79
There is no doubt but that the Japs are making this appear to be a racial war, and they are playing on the Chinese and Indians along this line. "hey say they must fight Russia, and some day dermany. But it appears that the fly in the ointment is now China. They are of the opinion that without the settlemen: of their affairs in China, they will be unable to make any appreciable strides in regard to India, and it appears that if they could withdrew from the picture, in so far as China is concerned, gracefully and without loss of face, they would be happy to do so, taking a chance on their hoped for key position in this part of the world to hold the big stick at some future date. Certainly they are not deriving any benefit from the occupied territory (at least South China) but on the other hand from personal observations and conversations with people in the occupied area, it is costing them a good deal of money and material apert from that used for war. Their puppets in the occupied territories are ready to turn on them at a moments notice, and the e is a considerable amount of anti- Jap feeling in the air. It is claimed by the Japs that their crack troops are on thanchuria Russian border - well seasoned and used to fighting under cold conditions. They have been worried lately by the loss of some ships coming from Japan to Centon.
The Japs say that they must take Australia to complete their
This sounds plana, but they may take a crack at North America first. fantastic but was put forward as a possible ruse to divert attention and sið from Janada and the United States,
In all sections of the army end navy they use suicide squads for all hazardous jobs. There is some ceremony connected with such work which seem to give the Japs the incentive to do it properly and efficiently.
The Jap plan now seems to endeavour to take hungking in a make or break campaign. They were attacking with some success from Canton along the old Kowloon Hankow railway with 3hiukwen as their objective about a month ago, but they are not too confident of success for they have made similar progress on more than one occasion in the past few yeara only to be thrown back to the outskirts of Canton.
The aviators appear to be all quite young men crazy type with & vicious lust for killing.
a wild and
The Japs appear to be using a lot of small two man tanks in and around Centon and claim to have a standing force of 300,000. They do not seem to be strengthening Hongkong defences and from observ tions it does not appear that they have as mɛny soldiers es we had during peace time. However, they are working at some thing on the Peninsula and are using British war prisoners for mönual labour. They seem to have the opinion shared by us all, namely, that the defence of Hongkong is solely dependent on the defence of the Teninsula,
ww
After my escape, I had the unique opportunity of meeting
civil, army and Most of the principals of the Jap administration navy for I was staying in the house of the late Er. su Tong Sen,0.B.E.
his son was reputed to be the wealthiest man in the Par ast in my section of the 7.K.V.D.C. On account of its beauty and the rarity of its contents and perhaps a little monetary consideration) this house was apared by the Japa, but they subsequently made frequent visita without invitation. In fact, they were treating it like
It was these contaicts e kugeum with a restaurant and bar attached.
/which