G.
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Seeking for hygienic internment camp.
The overcrowded and inhygienic nature of many of the internee hotels,
situated amid congested and insanitary surroundings, called for repeated representations to the Japanese.
(1) Kowloon site considered.
,
At one time it was intended to rehouse all civilian internees in Kowloon Tong or in the Chatham Road-Mody Road district of the Kowloon Peninsula.
(2) Choice of Stanley Peninsula.
I have been criticised for urging the Japanese to allocate the Stanley Peninsula instead on the grounds that escape would have been easier from a mainland camp. I confess that I regarded Stanley as a far more suitable place for children. Moreover, there seemed to be some hope, at that time, of my being able to induce the authorities to allow the Maryknoll College, Carmelite Convent, and all the seashore residences between Stanley Village and Island Road to be utilised, together with the Stanley Dispersal Camp (and food stores) for which I had been responsible under the civilian medical defence scheme. I failed in this owing to the objection of the military and gendarmerie who preferred to guard a narrow bottle-neck north of Stanley Village.
(3) Visit by representatives from Chinese hotels.
After my visit to Stanley in the middle of January with representatives of the Foreign Department, the Commissioner of Police, Messrs. Gibson and Hunt representing the American group and Mr. Bolt of the Dutch community, I secured permission for advance parties to leave the Chinese hotels for the purpose of cleansing the worst of the debris resulting from the wholesale looting of buildings in Stanley at the time of the surrender.
(4) Buildings cleared by advance parties.
Good work was done by the advance parties, but the time was too short and I fear that a small section behaved rather selfishly and, after completing the work, staked out claims in buildings which had been earmarked for families and elderly people.
H.
Transfer of internees to Stanley.
A general move from the Chinese hotels to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp took place at the end of the third week and in the fourth week of January.
I was given orders to evacuate the Queen Mary, Matilda, and War Memorial Hospitals at this stage.
Tweed Bay Hospital, Stanley, received British European civilians, one hundred wounded troops were moved to Bowen Road Military Hospital and the remainder of the patients were trans- ferred to the Tung Wah, St. Paul's and St. Stephen's Relief Hospitals.
I.
Ambulance and Red Cross truck service.
By this time, I had been able to organise a group of three Red Cross trucks and ambulances manned by American volunteer drivers (Messrs. Finch, Henry, Morton, Pawley, Schafer and Winter). This transport was responsible for taking patients to and from Stanley Camp, Indian families from the Indian Warders' Quarters
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