THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46
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requested the use of two classrooms for quartering his men, some two hundred or more, eventually. During their stay they were well disciplined and polite, and upon leaving for the Hong Kong side, they graciously handed over to the Sisters what stores they had left.
On the 21st or so, though Hong Kong had not yet fallen, a Japanese officer appeared and requested space for housing some five or six hundred prisoners, more than half of whom were Indians, the rest English, Canadians, and Portuguese. Some were wounded, and the Sisters were soon at work attending them.
Returning in our narration to Stanley, it may be well to note that in addition to our regular family, we also had with us two Salesians, one a Polish priest, Father Szeliga, and the other an Irish seminarian, Brother Bernard Tohill. As their house at Aberdeen was coming into the range of fire, they came out to the refugee camp at Stanley, bringing with them twenty or more of their orphan boys. Just below our house to the north, the British Government had constructed, as it had in many other places on the island, a refugee camp. Here three large godowns had been erected and had just been filled with stores of rice, peanut, and coconut oil for cooking purposes. A large open-air kitchen also had been constructed, containing about sixty large fireplaces with the usual Chinese wok t'au or rice caldrons, and close by, a huge pile of firewood had been built up. Simple, fabricated refugee shelters had also been planned, but they had not yet been erected. The plan seemed to be that, in case of intense bombing or bombardment of the city, the inhabitants could come out to Stanley during the day and stay at these camps, returning at night to their homes, but as a matter of fact, the camps were never put to much use. At Stanley, there were some refugees, and the Government placed Father Charles Murphy, a member of the Scarboro Mission, who had been studying Cantonese in our Language School for the past year, in charge. Some of our priests and Brothers likewise assisted in setting up some of these shelters, both at Stanley and Repulse Bay. When we learned that the Salesians were at the Camp, we invited them to eat with us, and finally put up their boys on the floor of our Mission Room at night.
To return for a moment to the early days of the war, after their arrival, the new missioners journeyed to Hong Kong in order to satisfy the requirements of the Police Department in regard to pass-
THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46
47
requested the use of two classrooms for quartering his men, some two hundred or more, eventually. During their stay they were well disciplined and polite, and upon leaving for the Hong Kong side, they graciously handed over to the Sisters what stores they had left.
On the 21st or so, though Hong Kong had not yet fallen, a Japanese officer appeared and requested space for housing some five or six hundred prisoners, more than half of whom were Indians, the rest English, Canadians and Portuguese. Some were wounded and the Sisters were soon at work attending them.
Returning in our narration to Stanley, it may be well to note that in addition to our regular family we also had with us two Salesians, one a Polish priest, Father Szeliga and the other an Irish seminarian, Brother Bernard Tohill. As their house at Aberdeen was coming into the range of fire, they came out to the refugce camp at Stanley, bringing with them twenty or more of their orphan boys. Just below our house to the north, the British Government had constructed, as it had in many other places on the island, a refugee camp. Here three large godowns had been erected and had just been filled with stores of rice, peanut and coconut oil for cooking purposes. A large open air kitchen also had been con- structed, containing about sixty large fireplaces with the usual Chinese wok t'au or rice caldrons, and close by, a huge pile of fire- wood had been built up. Simple, fabricated refugee shelters had also been planned, but they had not yet been erected. The plan seemed to be that in case of intense bombing or bombardment of the city, the inhabitants could come out to Stanley during the day and stay at these camps, returning at night to their homes, but as a matter of fact, the camps were never put to much use. At Stanley there were some refugees and the Government placed Father Charles Murphy, a member of the Scarboro Mission, who had been study- ing Cantonese in our Language School for the past year, in charge. Some of our priests and Brothers likewise assisted in setting up some of these shelters, both at Stanley and Repulse Bay. When we learned that the Salesians were at the Camp, we invited them to eat with us, and finally put up their boys on the floor of our Mission Room at night.
To return for a moment to the early days of the war, after their arrival the new missioners journeyed to Hong Kong in order to satisfy the requirements of the Police Department in regard to pass-
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