Bill for the Use of a Body Read Free Page B

parties in private houses.
    It was not until Sunday December the 7th that Maltby knew definitely that his testing time could not now be long delayed. He was attending a Church Parade that had all the glamour of a peacetime military ceremony. He had just finished reading the first Lesson when an officer came in to whisper to him the disquieting news that the Punjabis had reported a threatening concentration of Japanese troops to be massing on their front north of Fan Ling. The General and his senior officers quietly slipped away and back to his Headquarters. But there was little that he could do. The Royal Scots, the Rajputs and the Punjabis were already thinly spread out along the preordained front line. The Middlesex and the Canadians were held in reserve on the island. All units were alerted and the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps swiftly mobilised to take up their war stations.
    It was at ten to five on the following morning that Julian was roused from the deep healthy sleep of the young by his Chief, Major Charles Boxer, the senior Intelligence Officer on the General’s staff. Boxer had been sitting up all night listening to the broadcast from Tokyo. At 4.45 an announcer who had been giving particulars of the programme for the coming evening was suddenly replaced by another, who had harshly declared that Japan was now at war with Britain and the United States of America.
    From that moment there were no more picnics orparties for Julian. Life became grim and somewhat more than earnest. By five past eight a squadron of Japanese dive bombers had utterly obliterated Kai Tak Airport and soon afterwards the skill in evasive manoeuvres of gallant, one-armed Lieutenant-Commander John Boldero was being exerted to the utmost to keep his old destroyer, H.M.S.
Cicala
, from being sunk.
    For close on forty-eight hours the line on the mainland held. The Punjabis and the Rajputs, with absolute faith in their British officers, behaved magnificently, carrying out every order without a moment’s hesitation and inflicting terrific casualties on the enemy. But the Royal Scots, made flabby from too many months of indolence, too much cheap liquor and too many willing Chinese women, failed to show the fighting qualities that are the proud tradition of that famous regiment. On the night of the 9th/10th they allowed themselves to be surprised and driven from the strong Shingmun Redoubt, the holding of which was vital to the retention of the line. They fell back on Golden Hill, but were so demoralised that they also failed to hold that position. By midday on the 11th General Maltby realised that he was left with no alternative than to withdraw all Imperial Forces from the mainland.
    The night was moonless and, in the Stygian darkness, conditions at the Kowloon ferry were chaotic. For four days without sleep the three battalions had been pitted against two divisions of fanatical Japanese, yet they had inflicted infinitely more casualties than they had sustained. Lost, punch-drunk and bewildered, the greater part of them somehow found their way to the waterfront. Somehow the handful of naval officers organised a miniature Dunkirk and got them away to the island.
    By the 13th the Japanese had brought up their heavy guns and had begun the bombardment of Hong Kong Island. Even up to a few days before the outbreak of this new war there had been scores of Japanese agents in thecity, working as barbers, waiters and electricians. Extraordinary to record, for the past year a Colonel Suzki of the Japanese Intelligence had been permitted to reside there on the excuse that he was learning English, and it was not until the end of November that he had blandly taken leave of the many trusting residents who had entertained him. In consequence the Japanese had registered the exact position of every fort and strong point, which led to the shelling, and the bombing by their aircraft, proving terrifyingly effective.
    At 9.15 on the evening of the 15th the