Description
Mr. White describes events in Sham Shui Po that indicated that the war was ending.
Harry Leslie White
Harry Leslie White was born in Wolverhampton, Staffordshire, England, on May 24, 1907. His family emigrated to Winnipeg, Canada, in 1911. His father, a First World War Veteran, became a policeman. After finishing grade 6, Mr. White had numerous jobs to help support his family. He did some reserve training and was also taught to box by his father. After being turned down by the air force, Mr. White joined the Winnipeg Grenadiers for basic training in Kingston, Jamaica. Here he also helped guard a POW camp holding German and Italian naval personnel. Once in Hong Kong, he joined E Company. Mr. White was captured, but unlike so many others, spent his entire time as a POW in Hong Kong, working on the Kai Tek airport. After the war, Mr. White established an orchard, and later returned to Eatons, where he had worked prior to the war.
Transcript
The first real indication we had was a plane came over, an American plane, quite low and dropped some parachuted goodies, you know, right on to the parade ground. They came over a couple of times and there was everything; medicines, and food, and wine, plenty for the whole camp and that was the first real indication. Then the next time we were called out to the parade ground where they had the camp call and Colonel White of the Royal Scots, he was the senior officer in camp, and this time the officers had been brought back to Sham Shui Po and he called the camp commandant over and he said, “I want to know right now is the war over or not? ” and so he admitted, and the men were all dismissed, told the truth and the Japanese sentries disappeared from then on.