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BRIEF REFORT ON CONDITIONS PREVAILING IN HONGKONG DURING THE PERIOD 25th DECEMBER, 1941 TO 17th
FEBRUARY, 1942.
Hongkong capitulated at 1525 on Thursday afternoon, 25th December, 1941. Fighting continued in Stanley until about 1830 on the same evening, and there was sporadic resistance in other places until a later hour, but by nightfall all firing had ceased. On the following day men of H.M. Fighting Forces were being marched into the city for internment in one or other of the prison camps, which were situated at North Point (on the Hongkong side) and at argyle st. and Sam Shui Po (on the Kowloon side).
LOOTING on an enormous scale began at the time of the capitu- lation and lasted for a good many days. In the main it was the work of undisciplined Chinese mobs, and many houses and buildings were stripped of all contents, even door and window fittings, floor boards and roof beams being removed. During the early days of the occupation the Japanese soldier were also quite unrestrained in their looting activities and made large hauls of foodstuffs, blankets, mattresses, wrist watches, fountain pens, cigarettes, etc. There was an immense amount of senseless and wanton destruction. Later on there was some attempt on the part of the Japanese Military Authorities to bring things under control, and there were frequent alarms and street shootings. Here and there looters were caught and tied up in groups near sentry posts and many were later shot or executed as public examples. On one occasion I saw six Chinese men lined up against the wall in Ice House St. and beaten to death one after the other by Japanese soldiers with heavy bamboo poles.
HONGKONG GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS.
H.E. the Governor, Sir Mark Your
has not, to the best of my knowledge, been seen since the time of the capitulation by any person with whom I have come into contact. Certainly
he has been seen by none of the/members of the Government Service such as The Hon. Colonial Secretary or the Financial Secretary. The report which is most generally believed, and the one which Mr. Gimson accepts, is that he is being kept in a state of solitary confinement in the Peninsula Hotel. I place no credence in other popular rumours such as that he has succeeded in effecting an escape or that he has lost his mental balance.
Of the remaining members of the Government, Mr. Gim on (Colonial Secretary); Mr. Butters (Financial secretary), Mr. North (Secretary for Chinese Affairs) and Mr. Alabaster (Attorney General) were placed under conditions of semi- detention on the top floor of St. Georges Building. Later they were transferred to the top floor of Princes Building, from which they were able to maintain certain dealings with the Japanese Authorities, but relationship: were very unsatisfactory and they were much restricted in their freedom of movement and in all that they attempted to do. On one occasion, after sending in a firmly worded protest to the Japanese against the disregard of certain international rights, Mr. Gimson was placed under rigid confinement for 24 hours, following which he was allowed to return to his former quarters
car was placed at Mr. Gimson's disposal, and he and his colleagues were able to visit groups of Europeans in various parts of the island. They were able to give a preliminary inspection of the civilian internment quarters at Stanley and, after the internment, were in the habit of paying a daily visit to Stanley. About the end of the first week in February their freedom of movement was again considerably curtailed and they were ordered by the Japanese to restrict the frequency of their visits to Stanley. 17th February two of these officials had already been interned in Stanley, together with the few members of their staff who had been allotted to them and the remaining members of the group were anticipating that they also would be very shortly interned at Stanley.
Mr. Carrie (Chairman of the Urban District Council) was allowed to maintain ar office at the Bacteriological Institute for a few weeks, but he was interned early in February.