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On the 26th it was learned that all Volunteers had been ordered to report at Volunteer H.Q. and by some queer method of Hong Kong reasoning it was believed that now the war was over, the Volunteers would be allowed to go home to the bosom of their families. (This together with the rumour that even the Canadians were to be disbanded and sent home shows how some people in Hong Kong were completely ignorant of what war really meant). My orders that they should remain with their unit caused no little discontent amongst some of the Volunteers especially as it was rumoured that other unit commanders had said that they could slip away if they so wished. On the afternoon of the 27th, knowing that no wounded could possibly be alive on the hills and that therefore there was no real reason for keeping the unit intact, I gave orders for the Canadian and Volunteer personnel to report to their parent units and 'moved the remainder (B.A.M.C. and R.A.S.C.) to the University, for by this time we were the only military unit left in the Peak area,
C
5.
On the 28th, orders for concentrating all troops in the Murray Barracks area were issued but these failed to mention the Field Ambulance, so again, not wishing to be altogether isolated from the rest of the British forces, I moved the remnant of the unit to the Bowen Road military hospital.
On the 29th persmission was at last given by the Japanese for us to carry out a search in a restricted area for wounded; a thorough search of the hills was impossible but we visited houses in Wong Nei Chong Gap, Repulse Bay Road, and Shou Son Hill. We found no wounded, but the dead that we found explained why. We counted over 50 bodies of officers and men of the Navy, Army and Air Force, most of them having had their hands and feet tied had then been murdered by sword thrusts or bayonet stabs in the back, by rifle bullet or butt. By way of contrast in the magazines at Shou Son Hill, we found a party of over thirty officers and other ranks under kajor Dewar, R.A.3.C.; this party was living there quite comfortably, unmolested by the Japanese troops who were occupying houses in the vicinity.
6.
t
The above atrocities were reported to General Maltby and he accepted my offer to ask for permission to bury the dead and collect their particulars. I interviewed the Japanese authorities in H.K. & S'hai Bank but permission was refused and I was told "To-morrow you go to another place and there perhaps you oan ask again, Anyhow you need not worry about your dead because no member of the Imperial Japanese Army would ever desecrate the body of a British soldier": Rather ironical after what I had seen just a few hours before!
In view of the projected move I asked whether we were to take medical supplies with us, and again I was told that the Imperial Japanese Arny would look after all our needs. We were not even to take blankets with us,
but by this time I knew enough of our captors not to pass these orders on, or to act on them,
7.
Again in orders for the move on the 30th, the Field Ambulance was not included, but in consultation with the A.D.M.S. it was decided that only the R.A.M.C. personnel required in the hospitals should stay on the island and the remainder should move with the rest of the troops. We took the precaution however of packing medical supplies and equipment ready to load on an ambulance the next morning, but at 0600 hours on the 30th three armed Japanese soldiers came into the hospital compound and took the ambulance away, and we were only able to take those supplies that we could cram into our already overloaded packs and pockets.
8./