NOTE
THIS INFORMATION
WITHOUT
STRICTL SECRET
SHOULD NOT
Biz
USIZE)
PRIOR REFERENCIE To
Room 333
Extract from Survey No. 30 of 1942 for the
fortnight ending 15.8.42.
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Ľ
1062
136
Indians in Hong Kong
12.
A Chinese press report dated 24-7-42 contains further interesting, though only partly confirmed, information about conditions in Hong Kong, in so far as Indians are concerned. It is said that the Japanese have virtually conscripted all Indians in Hong Kong for military service; Indian prisoners of war are now being used to
carry out sentry and guard duties, thereby releasing Japanese soldiers for active service elsewhere; a large number of Indian soldiers have been transferred from Hong Kong to Canton for these duties. All Indian students, business men, police constables, guards and watchmen, as well as "service men" have been compelled to register for military service and are liable to be called up at any moment by the Japanese military authorities. The Indians have also been compelled to join the Hong Kong branch of the Indian Independence League: those who do not register for military service and do not join the League are refused "third-national" certificates and can draw no food rations. The Chinese press agency's informant, the Hong Kong-born Indian wife of a Chinese, expressed the opinion that the majority of the Indian civilians in Hong Kong hated the Japanese as much as the Chinese did, but had no alternative to doing what they were told, circumstances being what they were. It was chiefly a question of food. She had found that those few Indians who were ardent supporters of the Japanese belonged to the illiterate classes.
BKV.24.8.42.
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