14.
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on the mainland immediately the police withdrew to the island.
On the island itself Admiral Chan Chak (the chief Kuomingtang representative in H.K.) and his henchmen, including many
hundreds of undercover agents, co-operated so closely with the
police that the fifth column had little chance of showing its
hand. To the end there were no riots and many nests of enemy
agents were smelled out and destroyed before they could do
any harm. They did however succeed in signalling to the enery
across the harbour and in starting up a number of rumours in
A.K.P. tunnels and other crowded places: but they failed in
their primary task of seriously upsetting public order on the
island. The Kuoming tang help here was completely invaluable.
Internal disorder would have quickly rendered useless any
military defence, however brilliant, against the attacking
Japanese. There is reason to think that the enemy were
counting on a panicked population, out-of-hand and rioting.
The Japanese propaganda was crude and largely ineffective
on the whole. They showered leaflets on the Colony directed
in the majority of cases to Indians in the police or fighting
services, urging revolt and lavish with promises.
was thick with promises:
The air
the reward to Europeans for surrender
was a promise of "safe life and guaranteed living": to
Chinese, co-equality in the co-prosperity sphere and an end
to the yoke of the already defeated whites. The Japanese try
they got the length of setting up powerful loud-
everything:
speakers/