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messengers as adequate to cope with information work in the conditions prevailing.
t'
We reached Aberdeen about four o'clock in the afternoon and were informed that the capitulation had already been made and that the garrison th
'e was under instructions not to return the enemy's fire. We were also informed that the Admiral's motor torpedo boat had been forced to leave half an hour previously owing to heavy shell fire and that no one knew where it was. Since there were still two hours of daylight and the surrounding hills were strongly held by the Japanese I abandoned my plan of attempting to hide out on the island until darkness. Instead, I joined in the search to find amid the wreckage in the village harbour some craft capable of taking us out to on e of the smaller islands where we could hope to lie concealed until nightfall to await events.
shortly before five o'clock we found a small fifteen foot launch capable of making three or four knots. We had now been joined by various officers and sailors who, having learned of our intention, volunteered to come with us. Having with their help provisioned the launch and started up the engine, we set a course for a smalll island half a mile distant and, seventeen persons in all, began our journey. It was still broad daylight.
Within the minute we came under very heavy fire from rifles, machine guns and light artillery posted on the surrounding hills at ranges which appeared to vary from six hundred to one thousand yards. The launch affording little protection,we suffered severe casualties and the superstructure began to distentegrate under the intensity of the fire. It was during this period that I sustained a hit with a machine bullet through the left shoulder blade. After proceeding an hundred yards the engine was shot to pieces and silenced. We therefore dived into the water and began to swim. Machine gun fire continued to be direted on us until the survivors reached the island after thirty minutes in the water. Eleven members of the party, including two wounded, completed the journey.
spotter
Still exposed to sniping, including a Japanese artillery on the island it- self, we succeeded in clambering over the rocks to the comparative shelter of the far side and there towards dark, cold and exhausted,we came by the merest chance on the hiding place of the motor torpedo boat which we boardedxx when night fell.
At 10.30 p.m. we left the shores of the Colony and ran the Japanese blockade without great difficulty. Early next morning we landed at MiAs Bay on the coast of China and succeeded in contacting the guerilla forces operating against the Japanese in that area. They willingly arranged to guide us through the enemy lines and marching mostly by night we reached Kukong, the war capital of Kuangtung Brovince in Free China, ten days later in safety. There the wounded received medical attention and the journey to Chungking was completed some days later by air.
At Kukong I received offers from the American and British newspapers and agencies for the exclusive rights to a personal story of the escape. I felt bound to reject these offers, however tempting; but in the interests of propaganda I wrote up the story and presented it to the official Central News Agency of China. I was careful to place all possible emphasis on the factor of Anglo-Chinese co-operation throughout the siege and to put the best face on the relative brevity of the siege itself, since it was obvious that there was considerable Chinese comment (not always friendly) on these two points in particular. Subsequently, at the request of the Chinese propaganda authorities, and with the consent of H.B.M. Ambassador at Chungking, I wrote some articles
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