[
    {
        "id": 212226,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1990",
        "page_number": 168,
        "title": "RAS-1990",
        "content_text": "145\n\nher over there until she could get a passage across the Atlantic to England.\n\nI had been hoping to be called up myself, and in the meantime saw a good deal of the two able liaison officers left behind by the British Army in Shanghai. One was a Japanese interpreter, and the other spoke Chinese. We were all impressed with the importance of the Chinese guerilla effort, and hoped that the British government would be able to provide technical assistance for their support. I am afraid that the seed then sown fell on stony ground. Regular generals do not comprehend the implications of guerilla warfare, nor do those schooled in concentration appreciate the advantages of dispersal; moreover, generals are not interested in small groups; they prefer the big battalions.\n\nWhen the time came, in May, and I was recalled to join up in Burma, I was glad to leave Shanghai. Many excellent people, detained by their duty, reluctantly remained there; but generally the atmosphere, so thick with complacency, had long jarred on me. As late as September 1941 the deluded residents of Shanghai were willing to oversubscribe fifty times a new share issue, which a British Cotton Mill Company elected at that time to place on the market. Long after the comforting assurance of the period of \"phoney\" war had ended so catastrophically in Europe, its demoralising effect continued at work in the Far East. At last, on December 7th, 1941, the house of cards collapsed; and the final bankruptcy of British leadership in Shanghai shewed itself, when the young men, caught there by that cataclysm, failed even to attempt to escape from a net, whose meshes were not closed until some weeks later.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 212619,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1991",
        "page_number": 173,
        "title": "RAS-1991",
        "content_text": "153\n\nEve dinner. We parted the next day as our ways lay in different directions.\n\nAfter completion of the reconnaissance I returned to Shangjao, where General Ku Chu Tung again very kindly accommodated me at his personal headquarters. Michael and I and the Chinese officers attached to us had our own little mess, and General Ku sent his own cook to prepare our meals, a signal courtesy which was much appreciated. Soon after my return I was delighted to hear that the two British Army Liaison Officers, had also escaped from Shanghai, with a third companion. They passed through shortly after on their way to Chungking. On December 7th they had had to go to earth, as the Japanese had raised a hue and cry after them: however, with the assistance of Chinese friends they finally made their way out past the wire. I hope one day the account of their adventures will appear in print,\n\nThe Japanese in Shanghai did not commence to round up Allied civilian foreigners for concentration in camps until the autumn of 1942, and the concentration was not completed until the spring of 1943. The foreigners were permitted to continue in occupation of their houses and to keep servants, though the limited funds released from the banks did not allow of living at the same standards as previously. To economise there was a tendency for households, or messes of bachelors, to amalgamate. Quite a few foreigners lived in houses outside the barbed-wire barrier and for the first few weeks one could pass in and out of the gates on the few roads which led through the barrier by claiming that one lived outside. During this period, Jim, an English missionary who spoke the Shanghai dialect well got out. He was waiting with Mac at Chin Ya when we returned there in March. In the course of time the Japanese brought a system of passes into use, and the issue of special passes to persons wishing to visit friends outside was restricted. Nevertheless, the arrangements were such as to provide plenty of opportunity for those who wished to pass through the barrier. At the worst one could crawl under the wire at night, when the sentries were mostly withdrawn to their main posts. But few young Britons seized the opportunity to escape while they could. In the upshot more Americans got away than British, though American residents only numbered about one third as many as the British, of whom some 5,000 were interned, including of course a considerable proportion of women and children.\n\nA small party of three American journalists escaped at about this time through Hangchow. I did not meet them. The next escape to be reported",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j",
        "rank": 0
    }
]