RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938
60

REVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS

remaining hardtack biscuits and the rest of the milk in the can. In the course of the morning our door was pushed ajar and we were given a pail of water and a few more biscuits. (The water, as we learned afterwards, came from a well nearby, the city water supply having been shut off or the mains broken since some days before Christmas. At our house during that time we had filled all available bottles with the precious liquid and had even drained out the water from the hot water heating system.) With the pail of water was one small cup, and as our hands were still tied, one of the soldiers who brought the water held the cup to our lips and we drank in turn.

During the day we continued to clean up the debris in the garage, and succeeded in getting rid of a little more rubbish. We had to work quietly and in the absence of the sentry as we did not wish to excite his suspicions. During the night the rickety wooden bed had fallen apart, and in the morning the old iron bed was taken away we surmised for the purpose of cremating the dead bodies that left us with a little more floor room. As previously mentioned there were a few odd articles of clothing on a line in the garage and these we commandeered as substitutes for pillows.

So

In the afternoon of the twenty-seventh our hands were untied by the guards for the space of about an hour, so that we could eat our biscuits and drink our water. This was certainly a relief. We were likewise allowed to go outside for a short period in order to limber up, and were also informed that we could go to a nearby well for more water. Accordingly Father Keelan and I started off in company of a soldier to a house just in the rear of Dr. To's home. As we walked through the little ravine which leads to the beach we could see the vestiges of soldiers' camps, and in the unusual stillness which reigned, Stanley looked very desolate. We drew two pails of water from a rather deep well and brought them back to our brethren. In the meantime, a half dozen of us, under the lead of Father Troesch, were allowed to go up to our house to secure some clothing and blankets. They soon returned bringing with them a few armfuls of odds and ends of clothing, a blanket or two and a few tins of foodstuffs. Someone then brought us a small Chinese firepot; we found a large tin can which had contained the army biscuits and we were allowed to cook a meagre supper just outside our garage door. Hardtack was soaked in a large tin of
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938
144

REVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS

Maryknollers being driven West in the face of the Japanese advance that we had to secure a house to serve them until they got flights out over the Himalaya mountains into Burma or India. Father Frank Keelan received from the Bishop of Kunming a good-sized building, formerly a club for the French who maintained the railway between Kunming and Indo-China, and turned it into a hostel for travel-weary Maryknollers who had been walking, or riding trucks, for weeks in order to reach this city. Father Jim Smith, who had been assisting Father Tennien in Chungking, took Father Keelan's place in Kunming when the latter left for the States, and while there set up a branch of Father Tennien's continent-spanning financial operation to assure a steady supply of funds to the missioners not yet driven out of their posts by the Japanese armies. Father Tennien's mission at this time was to close out this operation; his travels brought him to Calcutta and Chungking, and in the latter place, now manned by Father Tom Brack, it was decided to move the base of operation to Shanghai since the Government was leaving this wartime capital for its former site, Nanking, while the many foreign aid organizations were leaving for Shanghai. Since it seemed that Shanghai would now become the financial center for overseas remittances, he worked out a plan with Father Brack to begin closing down the Chungking operation and move to Shanghai. Following this, he then flew to Shanghai to look things over, and reported to Maryknoll that a priest should be assigned to that city to take care of financial matters for the Society. On his return to Hong Kong, Father Tennien received the first copy of his latest book, "Chungking Listening Post," written while he was in that city during the war years. This copy he autographed and sent to General Wedemeyer, Chief of the American mission in China, and a personal friend.

In response to Father Tennien's request to set up office in Shanghai, the Maryknoll General Council requested him to do this personally and to continue to manage financial affairs until the post-war situation settled down.

1946

At the beginning of the year, the Maryknoll Council decided to keep Father Tennien in Shanghai over his repeated requests to return to his mission in Wuchow where there was an unprecedented
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