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at Stanley to the Sikh Temple in Morrison Hill Road, Hong Kong, and internees evacuated later from the Peak Reservation to the above mentioned Indian Quarters.
The trucks were, also, used to carry a considerable quantity of stores to Stanley Camp, e.g. about 2,000 camp beds, hundreds of blankets, large quantities of milk, bread, beans, peanuts, tinned meat or fish, oil, seeds, eating and cooking utensils, tools, clothes, shoes, drugs, dressings, instruments, school benches and appliances, etc.
J.
International Welfare Committee.
In order that the Informal Welfare Committee operating in Hong Kong might learn what was most urgently required in the Camp, an International Welfare Committee was brought into being in the Camp.
In
The original members were:- Mr. Rankin (U.S.a.), Mr. Hartog (Dutch), Miss Elliott (British), with Miss M.S. Watson (British) as the first Chairman. July, 1942 the Hon. Mr. F.C. Gimson took over the chairmanship of this Committee which rendered most valuable service to the Stanley Camp community.
K.
Difficulty in raising funds.
The banks remained closed in the earlier part of 1942 and anyone assisting the British with funds was liable to lose life and liberty. With a combined guarantee for repayment, if required, which the Hon. Mr. F.C. Gimson, supported by British bankers, was prepared to give, I was able to induce Messrs. Gale and Fifer (U.S.A. Red Cross) to approve advances up to $250,000 for the purpose of purchasing foodstuffs, etc. required by Stanley Camp, and other groups in Hong Kong. In the second half of 1942, the late Sir Vandeleur Grayburn and the late Mr. D.C. Edmonston were able to arrange for very considerable sums through Indian merchants to meet, as far as possible, the needs of the civilian and military internment camps.
(2) This courageous action was followed by the arrest in March, 1943 of Sir Vandeleur Grayburn who died in prison in the following August and of Mr. D.C. Edmonston who was arrested in May, 1943 and died in prison in August, 1944.
L.
Groups to carry supplies to Military Hospital, etc.
In order to get supplies into Bowen Road Military Hospital, Shamshuipo Camp, and, to a lesser extent, into North Point, Argyle and Ma Tau Chung Camps - especially after I was forbidden by the Japanese to visit them myself it was necessary to organise groups of volunteers to pack and carry gunny bags from the Welfare Committee's store at St. Paul's Hospital.
My wife took charge of the Military Hospital contingent and succeeded in getting in large quantities of foodstuffs and medicines. For example, on one weekly delivery, her party carried 2,000 fresh eggs, apart from such things as milk, barley, peanuts, soya bean flour, bran, concentrated shark's liver oil, tinned meat, vitamin tablets, injections, etc. Miss Helen Ho, a Chinese Eurasian girl of remarkable courage and resourcefulness, had charge of the group responsible for taking foodstuffs, vitamins, clothes, shoes, medicines, games materials, etc. to the prisoner of war camps.
She/
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