes unless Japanese intervention was to be
constantly invoked. He realised, however, that it was neither possible
nor desirable to take a high hand in the matter, and decided to work
in with the Communal Councils and trust to time to calm feelings and
produce a modus vivendi. He was so far successful that a day or two
before we left the camp a resolution asking him to accept the
Chairmanship of a reconstituted Council was signed by 1,300 British
internees, and the existing British Council tendered its resignation to
enable the change to take place. It was clear from this that there was
no hostility to Mr. Gimson personally, but the stubborn determination
to prevent the "old gang" from getting in and "bossing" things remained
undiminished, and it was tacitly agreed that Mr. Gimson's assumption
of the Chairmanship would not involve the placing in executive positions
in the camp of the senior Cadet officers.

One of the rather curious consequences of the "continuing

jurisdiction" theory is that the Police Courts continued to function, though
of course on a very limited scale. Persons were tried and sentenced by
the Magistrate for theft. The Chief Justice even declared his readiness
to hear certain classes of civil actions, and he did in fact make a decree
nisi in divorce proceedings begun before the Japanese occupation.
It will be noticed that the Japanese interfered actively very little in
the internal affair of the camp. However they interfered negatively to
a great extent, by insisting that nothing was to be changed without their
consent, and by refusing to give their consent even in quite trivial matters.
They themselves kept aloof. I made repeated written representations about
the status of myself and the rest of our Embassy and Consular party and
asked for interviews, but received no replies, and it was not until July
20th, when I was about to leave the camp, that I was able to exchange
a few wprds with Mr. Nakazawa, the camp superintendent. Mr. Ohda,
the Chief of the Foreign Affairs Section of the Hongkong Military
Government, remained quite unapproachable.

s.s. "Narkunda"
September 19th, 1942.