NOTE ON GENERAL MALTBY'S DESPATCH
prepared by
THE HISTORICAL BRANCH (ARMY) OF THE BRITISH MINISTRY OF DEFENCE
The 'Maltby Report' recently released in the Public Record Office in London is the original version of what appeared in the published despatch as 'Appendix A, War Narrative'.
This Appendix formed the bulk of the Despatch.
The version now released differs little from the published form, but it does include a number of passages which were omitted for publication. These include frank comments on some officers and units, not all Canadian, and a number of events as recorded do not show those concerned in a good light. These are the comments which have been highlighted, out of context, in recent media coverage.
The published Despatch explains that 'Appendix A' 'was prepared shortly after our capitulation under considerable difficulties.' (ie in a Japanese POW Camp). '...the main credit for whatever has been compiled must go to my GSO 1 the late Colonel L A Newman GC MC who took most meticulous care to make this account tally with the true events. There are naturally a few blanks owing to the fog of war and the inability to gain contact with all the survivors...'. The Appendix was 'built on the detailed record of Battle (Fortress) HQ kept at the time, minute by minute'. plans, schemes, orders etc were destroyed on capitulation. [but]... The Fortress HQ War Diary was concealed and brought away. Cross checking has taken place where possible with survivors, but the Canadian troops were moved early to another camp and no visiting was allowed to hospitals, hospital camps or Indian camps.
'All maps,
It is thus clear that 'Appendix A' is the account of events as seen from Fortress HQ, expanded where possible with the views from those elsewhere in Hong Kong, but noting that many of those views were not available. It is, in its original form a document of considerable historical value, but as with all such source documents, it must be treated as what it is and in presenting it as part of the Despatch, Maltby was a pains to point out its limitations.
The Canadian Official Historian C P Stacey said of Hong Kong in his memoirs, in noting the wide discrepancies he found between different people's accounts, 'there is always a tendency among members of a defeated force to look for scapegoats and to shift the blame... I don't believe that anybody (apart from gallant individuals) had a great deal to be proud of at Hong Kong.'
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.