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been able to hold out, they would have created at the very least
a most powerful diversion on the borders of the New Territories.
They were beyond aichow in their forward march when the Colony
surrendered.
There
We had made
The civil defence services worked manfully to the end.
is no use pretending that everything was perfect.
mistakes of planning and there were some Chinese desertions under
fire from A.R.P. Food Control and transport services of various
kinds. But when account has been taken of all that, it still
remained a creditable show: or so it seemed to me. Our
mistakes were mistakes of emphasis.
Thus, the organisers of our
civil defence personnel had for months expressed a preference for
bachelor volunteers: but none of us, I think, quite realised the
tremendous advantage of actually having bachelors, as opposed to
fathers of families, at work under shell-fire. Only the
experience itself showed how much more easily bachelors are
controlled, and how infinitely difficult and tedious it is to
provide for the safety of married volunteer's dependents and to
reassure the men themselves that their wives and families are safe.
we found in war that if the slightest doubt arose on this point
the married men were apt to take french leave to verify the
position for themselves.
Similarly we knew well enough in theory that the power station
was liable to be put out of action and preparations were made
accordingly. But again the full importance of the thing escaped
us: it isn't until the actual test of war that one realises how
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