Aitchison, George Lilbourn (Oral history)

British civilian schoolchild in Shanghai, China, 1920-1938; student at Selwyn College, Cambridge University, GB, 1938-1940; officer served with 1/4th Gurkha Rifles in India and Burma, 1941-1945. Civilian volunteer building railway in Bosnia, Yugoslavia, 1947; colonial district officer in Nigeria, 1948-1967

REEL 1 Background in Shanghai, China and GB, 1920-1939: family; education. Reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939. Various aspects of guarding RAF Duxford with Cambridge University ATC, 1940. Period or working at Rest Centre in Bethnal Green during London Blitz, 1940: role and duties; public morale. Period as student at Selwyn College, Cambridge University, 1940-1941: German bomb hit on Fenner's cricket ground; effect of war on college life; billeting of RAF personnel. Period of officer cadet training in GB, 1941: character of training at Bulford Barracks, 1941; training at OCTU at Dunbar; composition of OCTU. Voyage from GB to India, 1941: competition for female nursing staff aboard ship by officers; use of alcohol; conditions aboard ship; effects of buying mangoes in Freetown; arrival in Bombay. REEL 2 Continues: Various aspects of reception at 4th Gurkha Rifle Depot at Bukloh, India, 1941. Second hand account of friend's role with 48th Bde Headquarters in Burma, 1/1942-5/1942: role as brigade orderly officer at brigade headquarters at Mingaladon, 1/1942; opinion of Japanese soldier in 1941; story of how his opinion of the Japanese soldier was coloured by his father's letters from Shanghai; question of Japanese successes, 1941-1942; failure of British to standardise ammunition and weapons; Japanese tactics, 2/1942; Japanese use of ponies; retreat from River Bilin to River Sittang, 2/1942; role in command of Bde Headquarters Defence Platoon; chaotic character of situation. REEL 3 Continues: bureaucratic obstruction of Burmese civil servants; question of complacency at Mingladon Headquarters; problems Gurkhas had with 3 inch mortars; Gurkha nicknames for Japanese mortars; question of importance of appearance in Indian Army; incidence of VD in British unit at Rangoon. Recollections of operations with 1/4th Gurkha Rifles in Burma and India, 1942-1944: transfer to Headquarters Coy at Imphal, 5/1942; opinion of decision to build Tiddim Road; opinion of Lee Enfield Mark 4 SMLE; problems with supply lines; opinion of Japanese 33rd Div 'White Tiger'; transport problems in Imphal area; role of Chins at Tiddim; British probing patrols towards Kalewa; reasons for lack of Japanese activity. REEL 4 Continues: reasons why Milestone 52 was important to both British and Japanese, 10/1943; role commanding B Coy; attitude towards him by officers of 1/16 Punjab Regt; appearance of uniform; effect of Japanese attack on 1/16th Punjab Regt at Milestone 52, 11/1943; role of 1/3rd Gurkha Rifles against Japanese 33rd Div, 11/1943; failure to attack Milestone 52, late 1943; character of Japanese defences during attack at Milestone 52, 12/12/1943. REEL 5 Continues: Japanese use of local materials to build bunkers; question of inadequate Gurkha patrolling work, 12/1943; unit casualties in attacks on Japanese; reasons why Japanese had not attempted to shoot him during reconnaissance patrol; Japanese strategy, spring 1944; defensive positions adopted near Twitam Ridge, 3/1944. REEL 6 Continues: opinion of Japanese grenades; effectiveness of Japanese mortars and machine guns; use of corrugated iron for defence against Japanese grenades on Twitam Ridge, 3/1944; capture of Twitam Ridge from Japanese; advance to Imphal, 4/1944; weakness of Japanese air power at Imphal; opinion of Japanese infantryman; condition of Japanese troops at Imphal, summer 1944; supply of trained Gurkha re-inforcements. Period at 4th Gurkha Rifles regimental training centre at Bukloh, India, 1944-1945: drain on recruits from recruitment area 4; role and duties; attitude to duties at Bukloh from 8/1944. REEL 7 Continues: Correction of his account of events of 2/1942. Question of why Japanese position at Milestone 52 was crucial to campaign. Attitude towards Japanese in Second World War. Recollections of period as schoolboy in Shanghai, 1920-1938: attitude of Chinese to Europeans; national gangs amongst children; relations between Chinese and European children; character of French Concession; incident of losing face in presence of Chinese crowd; flooding of labour market by refugees from China; living and working conditions of coolies; use of Sikh mounted police to disperse threat of anti-British riot; British control in International Settlement. REEL 8 Continues: the Taipan Oligarchy; plight of White Russians; question of failure to recognise Japanese threat; question of temptation to regard Japanese as allies against potential of Chinese uprising; problems of social contact between Chinese and British; use of Scouts by Shanghai Volunteer Corps; system of re-patriation for 'Distressed British Subjects'; fate of British community in Shanghai after Japanese take-over, 1941; meaning of terms 'Ning-po no fah' and 'rice-bowl broken'; use of Chinese servants; hierarchy among Chinese. REEL 9 Continues: lifestyle of Chinese elite; story of escaping from his amah and crossing the settlement boundary, c1923- 1924; Racecourse facilities; attitude towards Eurasians; parts of Racecourse that Chinese allowed into; drag hunts; attitude of British to their lifestyle; attitude of British to Communist threat; visits from literary figures; attitude of British and Chinese to cleanliness. REEL 10 Continues: Chinese sense of humour; attitude of his mother to Chinese; description of term 'cumshaw'; differing Chinese and British to noise; nature of Shanghai-Nagasaki shipping route; entry of Chinese 19th Route Army into northern Shanghai and character of their defence against Japanese, 7/1937; Japanese looting of northern Shanghai. Recollections of journey from St Albans to Shanghai, 1938: impressions of German courtesy on Dutch border; character of Polish-Russian frontier. REEL 11 Continues: confiscation of his textbooks in Russia; character of murals on Russian border; visit to Red Square in Moscow; character of Trans-Siberian rail journey to Manchuria; reception by Japanese in Manchuria; Japanese anti-British actions in north China, 1937-1938; refusal of French in Shanghai to allow Japanese to take liberties; Russian bureaucracy on Trans-Siberian railway; return to GB from Shanghai, autumn 1938. REEL 12 Continues: Recollections of period as volunteer building railway in Yugoslavia, 1947: background to going to build railway; character of group of volunteers; reasons for becoming left-wing; arrival in Bosnia; economic situation in Yugoslavia including; lack of Marshall Aid; attempt by Yugoslav authorities to forge national unity; living conditions for volunteers; contrast in work discipline of English volunteers and other nationalities; rewards for fulfilling quotas; state of Belgrade; rail journey to Dubrovnik. REEL 13 Continues: question of false story that Yugoslavs intended to intervene militarily in Greece; reaction of Croats in Dubrovnik to English volunteers singing Serbian songs; Slovene intellectual's story of confiscated property; attitude to recreation in Venice; question of national atmospheres in Italy, Switzerland, Austria, GB and Yugoslavia, 1947. Recollections of period as district officer in Nigeria, 1948- 1967: opinion of colonial administrator course attended at Cambridge, 1947; reaction of civil servants to Nigerian postings; mishandling by customs officials in Lagos, 2/1948; official reaction after Accra riots; duties expected of district officers; civil service hierarchy in Nigerian provinces. REEL 14 Continues: indirect rule system; character of different tribes; story of PG Harris' campaign to have Zuru district transferred from Sokoto Province to Niger Province; character of steward Haruna; Haruna's organising of his touring; tasks performed on tour; methods of individual Residents; story of how Resident Backhouse discovered corrupt practices undetected by Aitchison; learning Hausa. REEL 15 Continues: objections made by Resident Backhouse to Aitchison's administrative methods; background to his posting to Oturkpo; tensions between Idoma and Ibo over land; attitude of Idoma to coin payments; problems with tsetse fly; character of Idoma language; Hausa etiquette; question of boundary drawing in West Africa; reasons for issue of kerosene burning fridges to civil servants; problems with snakes and scorpions. REEL 16 Continues: recounting of amusing Hausa story; living conditions for administrators; question of misuse of power by some Residents; state of laterite roads; story of posting to Bue illustrating power of Residents; defects with touring system; leave arrangements in GB; activities on leave including parachute training with 21 Special Air Service; problems of moving from posting to posting; period in Lagos; effect of slowness of his promotion on his wife's status and official allocations; progress towards self- government, late 1950s. REEL 17 Continues: resignations of civil servants on independence; story of how Ibo with employment grievance made use of contact with Fenner Brockway to get personal satisfaction at expense of public interest; waste of reserve funds after independence; advantages of service after independence, 1960- 1966; character of military coup, 1/1966; Hausa massacre of Ibos, 5/1966; belief that Europeans might be next to be victims of Hausas; attempt to save his Ibo ayah from beating by Hausas; problems British had evacuating Ibos back to Iboland. REEL 18 Continues: character of experts sent from United Nations and Ford Foundation, pre- 1966; story relating to independence in Uganda; experience of entrepreneur dealing with Nigerians after independence; question of complete sense of security, 1960- 1966 and change after coup, 1/1966; attempt to resign in declining situation, 1966; lack of help from British High Commissioner; problems of serving twelve month's notice, 8/1966-8/1967; problems of leaving Nigeria, 8/1967; financial plight of British families fleeing Nigeria, 1967; constitutional background to 1/1966 coup; re- settling in GB, 1967-1968. REEL 19 Continues: problems of obtaining employment; need to review his life day after he retired; question of change in British society, 1937-1967; failure of friend to cope with life in GB, 1960s.