Description
Object description
British officer served as staff officer with 14th Infantry Bde in Palestine, 1938; served with Royal Army Service Corps in Shanghai, China and Hong Kong, 1938-1941
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of period as Royal Army Service Corps in Shanghai, China, 1938-1940: posting to Far East; initial impressions of Shanghai; reception on arrival; British role in Shanghai; patrolling; descriptions of 'honey carts'; incident of rice riot, 1940; throwing of corpses into army compound; feeding of starving Chinese; reasons for rice riot; Japanese espionage; behaviour of Japanese Imperial Army and Navy; occasion when he received cholera injections from Imperial Japanese Navy; overcharging of British troops by Chinese; living on credit; Chinese corruption; impressions of White Russians in Shanghai.
REEL 2 Continues: night-life in Shanghai; problems with venereal disease; officers' social life; his role and duties; lack of social contact with Chinese; organisation of supplies; story of reappearance of condemned bully beef; Chinese attempts at corruption; advantages of rate of exchange; removal of indebted subaltern; consular courts system; lack of effect of outbreak of Second World War, 9/1939; town patrols; relations between troops of different nationalities; question of technical incompetence of United States Marines.
REEL 3 Continues: composition of Shanghai Volunteer Corps; trip to River Yangste; relations with Vichy French. Aspects of period as officer with Royal Army Service Corps in Hong Kong, 1940-1941: background to posting to Hong Kong; contrasts between Hong Kong and Shanghai; opinion of government; character of garrison troops and arrival of Canadian troops; impressions of Battle of Hong Kong, 12/1941. Aspects of period as staff officer with 14th Infantry Bde in Palestine, 1938: duties; murder of Sudanese cooks; his disposal of bomb; his shooting of British agent; relations with Jewish civilians; Arab atrocities against Jewish population; impressions of Major Orde Wingate.
REEL 4 Continues: work of Special Night Squads; problems dealing with insurrection; role of Transjordan Frontier Force; tricks played by Arab boys on British Army personnel; blowing up of train he was travelling on.