ENCLOSURE No. 1.
MOST SECRET.
65
(N.B.
MEMORISED DESPATCH FROM HIS EXCELLENCY,
SIR MARK YOUNG, GOVERNOR OF HONGKONG, TO
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR COLONIAL AFFAIRS.
This despatch, which is dated 28th December, 1941, was written immediately after capture while Sir Mark Young was a prisoner in the Peninsular Hotel, and subsequently kept concealed from the Japanese. It was memorised in July, 1942. The following wording is, for the most part, the same as the original, and it is believed that there are no omissions of importance.)
28th December, 1941.
Sir,
It is with the utmost regret that I have to report the circumstances in which, on the afternoon of 25th December, 1941, His Majesty's Forces, which had been engaged in the defence of Hong Kong since the outbreak of war with Japan, ceased to be capable of offering further resistance to the enemy who, having over-run the whole of the mainland and a large portion of Hong Kong Island, were enabled to occupy the remainder of the Colony, including the seat of Government in the City of Victoria.
2.
It is not my intention in this despatch to deal with the whole course of military operations subsequent to the landing of the Japanese on Hong Kong Island on 19th December. I will confine myself in the main to the events of the after- noon of 25th December, but it may be said here that for some days before it had been clear to my military advisers and to myself that the question before us was not whether, but when, the enemy would be able to occupy the whole of the Colony, and that while it did not lie in our power to prevent this calamity, it was our duty to postpone it for the longest possible period of time. I hope that it will be found that this duty has been properly performed.
3.
Up to about 3 P.M. on 25th December the situation on the fighting line was extremely grave but not desperate, and there was reason for us to hope that we would still achieve our daily ambition, namely, to add another twenty-four hours to the credit of the account. An hour or so earlier, I had telegraphed to the Colonial Office reporting that street fighting was in progress, and probably making it clear that the defending forces were in what had been described in pregious telegraphic correspondence as the final pocket. the same telegram I reported that I had just summarily rejected the third of the enemy's peace pffers which had been
but not in any way supported, by a member of my Executive Council who had been taken prisoner by the enemy.
Mrith Shulch brought,
(34)
4.
In
Shortly after 3 P.M. I received a report from Major-General Maltby of three new developments of a positively disastrous character; with this report General Maltby gave his considered opinion that further effective resistance was no longer possible, and that in his judgment the time had now come when this fact should be recognised. These three decisive developments occurred, in ascending order of gravity, on the right, in the centre and on the left.