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gained thereby, as the interview could not be long postponed and we understood that General Sakai had already left his headquarters for the purpose of coming to meet us in Kowloon.
16. This despatch which has been written immediately after the events which it recounts, deals for the most part with the military aspect of those events, but I can not conclude it without paying a warm tribute to the manner in which His Majesty's Colonial Civil Servants in Hong Kong played their part throughout the intensely difficult and trying period through which we have passed. In every department of Government and in a multitude of activities falling far outside the scope of any previous existing department, civilian officers, male and female, European and Asiatic, have shown energy resource, and courage, such as cannot be too highly praised. They, like myself, are now in the hand of the enemy as prisoners, whose hope it is that we may be judged not to have failed in the endeavour to do our duty during these dark and difficult days, and whose consolation lies in our undiminished confidence in the sure approach of final victory.
I have, etc.,
(Sgd.) MARK YOUNG.
The Right Honourable
The Secretary of State
for the Colonies.
Governor of Hong Kong.
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