35
SECRET
Sergeant Charles Medley, Hong Kong Police Force.
1111 Beaver Hall Hill,
liontreal.
4th December, 1943.
(Joined 1934)
"
Sergeant Medley looks in good health, extremely cheerful and in full command of himself. He is accompanied by his wife, who was also interned. He has now recovered almost half of the thirty pounds he lost during internment.
He wishes to continue in the service of the Colonial Police Force and is particularly interested in Hong Kong reconstruction work; in the meantime he is prepared to serve in any Colony in which there is a suitable temporary opening and has a slight preference for Nigeria. His temporary financial needs have been met by Mr. Paterson in accordance with instructions received from Ottawa. I have asked him to report for further instructions to the High Commissioner's Office as soon as possible by letter or visit: he has already reported his particulars of service in a letter to the Colonial Office from Port Elizabeth, dated October 26th, 1943. His permanent address in Canada will be c/o lir. J. W. Donald, P.O. Box 272, Victoria, B.C.
I advised him to apply for whatever recuperation leave he felt it necessary to take and told him that the Colonial Office were proposing three months in the first instance. Sergeant Medley was inclined to baulk at three months leave in wartime but fell for the argument that it was his duty to recover full physical fitness.
Sergeant Medley has undertaken to write a detailed report about conditions in Hong Kong which will be forwarded in due course to the High Commissioner's Office for transmission to London.
The salient points of his conversation with me were as follows:
At the Slipways in Yaumati and Shaukiwan, motor propelled junks are being built on a very large scale; Sergeant Medley has served most of his time in the Water Police and is familiar with the junk and motor launch trade in Hong Kong. His information, which he considers accurate, is that these motor junks are being powered with diesel engines brought from Japan and are capable of between 15 and 16 knots. He emphasized the very large number which were being produced. boat builders are making fortunes.
INDIAN POLICE
The
He emphasized the loyalty of the Indian Police. At first hostile, there are signs that the Indian Police are now adopting a very friendly and propitiatory attitudo. Even in the camp itself, and under the eyes of the Japanese, Sergeant ledley says, that Indian Police will often salute their former superior officers in the Force; they pass along news to the camp when they can, often at considerable risk; they believe scarcely a word of the Japanese propaganda and on several occasions when the chance offered they have held up copies of the official Japanese newspapers and whispered, "Sahib, here are many lies".
One of the most effective pieces of British propaganda during last year has been the case of an Indian who somehow or other received through the Japanese censorship a letter from his family in India saying that his wife continued to be paid her due allowance; this contradicted all the Japanese had said and spread like wildfire round the Indian community. The Indian Police cannot, of course, leave Hong Kong and if they do not belong to the India National Independence Movement their ration cards are taken away in other words, they must either belong to this Lovement or starve. Indian Police are armed, on duty, with rifles and the Officer- in-Charge of the Guard carries a revolver; they are not allowed to retain ammunition; when the Guard is changed, the outgoing Guard passes to his opposite number his rifle and his five rounds of ammunition.
The Moslem India military prisoners have refused all service with the Japanese except general tasks imposed on their camp as a whole at the point of machine guns. The Japanese wished to organise border patrols to control guerilla activities but the Indian prisoners, to a man, refused to serve. As a punishment their Officers wore sent to Stanley and were later returned to the Argyle Street Camp in a dying condition. Red Cross and all Relief supplies for the Indian prisoners are being withheld and the Indians told that there is nothing for them as the British Officers have taken everything.
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