CO129-590-25 Accounts of events leading up to surrender and subsequent treatment of prisoners- etc 23-4-1942 - 28-9-1943 — Page 184

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3.

processions of coolies moving office furniture and papers.

It

seemed that everyone had decided to move his office simultaneously;

the occupants of top floors hastily sought safer quarters and

their desks and chairs and files went with them. The character-

istic smell of the streets became one of burnt paper, as sheaf

after sheaf of possibly incriminating documents was destroyed.

Office buildings rained black paper ash from windows and chimneys.

I burned some myself and never knew a simple task so difficult.

I used a tin can and put each paper in separately, taking great

pains to see that everything was well alight. Yet time and again

on turning out the ashes I found sheets untouched by fire,

tantalisingly legible, and had to repeat the process of burning

each by itself.

The

In these days lorries continually rushed to and fro at

great speed filled with soldiers, with police and with A.R.P.

wardens. But there was no panic. Many of the occupants of

the lorries exchanged "thumbs up"

"thumbs up" greetings with passers-by.

pavements were always crowded in daylight and, as more and more

shops put up their shutters, more and more street-hawkers made

their appearance. You could buy anything from the hawkers, from

tinned food and silk shirts to overcoats and plum pudding. The

plate-glass shop-windows were smashed in and replaced by boards,

and as the shelling increased, each shop-front or doorway was

appropriated by a certain number of Chinese families who settled

down to sleep, eat, and make their homes there.

After/