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message which was an order for the Colony to be surrendered by three o'- clock that afternoon in lieu of which the entire Colony would be blown up and every man, woman and child massacred, was given to the Governor and considered by him and his Defense Council. They were also told of the great strength of the Japanese Army on the island and how much of the island they already held. Mr. Shields and Major Manners estimated that there were at least 20,000 Japanese soldiers on the island and they were all splendidly equipped. As the Japanese General had made such a point of the bad treatment the Japanese internees were getting at British hands, Mr. Shields insisted on getting a statement from the Japanese Counsel. Mr. Pennyfeather-Evans, Commissioner of Police, volunteered to get this which he did and Mr. Shields was able to take that statement back to the Japanese General who seemed to be impressed with it. After considerable discussion, the Governor told Mr. Shields that he refused to surrender and he and Major Manners left to take the message to the Japanese General.
We were afterward told by members of the Defense Council, interned with us at Stanley, that after Mr. Shields and Major Manners left Government House, they remained in session and that within a very short time the Gov- ernor decided
surrender to the Japanese, which he did himslef at three o'clock that it. When Mr. Phields and Major Manners returned to North Point and told of the failure of their mission, the interpreter told Mr. Shields that it was not the custom of the Japanese to thank anyone, but that the General considered a very brave act had been performed by Mr. Shields and Major Manners. He said the General desired to know if there was anything he could do for them. Mr. Shields asked that our home at 37 Repulse Bay Road be preserved and Major Manners asked the same for his a- partment in Kowloon. They readily agreed to this and gave assurance that nothing would happen to either of these places. The reliability of the Jap- anese word can be estimated by the fact that our home and that of Major Manners were among the worst looted in the Colony. The Japanese General then said that all the people then held in the Duro Paint Company were not prisoners but were in the Japanese custody for their own safety and said they were sending us to Kowloon to the Peninsula hotel, which is the best hotel in the Colony, where we would be well taken care of. We were put in trucks and driven to the Taikoo docks where we were put on horse barges and sent over to Kowloon. When we got there they again put us on trucks and we were driven for hours all over Kowloon for the delectation of the Chinese. They then drove us to the Peninsula Hotel where we start- ed to disembark but they started off with us again and finally arrived at the Kowloon Hotel, which was nothing more than a brothel. We were taken out there and herded into the large lounge. A Japanese spokesman got up and told us that we were prisoners of war, that we were in a Japanese Con- centration Camp and that they would give us some food, for which we would have to pay, that we must hold no communication whatsoever with the out- side world and that we must obey absolutely the gendarmes or we would be shot. I think that was the worst moment we had gone through. Everyone was absolutely crushed and frightened. As the first and second floors of the hotel were already occupied with prisoners taken in Kowloon, we were sent to the third floor where we were put as many in a room as the room could possibly hold. They then told us it was too late to give us any dinner, so