CO129-590-25 Accounts of events leading up to surrender and subsequent treatment of prisoners- etc 23-4-1942 - 28-9-1943 — Page 185

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After the third day a great many enemy guns had been hauled

up in or behind the Kowloon hills within range of the city and

the bombardment became at times severe. The main streets at

exposed points were pitted with shell holes and every few yards

you came on a wrecked car. The tramway lines and wires were a

very early casualty and no trams ran. I do not know where the

tram-cars themselves were parked. After the first few days I

never set eyes on one, even stationary.

The rumour was that

both tram and bus drivers had walked out but I do not know if

this was true. I suspect it was: the streets were dangerous

to drive in.

Going down an open road like Queens Road East when a barrage

was starting up, it was uncanny to see multitudes of people

blown together in one agitated stream by the winds of fear as

they moved hastily from the focal point of the bursting shells.

This human tide ebbed and flowed with unhuman unanimity as the

target of the guns shifted.

the crowds flocked east-ward:

When the enemy bombarded West Point,

when East Point came under fire,

back they went again. Hundreds of families moved themselves and

all their worldly goods several times a day. The ricksha-pullers

never let the Japanese interfere with business and many did a

roaring trade right up to the end.

siege.

Hitch-hiking was a marked feature during the whole of the

You stopped any car going your way and got in if there

was room. If you were lucky enough to have petrol to run a car

of/