RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d
CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG

155

in my mind that the Colony could not hold out long against an attack. After France fell in June 1940 the outlook darkened further.

At this time I was a major of 22 years service but I held a lowly position in the Army List for my Corps, being near the bottom of a block of officers who had been commissioned during the First World War. I had prepared for a career in Surgery and I also had experience of administration. In theatres where the army was expanding, promotion for officers in my position was nearly certain but in Hong Kong there was no such possibility. For a time I hoped I might be posted elsewhere, and while I never thought it possible that I might get home the Middle East seemed just a possibility. The likeliest destination for me if I moved at all seemed to be Singapore where my friends told me of the huge increase of strength in the army there. I was never moved.

I had no part in preparing the army's plans for increased hospital accommodation in Hong Kong in war. Some of the buildings it was sought to use were occupied by religious orders, some of which were Italian and I understood that Colonel John Simson, the Assistant Director of Medical Services, China Command found difficulty inspecting these and met a blank refusal to a request that we might be allowed to make a preliminary accumulation of medical stores in some of these buildings. The Hong Kong Government was, I believe, unwilling on grounds of policy to overrule the objections. The Indian Army Hospital which was in Kowloon and which accommodated some British patients as well, was on the outbreak of hostilities to close, cross the harbour and reopen on the Island of Hong Kong in the Chinese Hospital, Tung Wah East. With the frontier so close to the harbour this would obviously be a difficult operation and I was sorry for the A.D.M.S. who had to plan under these conditions.

I have been able to obtain through the courtesy of Colonel R. H. Freeman and Brigadier John Lapper, a postwar aerial photograph of the Military Hospital buildings in Bowen Road, which I reproduce here (plate 17). The photograph shows that new buildings have been added since the war and does not show the hospital reservoir. The hospital was built in two wings each containing a ground floor and two storeys, and these wings were connected by a central block which held the administrative offices. To the north there was a magnificent view over the harbour to the mountains of the New Territories while in the rear of the building the ground rose
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d
CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG

159

the Military Hospital in Bowen Road, which I scarcely left until we moved to Kowloon in March 1945.

8-25 DECEMBER, 1941

During hostilities eleven hospitals on the Island received casualties. These were:

Military Hospital, Bowen Road.

St. Albert's Convent

St. Stephen's College, Stanley.

Stanley Prison Hospital

Hongkong Hotel.

Matilda Hospital,

The Peak.

Indian Military Hospital, Tung Wah East.

Royal Naval Hospital.

Queen Mary Hospital, Pokfulam.

University Hospital, University Buildings.

War Memorial Hospital, The Peak.

The Indian Hospital was responsible mainly for Indian casualties, but like all other hospitals, service and civil alike, admitted any casualties which occurred nearby. The hospital in Bowen Road acted as a Casualty Clearing Station during hostilities, a role which though foreseen was forced upon us very early by shell fire and aerial bomb hits which caused casualties among the staff, destroyed the kitchen and damaged the structure to such an extent that it became unsafe to use the two top floors as wards. After surgical treatment patients, when fit to move, were transferred to other hospitals thought to be a little safer, and to emergency accommodation opened elsewhere such as the Hong Kong Hotel where they were nursed on mattresses laid on the ballroom floor. The main approach road to Bowen Road, Borrett Road, was soon damaged by shell fire and for a time ambulance cars could not reach the hospital at all. Casualties then had to be carried on stretchers by our staff over long stretches of slippery, wet, and steep slopes of mud.

The basement operating theatres and X-ray room in the hospital proved to be a great success, and early and effective surgery was carried out successfully. The occupation of Kowloon by the Japanese, complete by 18 December, cut off our sources of supply of anaesthetic gases, mains water, and electricity. We then used our generators to supply light and power and drew water from our reservoir. One of our wards had been made gas-proof but neither
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d
CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG

163

rapidly in the hospital but our nurses carried out full duty by day and by night though many had to draw on their reserves of courage to do so.

In Bowen Road the women nurses moved at once into the hospital building from their isolated mess and were joined by their colleagues from other hospitals who had suffered the murderous attacks on themselves, their patients and their doctors. It is not surprising that many of them were deeply apprehensive. They never suffered any overt attacks but in their crowded quarters in war-damaged wards they had to guard against many peeping toms among the Japanese guards. On duty they were objects of much curiosity to sentries who, in their rubber-soled boots would suddenly materialise silently out of the darkness of night with their bayonets fixed. Inquisitive Japanese officers would appear in the wards where many patients had limbs immobilised in various forms of apparatus. Those in Thomas splints suspended from Balkan beams were special objects of curiosity but when Japanese tried to touch the carefully balanced suspensions they were speedily moved on by our sisters. In particular the lady who would have hanged the Governor showed, as might be expected, no fear. The courage and fortitude of our nurses at this time are beyond all praise and their example was of the greatest importance in encouraging male staff and patients.

Early in 1942 the Japanese set about concentrating British and allied wounded, except Indian troops, in Bowen Road. The Japanese had their own political reasons for segregating Indians. By 26 February the only other hospital serving British and allied troops was the small St. Teresa's Hospital in Kowloon which provided a few beds for men from the P.O.W. camps there. Eventually on 11 August 1942 St. Teresa's was closed and its few patients who still needed care were moved to Bowen Road. Thereafter no British or allied wounded remained in any other service or civil hospital or building which had been used as a hospital.

The Military Hospital, Bowen Road, thus fell into Japanese hands structurally damaged but functionally practically intact, fully equipped with beds, mattresses, blankets, sheets, normal hospital furniture and office equipment and ample surgical equipment, laboratory resources and good stocks of drugs and dressings and medical dietary necessities. Our stocks of ration fuel, coal and expendable materials which we could not replace were soon exhausted.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d
CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG

261

I was straban while Ashton Rose was preparing a medical report on Sham Shui Po. At this time we were being asked by the British Military Administration to submit lists of our kit which had been taken by the Japanese but I imagine that this only added to the papers with which they had to deal at that time. The Colonial Secretary was installed in the French Mission at Battery Path and heads of government departments followed shortly afterwards. Commander Craven and Major Boxer left us for staff duties in Hong Kong and I arranged for two barbers to come and stay for a few days. Six of our Q.A. sisters arrived and another six came late at night accompanied by very necessary male escorts from Stanley. We were delighted to see them and put them all up and fed them but it was early morning before I got to bed.

On 27 August Saito came back and I pressed him again for our medical records and he excused himself by saying he had been so busy. The Indian hospital had 259 patients and 45 staff and I arranged an X-ray session for Indian patients including a number suffering from tuberculosis. Selwyn-Clarke sent us a gift of brandy and cigarettes, showing that though he did not use these comforts himself he would not deny them to others. Miss Dyson now back in her rightful position as Matron set about getting overalls for her sisters, a splendid boost to the morale not only of these ladies but of the patients and staff as well. Madame Lebon made these and our army promised payment.

1

We finally closed our compradore's shop and agreed a business settlement with the compradore on the basis of him taking out cash plus goods to the total of $8831.06 yen. We had an excellent concert provided by Sham Shui Po, and some of the Hong Kong Volunteers, particularly those of mixed race, were slightly built and made up very attractively as girls. Members of the Indian camp and the Internee Camp at Ma Tau Wei attended and as usual in these days I was very late to bed. We found it necessary to control visiting hours in the hospital because of the very large numbers of people we had roaming about.

On 28 August we got smoke flares from our people for touching off by day to guide our aircraft when they were dropping supplies and the Japanese also sent in smoke cylinders for a like purpose. They also sent in 3 bottles of whisky, 4 of peppermint for the dispensary, 8 of brandy, 50 of port, 6 of gin and 20 of sherry. I at once arranged a general issue of 2 ounces of port per head, a meagre ration which I thought was wise at the time.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d
CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG

263

had taken over the civil administration for the time being. The Admiral cheered us all up by saying that his hospital ship could take 600 patients and he had asked for another hospital ship as well. A Canadian warship, the Prince Rupert, took some Canadians and all our sisters off to supper in the ship. I worked up to 2.30 a.m. preparing lists for the use of our Military Headquarters in Sham Shui Po and also the details of our hospital patients awaiting evacuation.

On 31 August a naval doctor arrived as a liaison officer and I called on Surgeon-Captain Willoughby the P.M.O. in the hospital ship Oxfordshire. Some tough-looking marines commandeered transport and we transferred 101 patients to the hospital ship at once. At this time my diary records that we had ample food but I was dead tired and the P.M.O. very kindly asked me to stay in the Oxfordshire as he seemed to think I needed a rest. This was most considerate of him but there was still much to be done. Willoughby wanted the Q.A. sisters to sail also in the Oxfordshire with the patients, but Miss Dyson objected strongly and rightly won her point. The rest of the patients embarked in the hospital ship also and we provided case notes for all such patients. A Group-Captain R.A.F. came to the hospital to take it over for R.A.F. use, but our army sisters remained with us to their, and our, delight. A very senior R.A.F. combatant officer took some joy telling me that those of us who had wives at home were in for some nasty shocks for most of these had gone badly astray during the war. He did not say how their husbands had conducted themselves.

The Indian Hospital seemed to be well under control and Major Evans told me he had 314 patients in hospital, about 85% of whom had manifestations of pellagra, and I was able to help by supplying some drugs.

The ship's P.M.O. Willoughby advised the Admiral that the Oxfordshire should go direct to the United Kingdom to avoid having to tranship patients in Manila, and the ship thereupon accepted another 90 patients and was replaced by the New Zealand hospital ship, Monganui, of which the P.M.O. was Bennett. On 3 September I crossed the harbour and recovered all my buried records from Bowen Road, and I went from there to Shau Ki Wan where I found no trace of the possessions of any of our men who had been killed at the army medical store near there. They had been buried in craters behind the Salesian. I could not get transport
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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
116

REVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS

26-Sunday. Another Gingles meal of a real slice of meat, fried sweet potatoes, spinach and rice, with some Philadelphia rice scrapple for breakfast. Our rations seem to be getting less and the rice poorer, and we have to spend quite a little time in picking the worms out of the rice and the weevils out of the flour. The Shanghai groups finally get away at 2:00 p.m.

28--A softball league starts up, as the British are getting quite enthusiastic about the game, but they lose the first game to the Americans, now mostly Maryknollers. At present there are some six teams lined up; i.e., The Police, St. Stephen's, The College, the Indian Quarters, the Married Quarters, and the Americans. We have two grounds, one in the back of the American blocks on a large tennis court space, and the other down at the Indian quarters, and the games are played after supper.

30-Father Tackney develops an ear infection, apparently from swimming, and Dr. Talbot is treating him. A Miss Rose died today.

31-No softball, as the rain continues. Many of the British have not yet received their parcel of food, arrangements for which were begun some three months ago. Today we received as rations 9 pounds of meat, of which about 6 pounds were fat. The fat, of course, will come in handy for frying things, but the lean meat will not go far among 41 people.

AUGUST

1-The Hong Kong dollar was further devalued today at a rate of four to one military yen. Canteen prices further increased.

2-Sunday. Mrs. Williamson, Catholic, dies. Monday, Father Hessler sang a High Mass for the repose of her soul. Mr. and Mrs. Nance, American missionaries, who did not want to be repatriated, and who live in our Block, next to the Sisters, announce the birth of a baby boy, Jonathan Goforth Nance, in Tweed Bay Hospital. They already have two small children. After some delay incident to moving our quarters, language classes start again, but only one hour a day, just to keep in trim.

4- St. Dominic's Day. Good news—for some: the four Americans, Mr. Gingles, Dr. Molthen, Mr. Salmon and Miss Dorrer, are to leave Camp tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. Also some Britishers,
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h
87

wounded. Professor Digby, the senior surgeon at Queen Mary Hospital, told me that the hospital was crowded with wounded when the Japanese ordered it to be evacuated. There were many terribly injured soldiers for whom any movement was practically a death sentence and he had protested most forcibly against their removal. Some of the doctors and sisters also volunteered to remain and look after them under Japanese supervision. But it was of no avail, and all the doctors could do was to fill the poor men up with morphia before they were loaded on ambulances and lorries and taken to the military hospital at Bowen Road. Professor Digby described it as one of the most heartless performances in his experience.

STANLEY INTERNMENT CAMP

The camp is situated in pleasant surroundings on the Stanley Peninsula. It consists of the Warders' Quarters of Stanley Prison and the premises of St. Stephen's Boys School, well built, modern blocks with electricity, running water, flush closets, etc. While there is a considerable difference between the blocks inter se (e.g., between the Foreign and Indian warders quarters) there is no real ground for complaint regarding the quarters themselves, which are probably well above the average for internment camps. The area is surrounded by barbed wire with Indian guards at intervals, but the grounds are spacious (it would take about 25 to 30 minutes to walk round the perimeter), there is a good bowls lawn and room for soft ball etc.

This having been said, we come to the reverse of the medal. One of the most serious grievances of the internees was that of overcrowding. In the Foreign married warders' quarters (which are the best in the camp) there were as many as 9 people living in the larger rooms, and five or six in the smaller rooms. In a flat normally occupied by one married warder and his family there were between 30 and 40 persons. To take

In our flat there were: my own case:

in Room 1:- One married couple, one mother and baby, and 4 other women; in Room 2:- five women; in Room 3:- Four married couples and one baby; in Room 4:- Two married couples, one grown-up daughter and a boy; in each of 2 Servants' rooms:- One married couple; in the Pantry:- One married couple. The furniture found in the flats was divided up roughly. Some rooms got beds but no tables. Others got chairs, and so on. In our room, for 9 people we had two chairs and no tables. Of course, people improvised and to some extent the gaps were filled, but even when we
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794
270

A new military hospital has now been built facing Jordan Road on the site of the old gun shed and the barrack buildings started a new stage in their history when the PLA moved in after the handover of sovereignty to China in 1997.

REFERENCES

NEWSPAPER CUTTINGS (PRO)

"Horse Lines on the Kowloon Plains Over 100 Years Ago”, Hong Kong Then & Now series, Sept. 16, 1973.

"Transformation of Sleepy Chatham Road”, Hong Kong Then & Now series, May 5, 1978.

"Tsimshatsui's Little Portugal", Hong Kong Then & Now series, Nov. 26, 1978.

"Healthy Military Sites" by Colin Crisswell, The Vanishing City series, South China Morning Post, Jan. 1, 1978.

"An Army Home for Over a Century", by Neil Pereira, Hong Kong Then & Now series, July 29, 1979.

"The Street Where You Live” Chatham Road - the End of an Era", by Kavita Daswani, Dimensions in Living, Nov. 1986.

BOOKS

"British & Indian Armies on the China Coast 1795 - 1985", by Alan Harfield, A & J Partnership, 1990

"The Guns & Gunners of Hong Kong”, by Denis Rollo, The Gunners Roll of Hong Kong, 1992.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n
257

Han Suyin was the daughter of a Belgian (Dutch/Flemish) mother, Marguerite Denis, and a Chinese father, Chou Yen Tung, (a railway engineer) and one of eight children. She was born in Sinyang, Henan Province. Her parents met whilst her father was studying at university in Belgium. In 1932, she started work as a typist at the Peking Union Medical College to earn money to study. She entered Yenching University in 1933. She transferred to the University of Brussels in 1935 but abandoned her studies in 1938 and returned to China after the Japanese invasion. The same year, she married a Kuomintang officer, Tang Pao Huang, who rose to the rank of general before he was killed during the Civil War in 1947. Tang served for a period as a military attaché in London during World War Two. Before his death, they adopted a daughter, Mei.

Han Suyin, aged three (second from left) with her father behind her

In 1944, she entered the School of Medicine, University of London and in 1948 graduated M.B., B.S. (Hons.). She took an appointment as a paediatrician at Queen Mary Hospital, Hong Kong, in 1949. After Mr. Morrison's death in August 1950, she continued working in Hong Kong and married Leonard (Leon) F. Comber, an English publisher, on 1 February 1952, in Hong Kong. She spent the next 10 years in Johore Bahru, Malaysia, working at an anti-tuberculosis clinic. Mr. Comber was a Special Branch officer (assistant superintendent) in Malaya between 1948 and 1960. It was in Malaysia, also, that she met her current husband, an Indian Army colonel Vincent Rathnaswamy. There is a confusing report that she practiced medicine in China until about 1961.
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