RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077
ADVENTURERS IN HONG KONG

33

Legion of Honour for Bravery. That same year he published Souvenirs de la Cochinchine,17 an account of his life and adventures in Indo-China in the years 1863-1868. It is extremely difficult to decide what is fact and fiction in this chronicle for Mayréna had already matured into a remarkable mythologiser and phantasist—a monumental liar.

Little is known about Mayréna's life for some years after 1871, except that he set himself up as a banker in Paris, dabbled in journalism and led the existence of a boulevardier, ogling the girls at Tortoni's and the Napolitain. Then in July 1883 he was accused of swindling, a warrant for his arrest issued, and he fled to Holland. From Holland he embarked for the Dutch East Indies and arrived there penniless in September 1883. In August 1884 he was repatriated to France at the expense of the Dutch colonial administration. But only a few weeks after his return to France he was again on his way back to the East, this time as leader of a scientific expedition of exploration to Java, financed by the Baron Roger Seillière.

Mayréna did not proceed to Java as planned but stayed on in Saigon. The 30,000 francs, handed to him by the Baron for equipping the expedition, he spent lavishly in the cafés of Saigon, relating wild Munchausen-like tales of his previous adventures in the East. The police soon compiled an extensive dossier on this troublesome fellow, who was suspected of gunrunning, swindling, and a variety of other offences. In August 1885, the Commissioner of Police wrote of Mayréna and his brother, who had accompanied him on this last trip, that they were 'faiseurs et monteurs de sociétés à exploiter les naifs'.18

Mayréna made several expeditions into the interior of Indo-China in the years 1885 to 1888, but it was his last journey which concerns us here. In March 1888 he landed on the coast at Quinhon at the head of a semi-official expedition of exploration into the independent region of the Moï country. The expedition had the blessing of the Secretary-General at Saigon. On 21 April 1888 the party left Quinhon. It included a seedy adventurer from Saigon, Mercurol; a trader, Paoli; two Annamite women; a few Chinese; and a contingent of local levies and porters. Mayréna was amazingly successful in a short space of time. He signed a treaty with an important Moï chief and soon succeeded in welding together a number of disparate Moï tribes into a confederation.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j
201

# THE RE-OCCUPATION OF HONG KONG

## IN AUGUST 1945

### DAN WATERS

In May 1992, on a Royal British Legion pilgrimage to Italy to visit graves of comrades killed when my company fought there in World War II, I became friends with ex-company sergeant major John McLaren. We later exchanged letters and he enclosed comments by his stepbrother, a Fleet Air Arm naval rating, about the return of the Allied Forces to Hong Kong in August 1945. From Mr Roland Davidson's comments I have compiled the following. It should be remembered, of course, that recollections can become distorted over half a century.

When the atom bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki both the American 7th Fleet and the British 5th Fleet attached to it were at sea ready for strikes at the Japanese mainland. Everyone was delighted that Japan had surrendered. As Singapore and Hong Kong were both holding out the 7th Fleet was dispatched to Singapore and the 5th Fleet to Hong Kong. We arrived quite quickly and American Admiral Bill Halsey lost no time in demanding the presence of the Hong Kong garrison Japanese commander aboard the flagship “Indomitable” on which I was a crew member. One of our aircraft, a Fairy Fulmar if my memory serves me right, was sent to pick this worthy gentleman up. After a short time the plane returned. I might add that our ship was still at sea in a state of readiness.

Out of the aircraft stepped this very well dressed, debonair Japanese army officer who treated the armed marine guard as if it was his guard of honour. Admiral Halsey was none too pleased and called down to the flight deck: 'Bring that man to the "island" (the bridge) at the double!' Documents of surrender were placed ready for signature on a small table.

When the poor fellow arrived he was asked if he was indeed the Japanese commanding officer. He replied in perfect English that he was in fact the second-in-command. He said his commanding officer had absconded the previous day. The second-in-command was rather arrogant and swanky, and smartly dressed in uniform with high boots which had high heels. Halsey ordered a marine to break off the heel of his right boot who then had to hobble around the bridge and across the decks to the amusement of the ship's crew. I never saw a man's arrogance
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x
25

allowances of food, accommodation and bearers, twenty horses and eighty men to be supplied by the county magistrate through whose territory the recipient travelled. He described the order of the Pa-Tu-La (to give it its Chinese title) as 'similar to the Legion of Honour or the Victoria Cross, awarded on the strength of a recommendation of the highest provincial official for distinguished services.' He also claimed that although he had been recommended for it several times between 1868 to 1873 he had only received it in 1873 together with the rank of Brigadier-General.

According to Mayers in his book 'The Chinese Government':

Pa-l'u-lu The Batʼuru distinction. The Military distinction called in Chinese Pa-t'u-lu (a representation of the Manchu word bat'uru, signifying ‘brave') is an institution dating from the early years of the present dynasty, and is conferred solely for active service in the field. It constitutes an order of merit partaking of some of the characteristics of the French Legion d'honneur, but its special feature of difference from European order consists of the fact that it has no outward mark of decoration to be worn by its possessor, in the place of which there can only be reckoned the distinguishing word (or title) which is assigned to each recipient on the bestowal of the order. These specific titles may be either Manchu, Mongolian or Chinese, the Manchu being considered the most honourable. Under this system an officer upon whom the distinction is conferred, might receive the designation Ti Yung Pa-t'u-lu, or 'Bat'uru with the title Magnanimous Brave', and so forth. The title carries with it the right to wear the peacock feather, although it seldom happens at the present day that the peacock feather, lavishly awarded as this decoration has been of late years, is not obtained previously to the bestowal of the batʼuru; and the allowances of the bearer, when employed on active service, are considerably enhanced in virtue of his possession of the title. The Bat'uru has been conferred upon at least one European, Mr W Mesny, a native of Jersey, for services rendered in the province of Kueichou.

Mesny commented in his Miscellany in 1896 that on several occasions during the early years of the Kueichou campaign he had been recommended to the Emperor for the bestowal of military rank and his
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