Evening star., 1942-01-01
1900 u. ). Citizens
Trapped by laps
AT Hong Kong
Scores Of Chinese Are
Drowned or Shot in
Trying to Escape
Wide World News.

Wide World News.
CHUNGKING, Dec. 20 Delayed.
About 1900 United States ma
tionals were trapped in Hong Kong
by Japan's conquest OF that British
crown colony.
But after the Japanese attack on
the colony began more than sou
Chinese slipped out in fishing boats
or junks and landed safely on the
coast In Chinese occupied territory.
They made their escape in the
dark, as British and japanese guns
exchanged fire, reaching safety
through the skill of Chinese boat
men familiar with every inlet and
village on the coast.
However, scores upon scores OF
other Chinese who tried to escape
By the same means were killed by
g,mfire or drowned when their craft
sank.
Consul General Trapped.
Embassy and consular officials,
businessmen and foreign CORE
spondents were among the American
nationals trapped including United
States Consul General Addison
Southard, whose hillside home was
demolished by japanese gunflre, and
Charles S. Reid of Sandusky, Ohio,
former consul at Hanoi who was on
his way to Chungking to become sec
ond secretary of the United States
Embassy.
Among others were Maj. Richard
A. Grussendorf, United States mill
tary attache for air, who halls from
St. Louis, Mo, and Maj. Reynolds
Condor, assistant military attache
who comes from Berkeley, Calf.
Aboard what proved the last reg
ular passenger plane from Chung
king to Hong Kong was William
Hunt. prominent American Far
Eastern businessman who was on
his way back to the United States
after brief trip to China's war
time capital. Hunt arrived in Hong
Kong December 6 and was there
waiting to catch a clipper when the
japanese attacked the colony two
days later.
Reports of the battle for the COL
ony reaching here said an American
woman, Florence Webb, was killed
by shell splinters in the second or
third day of hostilities and that
William Kailey of Brooklyn. N. Y,
on December 25 had been missing
several days.
Rich Chinese Escapes.
Most prominent Chinese to escape
other than by air was the Singapore
multimillionaire, Aw Boon Haw,
known as the tiger balm king after
the ointment which had made him
one of the richest men in Malaga.
Aw Boon Haw chartered junk for
$500 American dollars and man
aged to reach Macao, the Portuguese
colony near Hong Kong. From
there, escaping detection by the
japanese, he arrived safely in the
interior.
Among Britons caught in Hong
Kong was the British consul general
in Chungking, A. j. Martin who had
flown to the colony few weeks
earlier to enter a hospital. His wife,
an American, accompanied him
there.
Most prominent diplomat trapped
in Hong Kong was Baron Jules
Guillaume, Belgian Ambassador to
China and dean of the diplomatic
corps in Chungking, who had gone
there with his wife on their way to
Peiping to fetch their children.
Lack of shipping facilities pre-
vented them from continuing their
journey and they were waiting in
Hong Kong for Belgian official to
bring their children there.
DIR. Yen Is Victim.
Among the many Chinese notables
trapped in Hong Kong we're DR.. w.
w. Yen, former Ambassador at
Washington, and Eugene Chen, one
time foreign minister.
American commercial pilots who
imperiled their lives to 60 to the
rescue, removed about $50 Chinese
and rs Americans in the first two
tii6Aloo VI
among them were two of the Soon
sisters, Nine. Sun Yat-Sen, widow
OF the founder of the Chinese re-
public, and Nine. H. H. Kung, wife
OF Chinas minister of finance.
Others rescued b yair included
K. P. Chen, celebrated Chinese
banker who heads the Chinese Cur
rency Sterilization Board, and Man.
uel Fox, American member of the
board.
Correspondent Caught.
Most of the Americans rescued by
Air belonged to Pan American Air
ways and the China National Avia-
ton Corp, operated Jointly by
P. A. A. and the Chinese govern
ment.
Foreign correspondents trapped in
Hong Kong included Vaughn F.
Meisling of the Associated Press,
who arrived in the colony in April.
OF the 1000 American citizens in
Hong Kong 300 were estimated to
be OF occidental parentage, 600 of
Chinese and 200 of Filipino origin,
A year ago there were about 1000
American nationals there, but some
300 had needed the advice of the
State Department to leave.