ESCAPE FROM HONG KONG

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23588, 16 March 1942, Page 3

ESCAPE FROM HONG KONG

SURVIVOR PRAISES CHINESE (8.Q.W.) RUGBY. March 14. The first man to reach England after escaping from Hong Kong following the capitulation of the garrison has just "arrived in London. He is Mr David Mercen Macdougall, a 37-year-old Scot of the Colonial Civil Service, who first went to Hong Kong in 1929. He has an extraordinary story to tell of Chinese loyalty and co-operation in Hong Kong under the Japanese attack. The civil defence services were manned chiefly by Chinese. Their A.R.P. activities were maintained effectively and with the utmost steadfastness to the last. Their heroism in fire-fighting, says Mr Macdougall, cannot be too highly praised. They carried out the most efficient food control. To preserve law and order they manned what were called street guards, whose duties ranged ■ from maintaining traffic control to watching for possible looters. Chinese women worked as nurses, cooks, and in all manner of ways. Chinese sappers, in the face of fierce fire, coolly carried on. Largely as a result of Chinese coolness there was neither panic nor rioting on the island, nor was there any food shortage. The Japanese tried hard but in vain to undermine the civilian morale. They showered leaflets on the town and set up loud speakers in the harbour. , . Mr Macdougall escaped a few hours after the fall of the colony. He was a member of an escaping party headed by the famous Chinese Admiral Chan Chak. Finding a small launch, they set out, but soon Japanese snipers and machine-gunners on the shore, and then shelling, compelled them to abandon the launch and take to the water. There were several casualties, and the admiral, who had only one leg. was shot in a wrist, and Mr Macdougall got a bullet in the back. A long swim to an island followed. Hiding on the island till dark, the party eventually made its way to the China coast m a motor torpedo boat, A hazardous journey through the Japanese lines followed. Four weeks after leaving Hong Kong. Mr Macdougall reached Chungoing. -