CO129-594-6 Brigadier D M MacDougall- letters to Gent on civil affairs administration 15-9-1945 - 24-12-1945 — Page 24

Extracts from D.0. letter from Lt. Col. Owen Hughes in Hong Kong dated 9th October, 1945

to a Staff Officer of C.A.4.

24

Our trip was interesting but most exasperating! days in Karachi.

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C

We had five

On arrival at Colombo we got Split. The Brig and Co. went to

22 hours

I was Madras and flew direct to H.K.

by Catalina.

However it was detailed to "Thomas Cook" the other half via Calcutta. just as well I did so because on arrival at Calcutta on Saturday evening they would otherwise have been utterly lost. knew the ropes.

Fortunately I

There was transport at Dum Dum airport for some

I could not get on to V.I.Ps so I said it must be for us and took it. Air H.Q. so took the party to the Grand Hotel which I knew was a

(At Dum Dum I transit camp and we booked in there for the night. met Dicky O'Brien the following day on his way back from Burma). then got on to the air boys who had not even heard of us. know when the signal from Kandy reached them (it was not until after our departure) but I used all my powers of persuasion and got a Hallifax the following day to fly us over the Hump to Kunming.

I dont

We flew

direct to Kunming and met one of the first parties of P.0.Ws to be flown out.

I

We spent the night at Kunming and flew into Hongkong the next day in a Dakota (with a Jeep on board). It was a strange sensation to be back and landing on a greatly improved Airport improved by the sweat of our P.0.Ws.

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I was able to help and advise the large body of non-civil servants who were completely in the dark about what a C.A. Administration means and how they stood. One of my first jobs was to address a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce. I was bombarded with all sorts of questions and being trained in the Directorate (and the only type in our outfit who does understand thoroughly the implications of C.A.) I had most of the answers. But there was one I could not deal with squarely and it is a very important one that of compensation. Government employess are protected and back pay is assured but for the rest, who have lost anything up to 100% and upon whom we largely depend to get the place going again when the time comes, there is so far nothing. I pointed out that the British Taxpayer cant take it on, being already bled pretty well white and that is appreciated, but the The financial nabobs at home will have problem remains to be faced.. to contrive some form of easy term loan to assist them on to their feet again.

Of course we did not know quite what to expect to find here. Certainly we never hoped for electric light, a comfortable hotel, six papers, two English and 4 Chinese, and the old Government of 1941 complete with Essential Services such as food control, firmly established. This Puppet Government as we call it has put up a wonderful show and it was surprising to find how much their physical condition was improved after a fortnight of good food and freedom.

It is very unfortunate that we did not have time to shake down

It is unfortunate as a C.A. Unit before being launched into the world. that more of us dont really understand the meaning of C.A. The main thing is to lay a reasonable foundation and to be able to hand over a stable concern to the Civil Government when they take over. probably shall but I see a lot of headaches and hard work ahead.

We

I wish/