189
After the occupation of the island w as completed, atrocities to foreign women cet 1 but Chinese still suffered. I witnessed several Chinese women being beaten with bamboo poles on the morning of the 27th January. I also saw four
I could see Chinese men badly beaten and afterwards thrown into the harbour.
no reason for this, they appeared to be quite orderly.
Hundreds of wounded and dead lay on the hillsides for days and the Japanese refused to allow us to send in men to collect wounded and bury the dea.
If
we had been allowed to collect all our wounded, our casualties would not have been so high. Many were left to die who could have been saved if they had been brought in. At Stanley when part of the Colonial Staff were interned, they had to bury seven soldiers,(whose bodi s were found in the garden of the house
This was` allotted to them,) found with their hands tied behind their backs. told to me by Mr. W.J. Carrie. Chairman of the Urban Council, who was in charge of the burials. Many of the bodies found were far too decomposed to be able to identify them and their means of identification had been lost of stolen.
Looters caused an enormous amount of trouble, many had arms which they had picked up in the streets, either discarded by police reserves, or stolen from dead and wounded soldiers. Fifth Columnists also were rife, every branch of essential services was riddled with them.
After the occupation, the Japanese took over all food supplies, which they shipped out to Japan. It was a common sight to see convoys leaving every day. Radio supplies and photography materials, together with medical instruments and equipment were also taken out of the Colony. I saw truck loads being driven away from various buildings and banks where they were stored.
The Iron gates from houses on the Peak were also demolished and taken away. bronze statues in Statue Square and the big bronze lions from the outside of the Hongkong bank were also being taken a way.
All cars, trucks and damaged buses were taken to two dumping grounds, one was the Race Course. the other the Cricket Club. Damaged cars were stripped of essential parts and those undamaged were being driven until they could not be used any longer.
During the bombing itself, the city suffered only a little damage. The North Point area where the Power Company is housed and the Shell Oil Company, suffered a great deal of damaged, as did the Causeway Bay area, where food stuffs were stored at the Dairy Farm Ice and Cold Storage Company, and also a great deal of damage was done to the est Point Godowns where large stocks of food were stored. The Peak also suffered very heavily and few houses remain undamaged. ith the exception of The Cannossa Hospital, the French Hospital, and the "litary Hospital, the remainder of the hospitals were very little
The three mentioned above, damaged. The Queen Mary Hospital was not touched. were heavily damaged due to the fact that we had placed guns in the gardens of the hospitals. thereby making the hospitals themselves targets.
All hospitals with the exception of theMilitary Hospital and St. Albe to Emergency Hospital, were taken over by the Japanese. Staffs were interned and patients turned out with the exception of very badly wounded cases, these were transferred to the M litary hospital. Many of the men who were turned out were made to walk long distances, when they were not in a fit condition to doso.
All Colonial Staff stillworking were given military rank, at the reuest of to determine the kind the Japanese Military Command. This they stated, wa of treatment they would receive.
Their rules to internees were so fantastic that a complaint was registered by the Colonial Secretary. It them appeared that they had no knowledge of the
We supplied League Convention relating to treatment of prisoners of war. them with numerous copies.
Page 190Page 191