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arrested; so far as can be ascertained they are not in any of the prisons and great anxiety is felt about their welfare.
Since January, 1943, short-wave listening has been discontinued and all sets in the Colony altered to receive only medium-wave.
Zindle, (inevitably known to the camp as "Swindle") the Red Cross repre- sentative in Hong Kong, has made a very poor impression on all the internees. Sergeant Mann, making full allowance for all his many difficulties, says that he is no good. One of the difficulties seems to be that the Japanese Forei Affairs Department in Hong Kong does not recognise that the Swiss Legation in Tokio represents British interests in the captured territory of Hong Kong.
Sergeant lann, whose duties prior to the war were in the Special Branch (Japanese) of the Police Force, speaks both Japanese and Cantonese. He was twice questioned by the Japanese as to his former activities once in regard to a spy case in 1938 where he had figured prominently. The suspected spy on that occasion, whom Sergeant Mann had questioned repeatedly and at length, turned out to be a Lieutenant-General in the Gendarmerie and it was this Lieutenant-General himself who sent for Sergeant Mann and, in his turn, questioned him, The Japanese appeared to be moved by personal curiosity only. He wanted to know how Sergeant Mann had got on to him in 1938. The Sergeant parried and stalled to the best of his ability and in the end the interview terminated amicably. The Lieutenant-General complimented Sergeant hann on his courtesy and consideration during the 1938 case. On the second occasion Sergeant Mann was questioned in the Foreign Affairs Department and asked to arrange for the transfer of the Hong Kong Police Alien Registration records to the Japanese Department; having secured ir. Pennefeather-Evans' approval of what was by then a harmless task, he went ahead as ordered by the Japanese and on completion of the job was returned to Stanley.
In view of his special qualifications there is a prospect of Sergeant ann being offered employment with one of the Canadian war agencies: I told him to report this to Ottawa and to await further instructions from London.
liss E. C. K. Clarke (wife of Sergeant Daviä ikänn
irs. Mann was married in 1941. She has been employed for ten years as a confidential secretary in the Hong Kong Civil Service; she is still a member of that Service. She qualifies, I think, for the normal marriage gratuity which has not yet been paid to her owing to the exigencies of war; she also continues on the payroll as the Government refused her resignation in 1941.
She awaits further instructions.
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