The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-10-24
Raising Union Jack
At Hong K on g
Bv LONE STOPS


i It was August 18th. The news had just come
through the Chinese press that the Emperor
Of Japan had accepted the Allied terms OF
surrender and in a rescript had called upon
i the Army to lay down its arms. Two young
men in an inferno camp in koWloon reed the
news and decided that the Union JACK must
be hoisted Immediately. Was not Hong Kong
once more ours? Had not peace come again?
At midnight they crept through the barbed
wire fence-through a hole which they knew
well. All was quiet in kowloon. The streets
were deserted and though they once nearly
ran into Japanese patrol they managed to
| evade them. At the harbor and moored to the
/ jetty wall was a fire float with an old boat
man and his family aslep on board. They de-
manded that he row them across the harbor.
He refused pointblank, protesting that the Jap
anese would shoot, and to emphasize his re-
| fusal, waved his arms, whispering affrighted-
ly:
Japanese soldier see us 60 ping. ping,
ping!'' He and his family would be no more
not to speak Of the two mad Engllshmen,
who aroused him so inconsiderately at that
lat hour. But they were adamant and gradu-
ally, after an hours arguing, cajoling and
assurances that peace had come once again
and that therefore, he had nothing to fear,
he reluctantly gave way. But another diff
Guilty arose: the dinghy which was on the
float had not been in the water for months
and was, he assured them, entirely unsea-
worthy. It certainly had not been in the water
for months and as soon as it touched the
water it began to leak.
Nothing daunted the two men, one hugging
the Union Jack, clambered into the leaky boat
followed by the old man and his small son,
whose task it was to bale. But the small lads
efforts in this direction were totally made
quate and it took two Of them to keep the
| boat afloat at all. Added to danger Of sinking
was the danger of betrayal by the unusual
amount Of phosphorescence that glistened SO
| brightly at each movement Of the oars They
wondered what the Japanese were doing not
| to see them, but the old man, having COM
mitted his life into the hands of these master
| full young men, was prepared to accept his
fate. He rowed stolidly on. Perhaps they were
right.
If so, as they had assured hinn-and his
neighbors had talked of nothing else for many
months-the British would return and the jap
anese would disappear. He would like. that.
The past three and half years had been one
long night Of terror. He hardly knew how he
and his family had survived. So many had
died around him. But he had always been
careful not to become embroiled in arguments
and he had kept himself and his family in
the boat, living on what they could catch.
At last after more than one hours hard
rowing, they reached Hong Kong and his task
was over. Nothing had happened and he was
ready to return. He refused the wad Of notes
they tried to thrust into his hands. No, he did
not want that After some arguing he said that
the only thing he wanted was that they should
remember his name and that when the Bri-
fish really came they would let him resume
his old job in the Fire Department. They
promised and as they turned to 60 the young
men stood for one moment on the silent quay.
The moon, half hidden behind clouds, silhout-
foIf LAI. ~ = c&o
in the boat for one moment and then the two
disappeared; the boat vanished likewise.
Hong Kong was as deserted as Kowloon had
been. The Japanese seemed to have decamp-
ed. But as the two hurried along they met
their second posse of Japanese gendarms. This
time there was no evasion and they were Or
dered to stop. But, greeted as they were by
peace had come, they the guardians Of law
and order, became nonplussed. To be told by
two men, who ordinarily should have been
asleep in their camp at that hour, that peace
had come, that they were no longer enemies,
was too much. The young men even offered
to shake hands with them. Taken aback and
hesitating as to the proper course to pursue
found themselves walking along their beat and
two young men marching of up the hill be-
hind them!
At 3 am. the youths knock at a startled
friends door. Later that morning they con-
tinued their journey to ioist the Union Jack
on the Peak-the highest point in the Colony.
1t was obvious to them that peace had come
but that for some unexplained reason the jap
anese were still in command. There should
be no delay in announcing the fact.
They took the shortest but steepest path. They
met many Chinese coolies carrying down sto-
len wood and boards from houses vacated by
the Japanese. All stopped to cape at the two
Englishmen abroad and free at that hour. At
$3.50 am. they reached the flag staff above
Mountain Lodge, the home Of the former Bril-
fish governors. They then sat down to rest
and to wait for 9 o'clock to strike and as 1t
did so the Union Jack ran to the top OF the
mast and foated out in the breeze. What
lovely sight it was! Satisfied that they had
achieved their object, they sat down to await
the Indian guard whom they had told to be
there to guard the flag after it had been hoist
ed.
Startled Formosan guards and the expected
indian guards arrived simultaneously, the for
mer uncertain and disappearing the latter sto-
I'D and unmoved. After being assured empha-
ticallly and strenuously that peace had come,
the Formosans decided that the only thing to
pc done was to leave the knotty problem IN the
hands OF their superiors To their call for
guidance a Japanese captain with his guard
ana an interpreter arrived. The two men i'm
nedlately took the lead, informed the aston
lsned officer that as peace had been declared
ana the war was over the Colony was Bri-
tlSh once more Thew offered to shake hands