155
foiled the third Japanese attempt to take that city. Mac was full of energy and good cheer, spoke fluent Chinese, and had a supply of good stories, which had by no means been exhausted during our stay at Maymyo. Over the next eighteen months in China he added to his fund of stories in English, another fund in Chinese of no less lurid a nature.
Our plans were advancing slowly, and we decided to pay a visit to Kinhwa, the temporary capital of Chekiang and the largest shopping centre at that time in eastern China. We needed stores and supplies of various kinds and thought to fill in time by laying those in now. The intention was then to go on to Chin Ya to make all the necessary preparations for opening the school. Unfortunately I was taken ill and had to enter the hospital in Kinhwa kept by the American Presbyterian Mission, where I was given every attention. My symptoms were complicated and it was impossible to decide whether I was suffering from appendicitis or malaria: however, a regimen of alternate sulfanilamide and quinine - I am told they cannot be taken together - gradually restored my health, though it took a month. Meantime Singapore had fallen and I think my Chinese friends must have thought I was so mortified that I was feigning a diplomatic illness, which of course I was not. General Ku sent his Adjutant General to enquire after my condition and the Army Commander in that area also took a kind interest in me. Mac went off to Chin Ya with Michael and they engaged carpenters, masons, and furniture makers to provide for all the needs we could foresee.
By the beginning of March I had recovered and was back in Shangjao awaiting the arrival of the small convoy which was due with the first of our personnel and military stores. Part of a much larger contingent, destined for other purposes, they had driven in by lorry all the way from Burma, over the Burma road, through Kunming and Kweiyang, to the Hunan-Kwangsi railway, where the lorries had been entrained, to conserve petrol, already a rare and precious fluid. The contingent had detrained in south Hunan, from where our party had sorted out their stores and come on with four lorries. This advance party consisted of two officers, Leo and Cyril, and a stalwart warrant officer of the Royal Engineers, whom we shall call the Chief. They had with them several Hongkong Chinese, who had joined the British army in Burma, and some tons of explosives and gadgets calculated to cause the enemy unexpected discomforts.
The sight of these lorries, however few, with Union Jacks painted
155
foiled the third Japanese attempt to take that city. Mac was full of energy and good cheer, spoke fluent Chinese, and had a supply of good stories, which had by no means been exhausted during our stay at Maymyo. Over the next eighteen months in China he added to his fund of stories in English, another fund in Chinese of no less lurid a nature.
Our plans were advancing slowly, and we decided to pay a visit to Kinhwa, the temporary capital of Chekiang and the largest shopping centre at that time in eastern China. We needed stores and supplies of various kinds and thought to fill in time by laying those in now. The intention was then to go on to Chin Ya to make all the necessary preparations for opening the school. Unfortunately I was taken ill and had to enter the hospital in Kinhwa kept by the American Presbyterian Mission, where I was given every attention. My symptoms were complicated and it was impossible to decide whether I was suffering from appendicitis or malaria: however, a regimen of laternate sulfanilamide and quinine - I am told they cannot be taken together - gradually restored my health, though it took a month. Meantime Singapore had fallen and I think my Chinese friends must have thought I was so mortified that I was feigning a diplomatic illness, which of course I was not. General Ku sent his Adjutant General to enquire after my condition and the Army Commander in that area also took a kind interest in me. Mac went off to Chin Ya with Michael and they engaged carpenters, masons, and furniture makers to provide for all the needs we could foresee.
By the beginning of March I had recovered and was back in Shangjao awaiting the arrival of the small convoy which was due with the first of our personnel and military stores. Part of a much larger contingent, destined for other purposes, they had driven in by lorry all the way from Burma, over the Burma road, through Kunming and Kweiyang, to the Hunan-Kwangsi railway, where the lornes had been entrained, to conserve petrol, already a rare and precious fluid. The contingent had detrained in south Hunan, from where our party had sorted out their stores and come on with four lorries. This advance party consisted of two officers, Leo and Cyril, and a stalwart warrant officer of the Royal Engineers, whom we shall call the Chief. They had with them several Hongkong Chinese, who had joined the British army in Burma, and some tons of explosives and gadgets calculated to cause the enemy unexpected discomforts.
The sight of these lorries, however few, with Union Jacks painted
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.