3
KUKU
INTELLIGENCE SULLARY NO 1.
HONGKONG.
28/5/42.
157
The life of the community does not appear to have been made any easier by any of the more recent Japanese actions.
The general policy of the Japanese up to date has been to take away and ship all raw materials, engines and food. In the main Chinese have been used to do all the work entailed.
3 With the aid of the Police, the Japanese authorities are attempting to place all the Chinese clerks and technicians in their former positions. In many cases clerks formerly employed in filitary or Government, offices have been recalled for questioning, either on some specific points or on general questions. In most cases they are offered work either for the period necessary to complete a special task or on a permanent basis. The Revenue Office was re-opened in Windsor House at the end of March. The staff consists of one Naval Officer, two Japanese Navy personnel of unknown rank, one Japanese civilian and twelve Chinese clerks most of whan served in the same capacity under Colonial Government, The Japanese Officer's name is MAJINA (?) the No. 1 Chinese HO KAM MOON (Hong Kong Treasury).
The tram service is now running all the way to shaukiwan, up till the end of April, it only went as far as Causeway Bay; but the remainder of the line appears to have been repaired. Through journey costs 40 cents against previous cost 6 cents.
The Japanese have taken very strict action to prevent the spreading of disease. In the event of anyone dying, the house in which the death takes place plus the neighbouring house on either side are put in quarantine and anyone attempting either to enter or leave is shot.. The result is that if a person is dying he is carried out an to the street and allowed to die there as a pauper. One fairly reliable refugee states that he actually saw himself on two occasions people cutting flesh from such bodies for food. The food question is definitely acute. Although the supply is inadequate, it is probably the poverty of the people which is causing the greatest distress, as all those people who have not accepted work under the Japanese have now been living on reserves fæ 5 months and in a greạt many cases they have now reached rock bottom.
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The following extract from a letter written by a Chinese doctor who worked at the Queen Mary Hospital up to 4th April gives some idea of the conâitions in the colony. "The incidence of acute intestinal diseases like Typhoid, Cholera and Dysentery and of the vitamin deficiency diseases like Beri Beri and Pellagra was appallingly high, so much so that in all my out patient experience I had never seen so many cases like it before. Since drugs were not available a good mumber died as a result. There were deaths from natural causes but what of those due to indiscriminate shooting? The mortuaries were simply full of corpses and the University Pavilion ground served as a mass cemetery."
"I distinctly remembered one pitiful case which I attended. It was a nice looking lad aged about 9 years old who was brought in to the hospital by two Japanese soldiers and the mother who could speak Japanese. He was shot in the abdomen with intestinal perforations and general peritonitis. The history was that, while playing with a catapult in the University Pavilion ground he was shot by a Japanese soldier coming down Pekfulum Road without any provocation whatsoever. He would probably have been left to die had the mother of the lad not known Japanese. There are many such cases; but it would be pointless to cite more. Anyway, it shows you the utter cruelty and inhumanity of the Japanese character. Even animals do not attack unless provoked. I truly believe that a killing psychosis has taken hold of them."
NAVY.
Headquarters
Butterfield and Swire Offices.
Recreational facilities:-
1.
Soldiers & Sailors Home.
2. China fleet Club.
3.
Some adjoining buildings.
Organised brothels under Medical supervision.
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