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was that of two Americans and an Englishman in April 1942. In the summer of 1942 a young American, who spoke fluent Chinese, hearing that he would soon be ordered into one of the concentration camps, walked up to the wire one night, crawled under it, and got through to the guerillas without previous preparation. Later still a small party of Russians came out. Then there was a gap until the summer of 1944, when five British civilians made a daring and successful escape from one of the camps, followed soon after by an equally daring escape by a mixed American and British party of military personnel, from another camp. The guerillas always gave the utmost assistance to those who succeeded in getting as far as their lines, sometimes at considerable risk to themselves. At least two parties, of whose attempted escape I received information, came to grief. The one loitered in the vicinity of Shanghai too long, while one of their number returned to recover some arms they had left behind. Through an informer the Japanese got onto their track; and, when the foreigners opened fire with their weapons, the Japanese are reported to have taken and murdered them all, including one woman. The other party was just unlucky and ran into a Japanese patrol; they were held for trial, and sentenced to long periods of solitary confinement.
It was quite impossible for the Japanese to prevent information from Shanghai leaking out to the guerillas. They were maintaining the fiction that the Wang Ching Wei government was in alliance with the Axis powers; under those circumstances the control of movement in and out of Shanghai, a control anyhow of great difficulty owing to its size, was left largely to the puppets, who were neither efficient nor loyal to their overlords.
Hongkong had fallen in December, much sooner than expected, and the sinking of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour, the full significance of which was not yet understood, had certainly not facilitated the defence of Singapore. Things were going badly for Britain; but the Chinese generals by whom I was surrounded never once made any remark which could be construed as a reflection on the British, or as evidence of any lack of confidence in the final outcome of the war. Such amiability was noteworthy.
At about this time I was joined by Mac. He had been one of a party of foreign journalists and military officers sent to Changsha to witness the results of the victory recently won there by the Chinese when they
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was that of two Americans and an Englishman in April 1942. In the summer of 1942 a young American, who spoke fluent Chinese, hearing that he would soon be ordered into one of the concentration camps. walked up to the wire one night, crawled under it, and got through to the guerillas without previous preparation. Later still a small party of Russians came out. Then there was a gap until the summer of 1944, when five British civilians made a daring and successful escape from one of the camps, followed soon after by an equally daring escape by a mixed American and British party of military personnel, from another camp. The guerillas always gave the utmost assistance to those who succeeded in getting as far as their lines, sometimes at considerable risk to themselves. At least two parties, of whose attempted escape I received information, came to grief. The one loitered in the vicinity of Shanghai too long, while one of their number returned to recover some arms they had left behind. Through an informer the Japanese got onto their track; and, when the foreigners opened fire with their weapons, the Japanese are reported to have taken and murdered them all, including one woman. The other party was just unlucky and ran into a Japanese patrol; they were held for trial, and sentenced to long periods of solitary confinement.
It was quite impossible for the Japanese to prevent information from Shanghai leaking out to the guerillas. They were maintaining the fiction that the Wang Ching Wei government was in alliance with the Axis powers; under those circumstances the control of movement in and out of Shanghai, a control anyhow of great difficulty owing to its size, was left largely to the puppets, who were neither efficient nor loyal to their overlords.
Hongkong had fallen in December, much sooner than expected, and the sinking of the American fleet at Pearl Harbour, the full significance of which was not yet understood, had certainly not facilitated the defence of Singapore. Things were going badly for Britain; but the Chinese generals by whom I was, surrounded never once made any remark which could be construed as a reflection on the British, or as evidence of any lack of confidence in the final outcome of the war. Such amiability was noteworthy.
At about this time I was joined by Mac. He had been one of a party of foreign journalists and military officers sent to Changsha to witness the results of the victory recently won there by the Chinese when they
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