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of your own, you couldn't go five yards without being stopped and
getting a full complement of passengers.
Everyone, including
coolies, indulged in this pleasant practice. With half the
comradeship shown in these few weeks of war in this and other
ways, we would have made a very different H.K. in peace.
The bombardment from land and from the air was more or less
continuous but sometimes it died away to an eerie stillness and
sometimes (as in the periods immediately preceding the two
Japanese peace missions) it boiled up to an insensate hate.
Surprisingly few civilians were killed and those that I saw die
did so with an unexpected quietness. The fewness of the
casualties was due I think to the H.K. system of "arcading" the
pavements. On the sheltered side of the streets under the
arcades one seemed to be safe from anything except a direct hit.
Incidentally (as a guide to civilian morale) it was interesting
to observe one's own reactions under fire. I was a good deal
more frightened on the first day than on any subsequent day when
things were worse. To the end, however, I had a certain
reluctance to go out into the street, and never did so except
-
for good cause either on official business or to buy some
Bombs and shells nevertheless worried me less
necessary article.
and less as the siege progressed: I think most people found this.
Certainly they acted as if they did.
I noticed too that my
stock of courage varied from day to day. On certain days I had
an absolute conviction that I could not be hit: on others,
every/