COPY.
QUESTIONNAIRE.
Conducted by F.w. Shaftain, Senior Supt of Police.
Shum wai Yau.
Name:
Date:
3rd and 4th December, 1946.
Q. 1.
A.
In what circumstances did you decide to continue publication of the Wah Kiu Yat Po and were any representations made to you by or on behalf of the Japanese authorities as to whether and under what conditions you would be permitted to continue publication.
There was never any question of a decision on my part to continue publication or the Wah Kiu Yat Po in the sense that I sough permission from the Japanese authorities to continue publication and was given such permission subject to certain conditions laid down by the Japanese authorities. The following is what occurred:
(a)
Immediately after the Japanese occupied Hong Kong, that is to say, on the very day of surrender on the 25th December, 1941, I hid myself in my brother's house knowing full well that I would be sought for as the managing- director of the Chinese paper with the largest circulation in Hong Kong. The Japanese sought me high and low and eventually ferreted me out in my brother's residence on the 2nd January, 1942, some time in the afternoon of that day.
During this period my paper had ceased publica- tion altogether. On finding me the Japanese gave peremp-
I tory orders for immediate resumption of publication. asked for time to consider the order that night but was refused any consideration or delay and told that specific orders had been given to the whole staff of the paper pro- hibiting departure from the Colony and insisting on immediate and continued publication. The paper thereupon recommenced publication the next day.
(b) Having resided in Hong Kong all my life since birth and burdened with 8 children (the youngest being barely 20 months old) I decided that any attempt on my part to escape into Free China was out of the question, due primari- ly to the lack of transport and escape facilities for such a large number of persons and again to the all important factor of my inability to support my family and myself in Free China.
(c) The next and just as important factor was that if I should abandon the Wah Kiu Yat Po with its entire stock and plant (demolition under the very eyes of the Japanese being out of the question), it would certainly lead to its falling into direct control of a puppet appointed by the Japanese for the dissemination of vicious and undesirable propaganda on behalf of the enemy.
(a) Thereupon pursuant to the consultation I had with a prominent European journalist before he went into intern- ment, I thought that the only way open to me was to decide to remain in Hong Kong and to continue publication of the paper by steering a difficult and delicate course of apparent collaboration with the occupying authorities whilst discreetly using the paper at the same time for the purpose of insidious propaganda for the cause of the Allies.
(e) The Japanese laid no expressed conditions whatsoever
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