APPENDIX II.
NUTES ON
GUERILLAS.
104
These notes have been pieced together from talks with Our" guerillas and from talks with Talen and McEwan at SHAUKWAN.
As such, hey are largely coloured by my own interpretations of these talks and refer only to the South China Guerillas.
The guerillas can be divided into two main classes:-
(a)
Official.
(b)
Unofficial
(Class "A"; Class "B").
(a)
Official Guerillas.
Operating in South China and those in KWANTUNG are under General Yu Hon Mow whom we met at WAICHOW. They are recognised, armed and supplied by the Central Government, though I gather they do not wear uniform.
(b)
(i)
Unofficial Guerillas.
This classification refers to those who
Class "A",
(i) helped the M.T.B. party (Class "A") and
(ii) those who helped us (Class "B").
As far as I could gather from Talen and McEwan, these were not entirely altruistic guerillas. They were a type of "robber-turned-patriot", who were not averse to making money out of their patriotism. They were quite well armed with Tommy guns, Mausers and rifles, and lived quite well. Apparently they operate with a certain amount of district autonomy in districts levying toll both on the district and on those whom they convoyed through their districts. McEwan states that he definitely saw money being handed over whenever a change of guards occurred during the M.T.B. trip to WAICHOW, in fact, on more than one occasion there appeared to be an argument as to the amount of money paid over. Interference with Japanese was not the rule because of fear of reprisals, but given a favourable opportunity small parties of Japanese were mopped
up.
(ii)
Class "B".
These were "our" guerillas. We certainly had no money to bribe them and nothing of any real value with us. They did impress me as being in deadly earnest, and while they fed us well, I gather that they, themselves, endured days of hardship while on patrol in the hills. Killing Japanese was looked upon as the proper thing to do.
(i) and (ii).
There is reasonable doubt as to whether this sub-divisionì is correct as, apparently, the leader of "our" guerillas was with the M.T.B. party and had gone to receive recognition in the form of Army rank, after the successful convoying of the important Admiral Chan Chak. In any case our" guerillas wanted recognition and our "expense-free" journey may have been due to the National Government order that all refugees from Hong Kong were to be afforded all help in their passage through to Free China.
,
Payment (if any) to Guerillas. I suggest this should take the form of arms and ammunition, as they seemed to have plenty of money.
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