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Colonial Office Reference No. 53838/35/40

With the compliments of the U.S. of S.

Date

15.7.40

E 1793/177

10

Colonial Office

16 JUL 1940

211

D

Reference_ C.O letter 53838/35/40 of 13.6.40

XXX CONFIDENTIAL.

Copied to H.M. Ambassador, Tokyo. No. 45.

H.M. Ambassador, Chungking. No. 56. H.M. Embassy, Shanghai. No. 68.

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

HONG KONG.

7th June, 1940.

My Lord,

RECEIVED -9 JUL 1940

Ch

2+17

With reference to previous correspondence

F1793-C resting with my confidentidespatch of 27th May,

1940,

regarding Chinese soldiers interned in Hong Kong, I have

the honour to inform Your Lordship with regret that one

internee named Wong Kwok sun escaped from the internees'

wurd at Lai Chi Kok Hospital on 6th May, 1940.

2.

This internee had been admitted to the hospital

on 27th April, 1940, suffering from a non-specific

enteritis. The ward in which he was detained together

with nineteen other sick internees was watched by a

northern Chinese police constable. The ward has four

windows all heavily barred, a wooden door, and an outer

mosquito-proof door with a wooden frame. The instruction

of the Chinese police constable in charge was that both

these doors must be kept locked.

3. At 5.25 a.a. on the morning of 6th May, 1940,

the Chinese constable left the ward to obey a call of

nature, locking only the outer door. On his return five

minutes later he found the netting of the mosquito-proof

door broken and one of the internees missing. All police

stations were notified of the escape but the missing

internee Wong Kwok Sun has not yet been recaptured.

14. The escape was entirely due to the disobedience

THE RIGH HONOURABLE

LORD LLOYD OF DOLOBRAN,

&C.

&C.,

&O. *

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