Douc CoLLins

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C4665 RIFLEMAN J.V. Baker of the Royal Rifles of
Canada was 18 years of age when he was killed in action in
Hong Kong on Christmas Day, 1941, and it is an emotional
experience to visit the place where he is buried.

He lies in a military cemetery
not far from Sugar Loaf Hill and
the small Stanley Peninsula, where
the Royals suffered 122 casualties

Force died in battle. Of the re-
mainder who did not return, most
died in the appalling Japanese
prisoner of war camps, and some

STANLEY WAR Cemetery, Hong Kong.

on that last day of an 18-day battle
that ended with a Japanese victory.
It must also be said that he died
uselessly, because there was never
any chance that Hong Kong could
be defended, and Canada’s ‘C’
Force, numbering 1,975 men, 557
of whom never returned, should
never have been sent to the colony
in the first place.

No point in going over all that
now, and Rifleman Baker and
those of the Hong Kong Defence
Corps and British regiments who
are his companions in death are
long past caring. But those of us
who remember or who otherwise
have learned about this tragedy of
war may care.

Two hundred and ninety of *C’

were murdered. Not far from
Stanley, for instance, is Repulse
Bay, dominated by the still-stan- .
ding Repulse Bay Hotel, near
which there was a series of savage
clashes between a small British and
Canadian group on the one hand
and a large Japanese one on the
other.

What happened to the men
taken prisoner is described in the
book ‘‘Desperate Siege.’’

“Fifty-three Rifles and British
prisoners were marched to a
seaside cliff to the West of the
Repulse Bay Hotel. Binding their
hands, the Japanese shot,
bayoneted or beheaded them in
groups, then rolled their bodies off
the cliff. One man, a Middlesex

West Van school
transition smooth

HILLSIDE Middle School prin-
cipal John Williams and West
Vancouver Secondary principal
Arnie Smith reported that the
transition of their schools to new
designations have been very suc-
cessful.

Williams, whose Hillside school
went from Grades 7 to 12 to
Grades 7 to 9, anticipates more
than 100 new students next year.

He thanked his staff for their
enthusiasm, their participation in a
retreat to Langdale in September,
and their help in bringing the
library and cafeteria on stream by
the first day of school.

“We keep a very close check on
class attendance,’’ Williams said in
explaining Hillside’s good
discipline record.

Principal Smith said the transi-
tion from Grades 7 to 12 to Grades
10 to 12 at West Vancouver High
School has been “‘superb,’’ and
that the students are eagerly taking
to the numerous social activities
and sports teams to vent their con-
siderable energies.

Students from as far away as

Burnaby are applying to attend
West Vancouver Secondary, Smith
told the board, because of the wide
variety of programs and the quali-
ty of instruction.

“We have two football teams,”’
Smith said, ‘‘who beat Ferndale,
Washington, 27-0 in B.C. Place
Stadium last Saturday.’’

Asian countries are the source of
more than 60 per cent of the 124
English as a Second Language
pupils in the school district this
year, supervising principal of
special education George Stewart
revealed to the board in a report
on ESE trends.

Superintendent Bill May pointed
out that two-thirds of district ESL
services are in the three schools in
the British Properties.

A new ESL centre has been built
at Chartweli Elementary, which
has 37 ESL students.

Cantonese-speaking students in
district. schools number 39 this
year, followed by 28 Farsi (Iran),
16 Korean, 11 Japanese and five
Mandarin.

sergeant, survived....”’

Rifleman Baker was !uckier, re-
ally. One can assume from the
place in which he is buried tha: he
died in battle with his face in the
right direction But the murdering
of prisoners was common practice.
In the same cemetery, for instance,
there is a memorial to about a
dozen members of the Free French
whe were killed in the Stanley area
fighting alongside the Canadians
and British. An officer who was
captured was executed, states the
inscription.

I did not see the grave of
Sergeant-Major John Robert
Osborn of the Winnipeg
Grenadiers. He is buried in
another cemetery. But I know
about him because he won the only
Victoria Cross to be awarded in
Hong Kong.

The sergeant-major led his com-
pany in a successful bayonet attack
on a hill position, which tiey held
for three hours. Then Osborn
single-handedly held off the Japa-
nese while his men retreated.
Later, there was another fight,
during which he threw back several
grenades hurled by the Japanese.
One could not be handled, and the
sergeant-major threw himself on it
and was killed, saving several other

.men in the process.

As I say, it is an emotional ex-
perience to visit the Hong Kong
graveyards and reflect on what
happened all those years ago.

Many in the Stanjey cemetery
died that Christmas Day, and it is
a bitter thought that at 45 minutes
past midnight, in other words on
Boxing Day, the battle was over.

The heartbreak is not, even
though it is diminished.

The inscriptions on the grave-
stones, placed at the request of the
families, have a special poignance.
The one on that of H6774 Pte.
L.B.J. Kelly of the Winnipeg
Grenadiers reads:

He is not dead,
He is just away ®

a

9 - Friday, November 11, 1988 - North Shore News

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