CO129-592-2 Reports on current situation- medical work 3-3-1946 - 12-5-1947 — Page 119

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available for the general community and the Colony had been virtually without a cleansing service for many months, with extremely unsatisfactory results.

It was not until the 30th of August when our fleet steamed into Hong Kong harbour with H.. S. Anson and various other naval units (a sight that will always live in my memory) that Japanese opposition in Hong Kong collapsed and I was able to reorganise medical and health work with the help of my worn-out but most willing colleagues from Stanley Internment Camp.

By the afternoon of the 4th of September, a handful of marines and blue jackets had shepherded thousands of Japanese troops, Gendarmerie and Japanese, Formosan and Korean civilians from the Island on to the Kowloon Peninsula. A little later, after the arrival of a few herculean-looking commandos and 3,000 R.A.F. ground crews (intended originally for Okinawa), a total of 21,000 Japanese troops and civilians were all interned in Kowloon with remarkably few untoward incidents.

The two most important problems which confronted the re-established British Government of Hong Kong consisted in the allaying of unrest and in the prevention of epidemic diseases. After valiant attempts to resume normal duty, the majority of the Hong Kong Police who had been interned in Stanley Camp and had suffered from undernutrition for three and a half years, had to be repatriated. Despite the disadvantage of knowing little of the ways of the Chinese underworld, the naval and military authorities were successful in preventing any serious signs of unrest, although a certain number of old scores were paid off.

The whole situation was in marked contrast to that which prevailed (and still prevails) in the Dutch East Indies and in French Indo-China and speaks volumes for the loyalty of the Chinese and for the intelligence and moderation with which the British authorities preserved order after the collapse of the Japanese.

Mention has been made of the immediate steps taken to restore medical and health services and the civil authorities received all pos ible assistance from the Forces of the Crown in the prevention of epidemic diseases. Of almost equal importance in allaying unrest were the steps taken by the British Government to provide adequate supplies of food, fuel, medicines, electric light and power.

With naval escorts, shipping was despatched to Macau, Canton, Kwanchowwan, Haiphong, Saigon, Rangoon and Shanghai and every encouragement was given by the Government to the importation of rice, fish, vegetables, sugar, groundnut oil and coal. Rice which had cost 7 cents per catty in 1937 (less than a ld per pound) and 16 cents in December, 1941, had risen to 270 Yen (or £16 sterling according to the official Japanese rate of exchange) during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. Following the entry of the relieving force, the British Government purchased rice from South China and elsewhere at 60 cents per catty and caused it to be sold to the public at 20 cents per catty.

Yet another important problem which the British Govern- ment had to face related to wage rates. As compared with an increase of about 30 per cent in food prices in England between 1939 and 1945, the increase in essential food and fuel in Hong Kong amounted to several hundred per cent during the first month of British administration. At that period the Government Labour Officer certified the cost of food and fuel per head per day as 3 dollars 20 cents (approximately 4/-). This sum did not include clothes, shoes, medicines, transport and bed space and took no cognisance of possible family commitments.