107
Lorf
the bed rolls. Later when my turn came to be examined he brought over the Gendarm in charge and talkedwith him in Japanese, flicking through the despatch box of papers, and the other cases and not bothering about the bad rolls at all.
I wan passed without a word, papers and all. I could have smuggled out any amount of things. Some peoplewere searched very carefully indeed, Mr. Neprad, in particular, also r. Gibson. But Mr. Oda, knowing me, had again seen to it that I was looked after.
Our journey the next day by bus from the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank was a most interesting one, all the way to Stanley Prison where we were aghin examined and embarked on the Asama Maru.
But before I go on to it I wish to put in a bit about Bir Vande leur Grayburn and his wife, and conditions under which they are all living at the Sun Wah Hotel. I saw Lady Grayburn several times, and made a special trip to the hotel to see for myself how things were, In fact, what I have written here is practically all what I have seen with my own eyes. I have heard so many things, often from first hand witnesses, but have not put them in. I saw the Grayburns on the Sunday before we left, we went on Monday and I had gone over to see Mr. and Mrs. Compton to say goodbye and found them there.
They are so very very bitter about things, so terribly bitter. Sir Vandeleur has lost 55 pounds, and looks as gaunt and gray as a timber wolf. He hates the Japanese so that he can scarcely speak of them, although he speaks of them all the time. He would exterminate the race if he could. The cubicle they live in at the Sun Wah Hotel is exactly 7 x 9 feet, and has a tiny washbasin with cold water in one corner. It is inside a long very narrow room, all cubicles of the same sort, with narrow passage way running from a small front verandah to the rear of the building. How those people stand it in the 'heat of a Hongkong surmer is more than I can understand. In fact there not standing it at all. They were falling ill, and ten of them went down the week before I'left, and four had to be brought to hospital. There seems to be a sort of jaundice going around among them, and a fever of unknown origin. They are all so mutinous at the treatment they are receiving that they are threatening to go on strike and refuse to do any banking work at all.
Bir Vandeleur receives $200 a month. He is the last person to be allowed contact with the Japanese, he hates them so. Mr. D.C.Davis, who is I understand No. 3 in the Bank is doing invaluable work as liaison an, he is well liked by the Japanese, is outstandingly sensib e, efficient and helpful, and the Japanese all respect him and like him, and he is sent for about everything.
•
After all, it is worth having a man like that to handle difficult matters. The British are entirely in the hands of the Japanese, who can inflict the most unbearable inhumanities on them if they wish. So many things need adjustment, and can be adjusted and put right by men with peralatence, tact and patience. We owe a great debt of gratitude to Mr. Gibson, and the bank people to "r. Davis. A good liaison man is invaluable.
And at this point some mention should be made of Dr.Selwyn-Clark. He is a strange character. His enemies fear and hate him, they say that every thing he has done has been with an eye to the gallery, that he is working with one aim and one sim only, to receive a decoration after the war from the British Government. He is known as Sir Percy. reputed to never do anything in a sté Ight way if it can be done by devious methods. They say so many things against him, particularly the people of his own group. And the Japanese treat him with the scantiest regard, he has to swallow humiliation after humiliation, the Japanese are good at making people lose face. And yet he keeps on and on. He gets milk, what the re is of it, for the hospitals still open, and bread, and anything else he can think of. He has established himse
He is
Hospital,