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Mervyn Scott-Lindslay
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The move to Argyle Street
The move to Argyle Street
On 18 April 1942 Mervyn Scott-Lindslay, along with other British officers imprisoned in Hong Kong, was marched to the Argyle Street prisoner of war camp in Kowloon. The camp, surrounded by high, electrified wire fencing, had 6 guard towers which members of the Japanese Army continuously manned. Mervyn noted the relocation in his diary:
‘Moved via Shamshuipo to Argyle Street Camp for Officers only. Ratings to Shampshuipo. Move took place from 0800 to 2000. Transport for heavy luggage.’
Painting by Mervyn Scott-Lindslay of Argyle Street prisoner of war camp (RNM)
After one month at the camp Mervyn recorded in his diary that the Japanese were forcing the captives to sign a document saying that they would not make any attempt to escape ‘whilst a prisoner of the Japanese Imperial Army’. This was against the Geneva Convention. If any prisoners refused to endorse the agreement Japanese guards threatened them with collective punishment, for example, it was not unusual for prisoners to be kept standing in the sun all day with no food or drink.
During their captivity the Japanese put the prisoners of war to work. In November 1943 Mervyn Scott-Lindslay became a member of a working party in the camp at Argyle Street unloading and cutting firewood.
Illustration by Mervyn Scott-Lindslay of the wood cutting party at Argyle Street (RNM)
The Japanese permitted some prisoners to make a spoken radio message. An English-speaking Japanese soldier supervised the event and would stop the recording if the prisoner said the wrong thing. The captives recorded the message onto disc and the Japanese broadcast them from their propaganda radio stations. On the 3 June 1942 Mervyn writes in his diary that a ‘200 word letter [was] written and collected for transmission to home.’
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