Approval for re-enactment of escape from Japanese invasion

A plan to re-enact part of the escape from Hong Kong to China by a group of soldiers during the second world war is finally set to get off the ground after receiving official support from the central government.

The escape started in Ap Lei Chau on the day Hong Kong fell to the Japanese - Christmas Day 1941 - and ended 5,120 kilometres and nearly two months later in Rangoon, now called Yangon.

Richard Hide, chairman of the Hong Kong Escape Re-enactment Organisation, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had granted approval for two official groups - the China Culture Development Association and the China Cultural Global Foundation - to help with the re- enactment this Christmas. They will help with arrangement of visas, transport and accommodation.

This was the highest level of official support from the Chinese side following endorsement by the Duke of Edinburgh in Britian in July. In a letter to the organisation, many members of which are descendants of soldiers who made the trek, the duke praised China for the escape's success, saying that under the leadership of Admiral Chan Chak - sent by Chiang Kai-shek to help the city's British and allied defenders - the lives of 68 men were saved.

He also complimented the efforts in re-enacting the trek, which started on the day governor Sir Mark Young surrendered to Lieutenant General Takashi Sakai.

The South China Morning Post reported last year that the descendants of the escape party found one another through a website launched in 1996 by Hide, son of one of the escapees, Petty Officer Stephen 'Buddy' Hide. Richard Hide - together with Admiral Chan's twin sons Duncan, who died recently, and Donald, as well as other descendants - decided to re-enact the escape to commemorate the Sino-British joint military action, and the friendship between the Chinese and British people.