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Among the many visitors to the one-legged admiral’s bedside at the mission was the guerrilla leader, Leung Wingyuen, who came to bid an emotional farewell to his former marine commander. As promised, Chan had put in a good word for him with the Chinese Army, recommending him to no less a figure than Yu Hanmou as a ‘bold and patriotic’ fighter. General Yu responded by formally appointing the exbandit as a guerrilla captain under the Waichow area army command. As well as giving his whole group and its various activities the official seal of approval, this meant Leung was entitled, at least in theory, to funding and weapons from the government. Chan thanked him for all he had done, and urged him to go back and tell his men to work for the good of the country. Leung’s triumphant return a few days later to his base on the Dapeng peninsula was witnessed by an American banker, J Arthur Duff, who had slipped out of occupied Hong Kong on 8 January. He had been rescued by Leung’s band after being captured by pirates in Bias Bay. He later described how the guerrilla chief—wearing a Chinese Army uniform and looking like a ‘typical Cantonese officer’— was escorted into Dapeng by a long column of armed men who had gone out to meet him: ‘In the evening he came to see me, accompanied by his young Cantonese wife (a gardenia in her hair, dressed in a new gown which he had brought back from the interior).’ Leung scolded his second-in-command, who was also his uncle, for not giving their guest better quarters. He then offered a sum of money to Duff for his onward journey, telling him: ‘It is the business of all of us to aid and assist foreigners at the present time. We are allies in a great cause and property is common between us.’ He was evidently a changed man. It was also time to bid farewell to Yeung Chuen. Wearing the rattan hat and loose blue clothing of a peasant and carrying a concealed gun, the Admiral’s bodyguard was being sent back to Hong Kong on a special mission to rescue his boss’s wife and children. 27 Parting of the Ways 10 January . . . 212 Escape from Hong Kong He later told his family that he reached the captured British colony after walking for five days and was stopped on the way by ‘two secret service agents’ who pulled off his hat, exchanged flashes of acknowledgement , then let him go. Having tracked down Mrs Chan, who had been hiding in the Gloucester Hotel, he learned that Leung’s guerrilla group had already made arrangements for her escape. In the event, she and one of her daughters were caught by the Japanese, placed under house arrest and questioned about her husband’s escape, but she later managed to get away. As soon as they heard the Admiral had arrived safely in Free China, another daughter and one of the seven-year-old sons, Donald, escaped with Henry’s wife. The other son, Duncan, went separately with his aunt and grandmother. (He had until then been dressed as a girl as it was feared the twin sons would attract attention and recognition.) They all met up in Macao and the whole family was finally reunited in Guilin. As for Yeung, he returned, at the Admiral’s suggestion, to his home village near Longchuan, where his first, or ‘country’ wife lived. Soon afterwards, he made another trip to Hong Kong to bring out his second wife, who had been working there for Chan Chak. Reports reaching Kukong of conditions in Hong Kong spoke of food shortages and brutal controls after an initial period of looting and chaos. Europeans, it was said, were being forced to do menial jobs such as sweeping streets and pulling rickshaws, with the object of making them a laughingstock in the eyes of Asians. In fact there was no need for such stunts: it was already becoming clear that Britain’s standing among the Chinese had sunk to a new low. Despite the official welcome for the escape party as heroes, many people in China are said to have ‘flatly despised’ the British for capitulating to the Japanese so quickly. The British hadn’t even fought, a Chinese reporter from Hong Kong told Owen-Hughes. He replied that they had, but out of sight of civilians. Goring and Macmillan...

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