for there began a ten hour search for us by these robbers, whose tramping and crashing around us did nothing to relieve our difficulties. Lee again returned to the village to bargain for a cheaper boat and returned about 1700 with a startling piece of news that our "robbers" were guerillas who had received news of our arrival and who were looking for us in the wood, shouting, "where are our friends of the A.B.C.D. front", though at the time these words were not distinct.
Leaving our hiding-place we were met by the "Sergeant" in charge of the guerillas and taken to a nearby village where we were feted.
After dinner we were taken back to SAIKUNG where we met the local guerilla Liaison Officer, at the schoolroom, who told us that the guerillas had been operating in that area for a week.
Later that night we were hurried, for our protection, from our beds in the schoolroom, to sampans and rowed for an hour in the pitch blackness to the head of a bay near SAIKUNG and there spent the rest of the night in a large house, presumably some sort of base for the guerillas.
13th January, 1942.
About 1700 we were moved some miles across the peninsula to another base where we spent the night. This was, I gather, the local Headquarters of the Guerillas.
Here we received an hour's propaganda on the work of the guerillas and, indeed, such propaganda
of was repeated from time to time en route and, course, must be accepted in all sincerity as it was my impression that these people are in deadly earnest.
14th January, 1942.
We were awakened early and set off at a smart pace for the nearby port of SAIKUNG near which we were embarked with guards on a sampan. There seemed to be an assortment of arms among these guerillas and these seemed to be entrusted to anyone, irrespective of rank, if, indeed, distinctions of rank, or age existed, since most of the guerillas seemed to be less than 20 years' old.
Some six to seven hours later, having met no Japanese patrols, we approached the village port of TAI YUEN in "occupied" China. We arrived just after this village had been looted of food and valuables by bandits, apparently from a neighbouring village, but in spite of this, the influence of the guerillas was strong enough to obtain us a good meal in an apparently barren village. In spite of lack of official support and recognition (see "Notes on Guerillas") these guerillas seemed to have plenty of money and in fact, plenty of money would seem to be an absolute necessity on these trips, unless, as happened in our case, all expenses were paid and guaranteed by the guerillas.
The village of TAI YUEN then had an Italian
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Priest
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