[ { "id": 208626, "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-1979", "page_number": 83, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "56\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nSzeliga and Michael were not tied up, being I supposed considered neutrals. As we were being questioned back and forth—the Japanese being evidently very much puzzled by our motley group—our passports were demanded, and after being examined were thrown on the ground in front of us.\n\nDuring all this questioning the battle was going on, and now and then we heard the whistle of a rifle bullet just over our heads, probably coming from the British defenders on the hill just below the fort (for the Japanese were now concerned with an assault on this last bastion). Also to our left in front of a Chinese house a Japanese field piece was barking intermittently and we could see soldiers keeping in the lee of the walls as they passed by from position to position. Also, as we were being questioned, we saw Lt. Lawrence and his three brother officers who had been with us led past and down a little declivity towards the Convent wall. As he passed Lt. Lawrence whispered: \"I'm sorry for any trouble I've caused you” and disappeared around the corner of the embankment. Shortly after, we heard shouts and screams. The four officers had been untied amid a cordon of fixed bayonets and I distinctly saw one, a young fellow, run toward us, only to have Japanese soldiers point a bayonet at his stomach and the poor fellow turned and ran back, with a look of agony in his eyes. It was all over within a few seconds, and just in front of me I saw a Japanese stoop down, pick up a little grass, and coolly wipe off the point of his bayonet.\n\nLater we learned from Chris Wong, our office clerk, that he and some of our servants had been compelled to dig a trench and bury the bodies of these brave fellows. They also buried other bodies of Canadian and British soldiers who fell on our property. The question in our minds was, were we destined to a like fate? Brother Thaddeus, who knew a little of the Japanese language, heard the soldiers say: \"Kill them! Kill them! They are soldiers in disguise!\" But he did not convey that knowledge to us at the moment.\n\nFinally, after about a half an hour or so, we were ordered to stand up and were led away, this time retracing our own tracks and ending up in a garage at the rear of a Chinese house just below our own hill. Here we were herded like cattle in a pen and once inside, with the sliding doors closed, I think we felt like a herd of cattle. It was intended for two cars, but for some time apparently it had been used merely as a gardener's storehouse, for scattered around", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208628, "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-1979", "page_number": 85, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "58\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nand he helped others to loosen theirs, at least to some extent. Some, though, spent the whole night with hands tied, but how they managed I do not know. Later the marks on their hands showed for weeks.\n\nTo cap it all, poor Father Bauer still had dysentery, and Father Madison also developed a similar malady. Well, we used the water jar, which so fortunately had been left in the garage. Thus passed our first night in the garage—the Christmas night of 1941.\n\nAltogether we were thirty-four—a Bishop, a Salesian Seminarian, Brother Bernard, two laymen, Mr. Brown and Michael, and Fathers Benson and Norris, C. P., Szeliga, the Polish Salesian, Toomey, Troesch, Meyer, Downs, Keelan, Quinn, Bauer, Reardon, Callan, Allie, Madison, Gaiero, Siebert, McKeirnan, Walter, Moore, O'Connell, Tackney, Knotek, O'Connor, C. M., Charles Murphy, from Scarboro Bluffs, Canada, and our Brothers Michael, Anselm, Lawrence, Thaddeus and William.\n\nDawn finally came, and we welcomed the new day. Fortunately for us the weather was mild, and despite the fact that all except Father Szeliga slept without their cassocks, and some just in trousers and underwear, we felt no ill effects, except a natural stiffness in our joints and bones from the hard floor. The ominous silence of the preceding night continued, and we began to wonder if in reality the war was over or what was brewing. Later we learned that an armistice had been agreed upon about five o'clock Christmas afternoon, though at Stanley sporadic fighting continued until around seven, when the few men still defending the prison surrendered. On receiving telephonic instructions from Hong Kong the big guns at the Fort also ceased firing and the Fort was soon in Japanese hands.\n\nAs the morning wore on we began to think of food and drink since we had nothing in our stomachs since eleven o'clock the preceding day, but nothing seemed to be forthcoming. The sentry peeked in from time to time, and whenever he did so we always managed to turn our faces towards him and slip our hands back into their nooses. About ten o'clock we tried to make signs to the sentry that we were hungry and thirsty but to no avail. Finally, after repeated representations and the offering of a very valuable wrist watch by Father Toomey, the sentry handed in through the crack in the door, his canteen which was about half full of water.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208652, "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-1979", "page_number": 109, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "82 \n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS \n\ntake over the civil administration. News has seeped into the Camp that Bishop Paschang, with Fathers Paulhus, Jim Smith, North, together with Sisters Patricia Coughlin and Beatrice Meyer are in Macao, having been deported by the Japanese from Kongmoon. \n\n22-Sunday and, Washington's Birthday. Father Norris, C. P., the day's preacher. At one o'clock a party for children is arranged, but for Americans only. The Camp cook comes across with a cup of coffee, two doughnuts and some popcorn for all, adult Americans included. At three p.m. at St. Stephen's, Stations of the Cross and Benediction with a sermon by Bishop O'Gara. In the evening at 6, Fathers Quinn and Madison direct the songfest. Warmer weather. For some days now, Brother Thaddeus has had his eagle eye on two pigeons which have been roosting on our roof and tonight he manages to catch one with its eyes shut. As a result, the members of his room, No. 9 no less (the unlucky number in China), had a cup of pigeon soup apiece. Incidentally, there are seven in Room 9. \n\n23-The Maryknoll Sisters finally move from their temporary quarters to the American Block. Maryknollers help carry baggage, and to secure a few iron cots from the Hospital. The Sisters now have three rooms on the ground floor and one room on the third floor of Block A-3. \n\n24-As previously mentioned, the British Government had built in various parts of the island a considerable number of godowns or storage depots for rice, peanut oil and canned goods, in case of a long siege. A few of these godowns are very close to our Camp—in fact, they might be considered to be within our confines, and today the Japanese authorities asked for volunteers among the internees to help in loading these supplies on trucks to be moved elsewhere. From the Maryknollers, Fathers Gaiero and Siebert join up, as also Father O'Connor, C. M., and Brother Anthony, one of the two Christian Brothers living on our floor. After working several hours in the morning, each volunteer was given for his dinner, as much canned milk, hardtack and butter as he could eat, and when the day's work was over, each received four cans of goods, such as butter, milk and pork and beans. Ten cases of goods were also given to the Community kitchens. Brother Michael comes down with a form of diarrhea. \n\n25-The Blessed Sacrament is now reserved in the Sisters' Chapel. More volunteers asked for today for loading food; as the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208655, "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-1979", "page_number": 112, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n85\n\nsix rooms with two tiny kitchens and pantries, and two baths. We are quartered as follows: in room 7, Fathers Hessler, Walter, Knotek and Brothers Michael, Lawrence and Anselm; in room 8, Fathers Callan, Reardon, Allie and O'Connor, C. M.; room 9, Fathers Downs, Quinn, V. Walsh, Tackney, Moore, Madison and Brother Thaddeus; room 16, Fathers Troesch, Meyer, Bauer and Brother William. In this room, we had been saving a cot for Father Feeney, but before the Sisters were interned he managed to secure a pass on the plea of being a neutral alien and was later allowed to go to the interior of China.\n\nIn room 17, Fathers Benson, Norris, C. P., and Brothers Cornelius and Anthony; room 18, Fathers Toomey, Keelan, O'Connell, Siebert, Gaiero and McKeirnan. With six and seven in a room, and even with four in the smaller rooms, we are pretty crowded, like bees in a hive. Our tableware consists of a soup plate, a large spoon and a cup. As our cups are breaking one by one, we are falling back on discarded jam tins, with a small wire handle. Our dishes are thus easily washed. We also wash our own clothes, wherever we can, in the kitchen sink or bathtub, or in a pail, of which we have one or two, and hang them out on the verandahs or, in wet weather, in the corridors, all of which gives our apartment the appearance of a New York East Side tenement.\n\n4—Mr. Walsh, a sergeant of the Hong Kong Police, died suddenly today of heart failure. However, Father Toomey was in time to anoint him. Brother Anthony comes down with malaria. Brother is a very big man, and has worked very hard both during hostilities in caring for the sick and wounded at LaSalle College, and in the Camp on manual labor. One small slice of bread today.\n\n5-Mr. Walsh buried this morning after a High Mass of Requiem on the tennis court, at which quite a number of internees, both Catholic and non-Catholic, were present. Interment took place in the old Military Cemetery (within the confines of the Camp) on the hill near the Prison. In this ancient cemetery are the graves of many British and Irish soldiers and their families who died shortly after the founding of Hong Kong either from malaria or from wounds. Now new graves are multiplying, being those of soldiers fallen in this present war, and of internees. Father Quinn starts a class in Spanish. One slice of bread again today.\n\n7-Our Saturday evening songfest was put on tonight by the ...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208659, "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-1979", "page_number": 116, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n89\n\nbad carbuncle. No bread, and pop corn instead of soup at noon. Flashlights and typewriters confiscated. My cement mixer and bull-dozer combined was put in the Council's office and reclaimed after the storm blew over. Some cigarettes given out.\n\n23-Canteen opens after a two-week cessation. Queue starts at 4 a.m. We were number 85 in line. Canteen opened at 1:30 and after 75 people were served, it closed up, leaving us waiting at the church. The Maryknoll Sisters again got permission from the Japanese official in the Prison to go to Carmel for more vestments, but return without securing much. We learn that Father Feeney has succeeded in getting out of the Colony, going to Yeung Kong. Bishop Paschang, enjoying relative freedom in Macao, succeeds also in getting funds to the Maryknoll Sisters still in Kowloon, and also to Father Feeney.\n\n24-Dysentery is appearing in the Maryknoll ranks. Fathers Moore and Gaiero going to Tweed Bay Hospital. Brother Anthony out of the Hospital again. The Americans living in the Club building have their own separate kitchen and, according to reports, they are doing pretty well. Their cook, Mr. Gingles, has asked Brother Thaddeus to try to make some bean sprouts for him. According to our bulletin board, we are now getting 7.29 ounces of rice daily, per person.\n\n25-Father Siebert goes to the Hospital with dysentery. During peace time, an American club functioned in Hong Kong, and when war broke out, they had quite a supply of foodstuffs on hand. Some of this, it seems, the members have managed to get out to Stanley, and today, very generously, they divided these goodies among all the Americans in Camp. As a result, we each received some cigarettes, one can of salmon or vegetables, 7 ounces of coffee, 1/2 roll of toilet paper, and a half a bar of soap. Canteen closed after selling some coffee at Hong Kong $8.50 per pound, tea at $15.00, oatmeal $2.30 and sugar $2.30.\n\n26-Very little rice for our morning meal; no rice for supper, but some noodles instead, and more lettuce.\n\n27-No rice. Rations cut, and we Americans in Blocks A-1, A-2 and A-3 seem to have overdrawn our allotted supply, so that we now get no more rice until we get caught up. Pop corn soup at noon and at night, pop corn instead of rice (where the pop corn", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208662, "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-1979", "page_number": 119, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "92\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nto begin at St. Stephen's was called off at the last moment by the authorities.\n\n7-Language classes resumed after the Easter Holidays. Meeting of the American community at 2:00 p.m. The cooks, after airing their grievances, decided to continue. Had they really resigned, I think few tears would have been shed, though it would have been a problem to find volunteers for their places. The Dollar Line officials in Camp were called up for inoculation—does this also mean repatriation for them?\n\n8-Meals improving a little; less rice, with a little more fish, meat, and vegetables, but we are still hungry after each meal. Also one piece (small) of black bread, the first issued in many days. A prevalent question these days is: \"How much have you lost?\" Or, \"how much do you weigh now?\" Still trying to get the Japanese to give us better food.\n\n9-EXTRA! Four Britishers escape from the Camp during the night!! Result: extra Indian guards all around the Camp, with a small guard house perched on every little eminence along the rocky coast of the sea. And the Camp confines are being gradually made smaller. At first, we were permitted to walk down the main road almost to Stanley village, but that was shortened; then the road along the western end of the Camp along the sea, skirting the St. Stephen's College football ground, was declared out of bounds, and we were kept to the top of the hill. Also, possibly as a result of the escape, we receive orders to surrender and hand in all tools, garden as well as small tools. Speaking of garden tools, this reminds me of the fact that the Americans had begun a small vegetable plot, as have some of the British Blocks, over near the Prison, and we have been hoping to add to our meager rations from this plot. But now, we have to hand in all tools! Brother Thaddeus is in charge of some of this garden work.\n\n10-Since we came to Camp, many of the internees have tried to turn their individual talents to some practical use, though tools and materials are very conspicuous by their absence. Nevertheless, it has been surprising what articles have been made, proving the truth of the adage that \"necessity is the mother of invention.\" So today, in the American section of the garage (we seem to have a predilection for garages these days), an exhibition of Stanley-made", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208664, "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-1979", "page_number": 121, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "94\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\ngage left for town by truck. That begins to look as if the repatriation is an assured fact, though the British don't yet believe it. The Japanese authorities announce that His Imperial Majesty's government is going to make us a loan; that we are to receive an allocation of money for our personal needs. The sum is $300,000.00 Hong Kong dollars, giving each internee about $105.00 of which $30 is to go to the communal funds, the remainder being credited to the individual, for food and personal needs. Everybody is still hungry, and there seems to be very little activity around the Camp. Softball and other games have fallen off, and even the children seem listless. According to a medical report by the Camp doctors, 90% of the children are suffering from malnutrition. At the present time, milk is issued only for three year olds and under, and for nursing mothers. The quality of our food seems to have increased slightly but the quantity is still meager. Our one piece of bread, issued daily or every other day, seems also to be dwindling in size, and becoming darker in color. At present our piece of bread is about three inches long by about one inch wide. Incidentally, the bread which we have been getting is being baked at the French Hospital, and we are getting it through the good offices and hard work of Dr. Selwyn Clark, the former head of the Hong Kong Medical Department, who has been allowed his freedom, so far. Thus he is doing great work for the internees, though he is not allowed in the Camp very often. In addition to the food, clothing and shoes are becoming a problem. We have no facilities for the repair of shoes. There are several dentists in Camp, but only one has any kind of equipment. The others have repeatedly asked for theirs, but some excuse is always given, one of which is, \"you won't be here long enough to need it\" which, of course, gives us hope. When the Americans also ask for garden tools and seeds they usually get the same answer.\n\n14—At our morning meal, we received one boiled duck egg, rice, and carrot tops. Brother Thaddeus, in sorting over the soy beans for bean sprouts, finds a means to roast or toast the rejects, and we (his roommates) help him to eat them as peanuts. The Dollar Line officials in Camp are to be included in the repatriates already selected. The Canteen opens again under a new system, which avoids the long queues. Only two hundred tabs are issued and we draw lots for our share. The holder of each tab is also limited to the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208682, "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-1979", "page_number": 139, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "112\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nthe other for the use of our Sisters and us, the large Camp kitchen in the garage below being turned over to the British. The British have also been enlarging and perfecting their other kitchens, and they are pretty well fixed now. For hot water, as hitherto, we have a small electric boiler which gives us enough water for drinking, shaving and other purposes.\n\nIn this change of quarters, roommates were chosen by lot, and Fathers Toomey, Hessler, Madison, Siebert, Knotek and Brother Thaddeus drew the end room; Fathers Downs, Gaiero, Walter and McKeirnan take the middle room, and Fathers Meyer, Troesch, Keelan, Tackney, O'Connell and Moore get the large room. Father Meyer turns the cooking job over to Mr. Gingles. Formerly, Mr. Gingles, a retired American Navy man, had a number of restaurants in Hong Kong and a hotel in Kowloon, and while in Camp he did the cooking for the group of Americans in the American Club building. His fame as a cook spread through the Camp and now that he is living with us, he has kindly consented to do the work again. Incidentally, everybody liked Father Meyer's meals.\n\n3-Under the new hotel management, our meal hours undergo somewhat of a change. We Maryknollers (when we have the wherewithal) have coffee, bread and cereal about 8 a.m., then Mr. Gingles gives us tiffin at 12 and dinner follows as usual at 5.\n\nHaving heard a lot of our new chef's abilities, we naturally looked forward to something different, and for our first tiffin, we were not disappointed. While we had only rice and a thick soup, the soup was chicken, and very delicious. It seems there must be some community stores still extant, hence this chicken soup. For supper, he gave us fried rice and a little pork. At the present time, for 41 people, we get from 9 to 11 pounds of meat, bones and fat included, mostly beef, and probably water buffalo at that. Our present issue of green vegetables consists of a few sweet potatoes, some very poor, wormy water spinach and chives, which Mr. Gingles frowns upon and usually throws away as unfit for human consumption.\n\n4-Rain ushered in the Fourth of July and we did not celebrate. Tiffin, again rice and a thick tomato soup (the latter not from the Japanese!) However, we had a very good supper, the Sisters adding a cake, and Father Troesch some cocoa. Mr. Gingles' kit-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208688, "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-1979", "page_number": 145, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "118\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\n14-There is a softball game almost every evening now and that gives us something to look forward to, although swimming is also a good attraction during the day. Tweed Bay Beach is a very fine sandy one, but not very large. We learn that the Holy Father has given $15,000.00 HK to victims of the war, and each internee at Stanley will receive about $5.40.\n\n—\n\n15 Feast of the Assumption. Only one Mass in the Club Chapel today. We are hoping to receive our long-looked-for permission to leave Camp today, as hitherto something important usually happened on a Feast Day, but there is as yet no news from \"The Hill.\" However, we did have quite a surprise when the Sisters gave us a dish of ice cream for supper. How they manage these things is more than we can fathom. No show tonight, but a farcical game of softball between the Police and the Ladies.\n\nThe next few days are quite uneventful, with baseball the main feature of the day. As clothing is becoming quite a problem for the internees, flour sacks are being utilized for articles of apparel. On the 17th there was another death at the Hospital. The British are also having lectures each Tuesday for those who wish to attend. Rain kept us indoors at times and it looks as if we might have a typhoon. One of the patients who had been allowed to go to St. Paul's Hospital for X-ray treatment failed to return to Camp and as a punishment no more patients will be allowed this privilege for a month, no matter how sick they may be.\n\n20-Seven months in Camp today and at last the good news has come: we get our call to sign our papers on \"The Hill\" at 9:30 a.m. These papers merely say that we shall do nothing against His Imperial Majesty's Japanese Government if we are paroled, and we gladly accede to such a request. Accordingly, promptly at the appointed time, we 13 Maryknoll priests, Brother Thaddeus and two of the remaining four Maryknoll Sisters, Sister Dorothy and Sister Henrietta Marie, sign the required papers and are informed that we may leave in a \"few\" days. Fathers Meyer and Hessler, with Sisters Eucharistia and Christella, will remain in the Camp to look after the Catholics. At present there is only one other priest left, Father Charles Murphy of Scarboro Bluff, Canada. He is seeking his release.\n\n21 — Packing up our few belongings and Dr. Talbot gives us cholera shots. Softball gives us a good evening's entertainment.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208690, "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-1979", "page_number": 147, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "120\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\n5- \"The Optimists\" appear again in an entertainment on the Green and delight their audience. A Mr. Shaw, British, died of heart failure in bed just after tiffin. Today, we received HK$5.00 as our portion of the allocation of relief from His Holiness, the Pope.\n\nSunday. General meeting of Catholic Action in the afternoon. A good crowd was present and various reports read. Father Meyer hands over his share of the cooking to Mr. and Mrs. Kiley. Father Walter and Father Keelan still continue to feed us at night, with hamburgers and \"rubber plant\"-Excuse me! I should have said \"hamburger.\"\n\n7-Labor Day and no classes for the Language School. Three adults were baptized in the Maryknoll Chapel. Due to some wiring difficulty we had no electricity at night.\n\n8-Nativity of Our Lady, and First Communion Day for the newly baptized. No news of our impending departure! Patience! Lights on again.\n\n9-Big News: Maryknoll, in a cable, orders all Maryknollers in occupied areas to be repatriated! But how? and when? Rumor has it that we are to get news of our release tomorrow.\n\n10-No news!\n\n11--At Last!! We are to leave Camp tomorrow, the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, and Father Price's anniversary. Evidently we have friends in Heaven. Laus Deo!\n\n12—What a day! We are to be released from our confinement and go back to civilized life! We toted our baggage in the morning down to the American Club Block A-4, and there at 10:00 a.m. it was examined, not too minutely, by the gendarmes. Nothing was confiscated, however. At about eleven o'clock the truck which brings the food out to the Camp backed up and the first group, consisting of Fathers Toomey, Troesch, Downs, Keelan, Siebert, Walter and Knotek, Brother Thaddeus and Sisters Dorothy and Henrietta Marie, got in. At the Depot were many of our friends to see us off and to wish us well. At 2:30 in the afternoon the second group, consisting of Fathers Tackney, Madison, Moore, McKeirnan, Gaiero and O'Connell, and most of our baggage, left.\n\nAs we in the first group sped out of the Camp and on our way over the familiar winding road to Hong Kong, it was hard to ana-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208693, "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-1979", "page_number": 150, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n123\n\nUpon inquiry, we were at first directed to the downtown branch, then to another branch station further out along Des Voeux Road; then still further west to Kennedy Town, only to find that since we lived at Pokfulam and just over the border of the Kennedy Town district, we had to apply at Aberdeen. Thus the intricacies of Japanese administration. At Aberdeen, Father Troesch secured our cards, and from then on was kept more than busy trying to keep us fed. As there were no deliveries, all food had to be carried by hand. Both Father Troesch and Brother Thaddeus did yeoman work along these lines. Food items rationed from Government stores were rice, flour, beans, oil and firewood, while meat, fish, vegetables and other foods could be purchased in the open market. Rationed food could also be purchased downtown, but at a higher price. During our stay at Bethany, our food was substantial though very simple and with little variation from day to day. Our meals were portioned and because of our lack of income and the uncertainty of the length of our stay in Hong Kong, we lived pretty frugally. We had meat once a day and fish once a day; a little ground corn for cereal at breakfast with two small pieces of bread, a banana and a cup of coffee. Our cook was very good, however, and he managed to give us very tasty meals with the limited facilities at his disposal.\n\nThe 18th of September was the anniversary of the Mukden Incident, and in anticipation of any trouble the Japanese intensified their patrol and search activities on the streets. For instance, on the trip by bus from Pokfulam to Hong Kong, a distance of two or three miles, we were obliged during those days to get off the bus at barriers erected at Queen Mary Hospital, Mount Davis and at the University in West Point. After the anniversary, however, the only barrier to be passed was that at Mount Davis, where all passengers had to get out of the bus and file past an Indian or a Chinese policeman who searched them, though not very thoroughly. As a matter of fact, we foreigners were not searched actually, but we had to dismount from the bus and pass through the barrier. Downtown in those early days of our freedom, we were called upon a few times to show our passes, but after that, we did not have to do so.\n\nOur early days at Bethany were spent quietly, we trying to re-orientate ourselves after our Camp experience, but somehow or other, it was difficult to get back to normalcy. There was still the\n\nPage 150\n\nPage 151", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208705, "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-1979", "page_number": 162, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n135\n\nmany of our friends were on the wharf to see us off, and promptly at twelve noon we pulled away from the bund. The day before, while at Bethany, we saw a large liner of the Asama Maru class, slowly enter the harbor, and wondered what it portended. The next day, as we left the harbor for Macao and Kwangchauwan, this majestic ship, painted a war-gray, was still in the harbor, but just as we started, it also got underway and our ship had to slow her engines so that the liner could pass us on her way to sea. Ranged on her decks we could see the familiar military uniform of the Canadian soldiers who were, no doubt, being taken to some other internment camp outside of Hong Kong.\n\nA few hours' run brought us to Macao where we met Sister Paul and made some visits, the first of which was to the Maryknoll Sisters' new orphanage for homeless and destitute children. It was quite a sight to see 400 little tots making away with bowl after bowl of rice, furnished by the kindness of the Portuguese Government. We then called on the Jesuits, formerly of Hong Kong, who had gone to Macao to open a school for boys, and at the Seminary, and the next day at noon pulled out of the Macao fairway for Kwangchauwan, a run of some twenty hours. By this time Bishop Paschang and the Kongmoon priests, Frs. Paulus, Smith and North, had already slipped back into \"Free China.\"\n\nTravelling on an enemy ship in wartime made us naturally a little apprehensive. Some of the passengers told us of the occasional presence of submarines in this area, and we hoped that we would not meet any, even if they were from our homeland. However, we reached Kwangchauwan the next morning safely at 10 o'clock, and went ashore to the French Procure where we met the Procurator, Father Lebas and Father Moran, a Jesuit from Hong Kong, assisting him. With their assistance, we arranged for our travel inland. At Kwangchauwan, we met some of our other Hong Kong friends, one of whom was the wife of Andrew Tse of the Clover Flower shop, and Father Downs baptized her baby, Teresa Elizabeth.\n\nAt Kwangchauwan, Father Toomey left us to proceed to Fachow in the Kongmoon Vicariate, and the rest of us engaged chairs for a six-day trip to Watlam, the first of our Wuchow stations. At Watlam, we again separated, Fathers Troesch, Moore and McKeirnan and Brother Thaddeus, and also one or two Sisters, going to Wuchow. The remainder of the group, consisting of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 } ]