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of 4 ties of rice per day. He used to keep one for the consumption of himself and his wife and sell the other 3 catties, as the only means of obtaining a little ready cash. There was a brisk business in looted goods, mostly food and clothing, in the main streets of the city. Pedder St., Queens Road, Wyndham St. and the Central District became virtually trans- formed into street markets, the streets on both sides being lined by boothes and stalls. The prices of all articles were anything from three to ten times those normally prevailing. There was no sign of the re-opening of ordinary shops and businesses by the 17th Feb.
RLD CROSS. Shortly after the end of the war the Japanese were approached by a small committee including the Swiss Consul, Bishop Valtorta and cthers in an effort to obtain the permission of the Japanese to despatch a cable to Geneval requesting the establishment of a Chapter of the International Red Cross in Hongkong for the alleviation of distress. The Japanese, however, flatly refused to consider the proposal. One of the services which it had been hoped to carry out through an organisation such as the Red Cross was the preparation of a full casualty list, both civilian and military. By the middle of February no attempt had been made to prepare or publich any sort of casualty list, and there was considerable distress in Chinese, Indian and European ciroles as to the fate of relatives and friends who had not been heard of since the end of the fighting. Small and incomplete lists had been compiled privately of certain people who were known to be in the various 'cazps, but there was no pretence at the compilatic of an exhaustive list, and the Japanese themselves had no lists of the names of those who were interned in any of the camps. The utmost that was done was the publication of a few names in the daily paper of men who had died in one or other of the hospitals. On 27th Jan. the first list of 24 names was published, and on one or two subsecuent occasions small additional lists were published.
ESCAPLES. Many thousands of Chinese have left the colony since the end of hostilities by every conceivable route, both land and sea. Their departure "to their homes in the country" has been encouraged by the Japanese, who are anxious to reduce the population of Hongkong to below the million mark, and have provided certificates guaranteeing safe conduct to Chinese as far as hum-chun. Not more than thirty uropeans appear to have effected an escape from Hongkong since the party of 65 men who escaped with Admiral Chan Chak on the last day of the war. of these Col. Ride and his party (3 in number) escaped from San Shui o Camp on Jan. 13th, and other parties under Lieut. Douglas, Major Monro and Capt. Scriven, totalling 12 men in all, escaned from both Sam Shui Po and North Foint Camps on dates between 20th Jan. and Feb. 1st. Full details of these are given in Col. Hide's report. o far as I can ascertain six civilians appear to have succeeded in escaping. These include Mr. Duff, who escaped on Jun. 20th, XX my own escape on Feb. 10th and that of Messrs Marsman and Lavrov (American) who escaped two hours later, and also that of kr. Bentley (Government Pharmacist) who left Hongkong on Feb. 17th. I m not in possession of the details regarding Miss hyllis Harrop's cscape. XXX*X My own route was via Star Ferry, kai Tak Aerodrom, aikung, Mirs Bay, Sha-yu-chung, Tamshui, aichow, ast River, Lungchun and Aukong. At all points on the route the attitude of the guerillas and Chinese civilian authorities was most helpful, und 1 xhindi should like to pay a warm tribute to their friendliness.
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JAPANESE GOVERNOR OF HONGKONG The newly appointed Japanese/ Governor is Lieut.-General Isog 1, whose arrival in the colony took place about Feb. 10th. Arrangements were being made for a public welcome ceremony but this had not taken place by Feb. 17th.
Signed
Gordon King.
Dean, Faculty of Medicine,
Hongkong University.
18.3.42.
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