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SCMP Reporter

BRITISH World War II veterans planning to return to Hong Kong for the 50th anniversary of its liberation in August, yesterday made clear they did not want any Japanese representation at the ceremonies.

  The Royal British Legion announced plans for what amounts to a pilgrimage by 200 veterans, war widows and relatives of the dead to the territory in August.

  They will visit war cemeteries in Sai Wan, Stanley and Happy Valley and take part in the official Liberation Day parade at the Cenotaph on August 28.

  The trip is being partly sponsored by the Hong Kong Government with $500,000 to enable the veterans, many of whom have not seen each other since the end of the war, to return.

  They will also be taken on a tour of the battle sites where so many remember the final hours before the 12,000-strong garrison surrendered on the afternoon of Christmas Day 1941.

  The attitude of many towards the Japanese was summed up by Robert Burrell, 76, formerly of the Royal Artillery who was captured as he took a break from manning a gun battery at Dairy Farm.

  'I have no hatred towards Japanese people today but I can't forgive the way those at the time treated us in the camps,' he said.

  'I drive a Japanese car and have a Japanese TV but the Far East Prisoners of War Association has a legal action for compensation going on in the courts in Tokyo and I don't think it would be appropriate for any Japanese to be at the ceremonies.'   Mr Burrell, from Reading, southern England, who has never been back to Hong Kong and whose son is paying for the trip, was imprisoned in Shamshuipo and two camps in Japan.

  He remembers bodies being wheeled out of the Hong Kong camp within weeks of the surrender.

  He recalls the 'terrible brutality' of the Japanese guards one of whom gave him a savage beating with his sword scabbard when he thought a piece of wood had been thrown at him.

  Mr Burrell weighed less than 45 kilograms on release and was put on a diet of baby food for six months.

  Wendy Reynolds was a 15-year-old auxiliary nurse when captured and imprisoned at Stanley. She caught tuberculosis and remembers a 'day to day' existence before liberation.

  She said she wanted to return to Hong Kong out of respect for her parents who were also interned.

  Daphne Vigar just wants to visit the grave of her brother, Thomas Rutter, who was shot down over China while flying on a supply line between Assam, India and Yunnan.

  The trip will also mark the disbandment of the Royal Hong Kong Regiment (The Volunteers) on September 2.



HK visit for war veterans