In fact a pair of monkeys liked the place and seemed to want to join up. They would scamper all around the house as if they owned it. However, as they were not housebroken they were a nuisance. One day a very religious monkey was found in the chapel. He ran into the sacristy and the door was slammed on him. Then the tennis net was brought up to capture him. The door was flung open, and in charged the priests with the net flying. The monkey was so frightened that he smashed right through the window and disappeared in the woods. Apparently he had decided he didn't want to be a monk after all.
There were no great incidents at the house till the war came in 1941. Incidentally, I was ordained in 1941 and arrived in Hong Kong the night before Pearl Harbor on the last of the Pan Am Flying Clippers. And today happens to be the anniversary of the starting of the war!
It was dusk on that Dec. 7th as we drove from the airfield out to Stanley, so we didn't see much of the city. Next morning when I was saying Mass in the lower chapel, there were big explosions and the altar jumping around. I thought this is probably the way they start every day in the East. Then when I came down to breakfast, the news had been received on the radio that the Japanese were attacking Hong Kong. We also got the first uncensored reports on Pearl Harbor. As the Japanese army gradually conquered Hong Kong Island, many refugees came to take shelter in the house. The Salesian Fathers had brought out a group of orphans and taken over a part of the house. Some military were also quartered in the house. With us nine new arrivals, the staff etc. there were some thirty people. The war started on Monday, so on Tuesday we as aliens had to go downtown to register. The bus went through Aberdeen, right past Mt. Davis, a big British military installation. The Japanese were bombing this all day, and so we spent practically all day jumping on and off buses, diving into the gutters along the roadside or darting into air raid shelters. We arrived in town just in time to catch the last bus home. However, after dark, the bus only went as far as Repulse Bay and we had to walk the rest of the way. With us were two Carmelite Sisters who had been to town to buy provisions for the siege. As we came down the road into Stanley