Roy Eric Xavier, Ph.D
The Center for Luso-Asian Diaspora Studies,
Asian American Research Center, ISSI,
University of California, Berkeley
June 2026
(Note: Images will be added in future edited versions.)
Abstract
Among the personalities to emerge from World War II in the Pacific was an obscure doctor from Hong Kong named Eduardo (Eddie) Gosano. As one of four physicians interned in the Argyle and Sham Shui Po prison camps in Kowloon after the Japanese invasion, Gosano served with such well-known figures as Major Charles Ralph (C.R.) Boxer, a noted Portuguese and Dutch historian, Morris Abraham “Two-Gun” Cohen, an arms dealer and advisor to Nationalist General Chiang Kai-shek, Lt. Col. Lindsay Ride, the future head of the British Army Aid Group (BAAG) intelligence unit, and in Macau with British Consul John Pownall Reeves.1
This is the story of how young Dr. Gosano came to lead BAAG’s agents in Macau while serving thousands of refugees, and working undercover gathering information and organizing the escapes of several hundred Allied flyers and intelligence agents to Free China. This dual role included working closely with Consul John Reeves, who at times clashed with Gosano and others over tactics. Many decades later, Gosano’s unusual chronicle as a Sportsman from a family of international stars, an overworked Surgeon in Hong Kong, and as a reluctant Allied Spy alongside the British Consul, is mentioned only in a few studies, and in some cases, not at all.2
This article attempts to fill that void in the historical narrative of the war. Returning to the period required close readings of Eduardo Gosano’s and John Reeves’ wartime experiences in order to discuss their working relations. Other sources included documents, genealogies, historical studies, interviews, and personal accounts of family members, which informed the contexts and circumstances in which both Gosano and Reeves served the Allied cause. It is appropriate, therefore, to include in the bibliography the work of several writers and scholars, past and present, who have contributed to the reconstruction of this important, and largely untold, story.
Introduction
The morning of Sunday, December 8, 1941 broke ominously on Hong Kong’s Kowloon peninsula. A heavy mist and “miserable cold” soon descended across the colony.[1] Despite the weather, Eddie Gosano, a young Macanese surgeon, was enjoying a day off from his duties at Kowloon Hospital. Instead of sleeping in, Gosano dressed hurriedly in his kit to play in a softball game against a group of Canadian troopers at the Club de Recreio. He was joined on the Club’s team by his older brothers Lino and Bertie. His younger brothers, Luiz, Germano, and Zinho, who were cricket players, sat with other family members and friends in the stands.[2]
Shortly after the first pitch, the small crowd were startled by explosions from nearby Kai Tak as Imperial Japanese planes attacked the airport and surrounding buildings. Gosano later listened to radio reports that the invaders struck at 7:30am local time, quickly overwhelming northern defenses at the “Gin Drinkers Line” in the New Territories. Then an estimated 30,000 Japanese army regulars attacked the meager resistance in Kowloon. The main objective, to take over British headquarters on Hong Kong island, would begin three days later under an aerial and artillery bombardment.
Gosano reported immediately to the hospital, which was already inundated with casualties from Kai Tak. Along with two British doctors, the young surgeon struggled over the next thirty-six hours in a makeshift trauma ward until the Japanese overran the peninsula and British troops retreated across the harbour. Work in the hospital then abruptly halted as the electricity and gas were cut off, and personnel were ordered confined. The next morning, a Japanese sergeant and a single soldier with a rifle drove up to the hospital and captured it without firing a shot. Fifty-five people: twenty-two women and thirty-three men (including two Irish Jesuits), were then marched to an old school building at the end of Nathan Road. On the second floor, Gosano shared a blackboard as a bed with one of the priests. The women were housed in cramped quarters on the third floor.[3]
By the twelfth day of his captivity, Eddie Gosano may well have reflected on his life. It was his twenty-seventh birthday, and while he was alive and celebrated with food from Chinese vendors at the back gate of the school, he feared for his family, and himself, in the immediate future. Gosano’s path to this point had not been easy. Since birth he was classified as an “alien” from Macau, and as a “Chinese” surgeon by the government, despite professional credentials, which relegated him to second class citizenship. This imposed identity would later allow Gosano to realize a different outcome than the one facing him in the early days of the war.
As we will see, a significant part of Gosano’s story occurred following the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong, leading to the evolution of his social outlook as a racially-mixed citizen. Those experiences shaped his views as a colonial subject, as well as his cultural identity, while conducting clandestine work in Macau for the Allies. But even as he utilized skills as a surgeon, linguist, code breaker, and as an agent for British intelligence, Gosano struggled with an “expected” loyalty to the colonial government and the Allied cause, while attempting to secure the survival of his family in the most desperate times.
His relations with the British government, which included Consul John Reeves in Macau, are best described as “conflicted” due to his personal experiences with discrimination in Hong Kong.[4] Such attitudes were often exploited by Japanese propaganda among local communities in the 1930s to justify a war against the “colonial powers”. The issue of the presumed loyalties of resident aliens offers an illustration of the tensions experienced by some Macanese, Chinese, and Indians as the war continued, and will be discussed in the conclusion.[5] This analysis, I will argue, not only provides a better understanding of Gosano as a Macanese during World War II, but suggests similarities with other ethnic groups, whose roles have not been fully examined.[6]
We begin with Gosano’s family and his years in Hong Kong before the war.
Part I
Family Origins
Dr. Eduardo Liberato Gosano (1914 -2010) was born in pre-modern Hong Kong. and raised in a Luso-Asian family that first settled in Macau in the 19th century.[7] His grandfather, Leonardo Jose Gosano (1841-1904), was born in Santo Antão do Tojal, a town in southern Portugal. As a solider in the colonial army, the elder Gosano was initially stationed in Macau as a sergeant in the Police Guard in 1869. His service apparently included a posting in Timor in 1883, after which he was promoted to quartermaster, then lieutenant, and finally to the rank of major before returning to Macau.[8] He retired from the police force in 1891 and raised a family in the São Lourenco parish.
Leonardo Gosano’s family of eleven children included Julio dos Passos Gosano (1882-1923), his eighth child. Julio sired nine children, including seven sons, of which Eduardo was the fifth. Reflecting the traditional diversity among Macau’s Roman Catholic population, Eduardo Gosano’s mother was Adeliza Tomasia Maria Marques (1889-1962), who was also born in Macau. Her mother, Eduardo’s grandmother, was Maria Antonia de Lus (1857-1921), a Chinese woman from a rural Christian family in Guangzhou, just north of Hong Kong. She married Nicolau Gabriel Marques (1853-1920), a clerk who migrated from Goa.[9] Ethnically, Eduardo was of Portuguese, Goan, and Chinese descent, a typical mix of cultures among Macanese families who migrated to Hong Kong.[10]
Despite employment opportunities, 19th century Hong Kong was governed under virtually unregulated “free trade” policies, which required a rigid social order and had wider implications for the British Empire.[11] Among first and second generation Macanese from Macau, many who arrived between 1842 and 1900, most never worked higher than the middle ranks in Hong Kong’s businesses and government. The pay scale, at about 60% of English workers, positioned Macanese clerks, translators, and bookkeepers as “buffers” between British supervisors and Chinese laborers, limiting contact with management. [12] Non-British workers also lived in designated locations, and were restricted from social clubs and Anglican churches. Collectively, the Macanese were identified as “aliens” in the local press, but often referred to themselves as “Portuguese” without acknowledging their cultural origins as “mestiços”. Many Macanese reconciled themselves to this status, accepting the stability of a growing economy, while classified as “second class citizens”.[13]
Eduardo Gosano’s Early Life
This was the environment in which Eduardo Gosano and his siblings were raised. As he wrote in a memoir, the need for trained foreign workers like his father in early Hong Kong created a social order ripe for “economic exploitation”.[14] The difficulty in supporting a large family on a “Portuguese” clerk’s salary for the same work performed by English assistants, was a persistent issue in the community. Eduardo’s father, Julio dos Passos Gosano, a stenographer trained at St. Joseph College in Macau, arrived in Hong Kong in 1906 at the age of twenty-four.[15] At the height of commercial activity in southern China, like many of his peers, Julio Gosano looked for work among merchant houses, shipping companies, banks, and government offices set up after China ceded Hong Kong island to Britian under the 1841 Treaty of Nanjing. In 1913, local records indicate Gosano was employed as an “assistant” for Garrels, Borner & Co, a German timber company.[16] When the company closed in 1914, he worked as a “clerk” with The Pacific Mail Steamship Company. By 1915 he found more stable employment at the Hongkong Shanghai Bank, as one of hundreds of Macanese clerks, accountants, and translators who formed the middle ranks of the bank since 1865.[17]
The family’s situation, however, grew worse following Julio Gosano’s death in 1923, while crossing the harbor during a typhoon.[18] He was their sole source of support. This marked the point at which older siblings were forced to seek employment. Those underage, like nine year-old Eduardo, were encouraged to acquire an education, and to participate in sports like his older brothers. Fortunately, assistance from within the Macanese community was beginning to appear.
The Inter-War Years in Hong Kong
Hong Kong’s class lines and a lack of support by the colonial government induced Macanese leaders to create their own organizations.[19] This early network not only reinforced cultural identity, but provided funding and important contacts for many Nossa Gente (our people) who continued to arrive from Macau. One beneficiary was Eddie Gosano’s oldest brother, Adelino, who in 1918 was appointed Secretary in charge of entrance examinations for Hong Kong University.[20] When Eddie was thirteen, Lino recommended that his young brother begin studies in medicine with the goal of entering the university’s medical college. Since Eddie had long admired the family’s physician, Dr. Horatio Ozorio, he readily agreed. At the age of 15, newly graduated from St. Joseph’s College in Hong Kong, Eduardo Gosano was awarded two scholarships and granted residence at the University’s Ricci Hall to begin studies in surgical medicine.
Adelino Gosano’s career as a soccer star, who represented Hong Kong eleven times in international tournaments from 1926 to 1940, probably increased Eduardo’s chances of admission, two years earlier than most medical students. The Gosano’s reputation as “Sportsmen” in many inter-port competitions, and the attraction of medicine as a profession, should be given equal weight.[21] Even while attempting a rigorous medical curriculum, the young student continued to play on the undergraduate soccer team. Sports soon became a priority over his studies, until Eduardo suffered a leg injury during a match with a British army team. Immobilized for several months, he returned to medicine with renewed focus. Along the way, a place on the cricket team was recommended by one of Eduardo’s professors, Dr. Lindsay Ride, a physiologist. As China’s war with Japan moved closer to Hong Kong, Ride would become an important influence in Gosano’s life.
Part II
The War Approaches
Following graduation in January 1937, Eduardo Gosano worked in the Medical College at the University as a “Houseman”, or medical intern. Like most interns, Gosano endured long hours at low pay, and often was on duty from 7am until evening. His main duties included drawing blood samples and administering anesthesia under Professor of Surgery, Dr. K.H. Digby, who was considered a “demanding taskmaster”. In May, he was transferred to the newly built Queen Mary Hospital with the same duties. Six months later, Eduardo was assigned to the government’s medical department in Kowloon on the mainland side of Hong Kong. Then in January 1939, Gosano was transferred to Kowloon Hospital and promoted to “Surgical Medical Officer”, but as a non-British subject, he was officially classified as a “Chinese” surgeon. The distinction was indicative of his position in society, despite medical training.[22]
Although a qualified surgeon, Eduardo Gosano, following protocol, was not granted the benefits of English medical officers. His new monthly salary was about half of a British born doctor.[23] As “Chinese”, he was allowed two weeks leave each year, which he rarely took due to the large number of new patients fleeing Japanese hostilities in Guangzhou and neighboring provinces.[24] English doctors, by contrast, were given nine months leave every three years, and paid family passage back to England. Nor was Gosano provided housing, as were English doctors, forcing him to travel late each night back to his home, and return the next morning. Almost five years later, on December 1, 1941, Gosano’s diligence finally paid off. He was promoted to “General Surgeon” and assigned to quarters on hospital grounds, although smaller than expected and located next to the morgue.
Within a week these meager privileges seemed less important. Early on Sunday morning, December 8, reports spread that the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong had begun, less than 35 kilometers from Gosano’s home in Kowloon. As a witness over the next seventeen days, he wrote that most people had been unprepared for war. A general state of denial, in fact, seemed to exist within government and in the press, even while Japanese troops committed atrocities across China, including the infamous incidents at Nanking in 1937 – 1938.[25] A few months earlier, London had ordered two Canadian battalions to Hong Kong in a vain attempt to shore up defenses, but the troops arrived with little equipment and untrained for combat. The swiftness of the invasion was captured in Gosano’s vivid account of that day.
We Portuguese of HK (Hongkong) were playing softball with one of the green Canadian battalions at …, the Clube de Recreio, in Kowloon. We never finished the game. The Canadians were recalled to their barracks to prepare for battle. In one day’s time the land forces of the Japanese crossed the Shum Chun River from China and were through the defensive lines at Shing Mun Valley by the next day. (Five) days later, 13 December, Kowloon had fallen. English and Indian battalions had taken horrendous casualties. Japanese troops, seasoned by years at war in China, slaughtered a third of the poorly equipped Canadians in one day.[26]
Confined by the attacks in Kowloon, Gosano reported to Kowloon Hospital as the wounded and dying arrived from Kai Tak airport, the principal target of the Japanese. As the invading army advanced, the survivors awaited their fate. Many lost contact with friends and families in the last days of the battle.
Terror in the Hills and Prisoners of War
Among those waiting for the final assault on Hong Kong island were Dr. Lindsay Tasman Ride, Eduardo Gosano’s former professor.[27] An Australian, Ride had taught at the University of Hong Kong since 1928 and was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Hong Kong Volunteer Defense Force (HKVDF).[28] Leading up to the invasion, Ride headed the Field Ambulance unit, purposely locating his headquarters in the basement of a hospital on the island’s highest hill, the “Peak”. This controversial decision proved fortunate.[29] Despite a direct hit on the hospital by enemy artillery and the routing of British forces, the ambulance unit remained intact and was able to search for casualties after the surrender on Christmas day. In each location the unit found no survivors, and could only recover the mutilated bodies of officers and enlisted men, who had been wounded and left behind in the British retreat.[30]
After the surrender, Ride spent several weeks as a prisoner of war at the Sham Shui Po camp in Kowloon, growing frustrated with Japanese indifference to the sick and wounded. But during his search for casualties in the hills, Ride managed to hide maps and took mental notes on possible routes through enemy lines. He learned that some territories to the north were held by Communist guerillas, the Nationalist army, and local bandits who continued to resist the Japanese. Ride then weighed the hesitancy of commanding officers to approve an escape, against fears that his departure would affect the care of prisoners, and result in reprisals against those under his command. These concerns delayed Ride’s departure until a plan could be devised, and a team of specialists recruited.
Clandestine Operations
An important member of the team was already in the prison camp: Ride’s assistant in the Ambulance unit, Lance Corporal Francis Lee Yiu Piu, who turned himself to help the wounded.[31] Two British naval officers with experience in Kowloon were also recruited.[32] The four stole away on a foggy night in a junk secured with a bribe to a local fisherman. Over the next thirty-nine days, Ride’s group walked through the hilly terrain north of Kowloon during periods of high wind, fog, and torrential rains. The escape included dodging Japanese collaborators and local bandits, until finding protection and safe transport from a cadre of Communist guerrillas known as the “East River Column”. The rapport and trust Ride developed with this group left a lasting impression. After arriving at military headquarters in Chungking (Free China), he proposed to the British high command to begin utilizing these new contacts in an intelligence network that could operate behind Japanese lines. An important feature were operations to be conducted by undercover medical teams in Hong Kong and Macau, a “neutral” city 40 miles to the west, which was unoccupied by the Japanese. Ride’s biographer outlined the initial plan:
(The medical teams) would provide … natural and practical cover for escape and prisoner assistance activities; and Ride had the appropriate medical background to undertake the task. The posts (teams) would collect escapers, look after them, and pass them back to Waichow (British army headquarters). They would also be focal points for a forward intelligence network and could later be used as bases for any large-scale operations connected with Hong Kong, such as prisoner liberation or refugee relief systems.[33]
Before the plan could begin, however, several major hurdles had to be overcome. One was securing the approval of China’s warring factions: the Nationalist army of Chiang Kai-shek, and Chinese guerrillas under Mao Tse Tung. Another obstacle was coordination with American intelligence, which was eventually resolved in September 1943.[34] During their escape from Hong Kong, Ride and his team also realized that Chinese animosity against the Japanese was secondary to the deep mistrust between Chiang and Mao, who had been fighting each other since 1927.[35] Initial discussions by the British command with the Nationalists and the Communist East River Column guerillas proceeded slowly, delaying implementation of Ride’s plan. During later meetings with Chiang, however, Madame Soong Mei ling, the general’s wife, interpreter, and advisor, interceded on behalf of Allied prisoners, who could obtain medicine and escape Japanese internment if Ride succeeded.[36] Her influence proved decisive: the Nationalists and Communists grudgingly agreed to collaborate. Once the plan was approved, these disparate groups become part of the new intelligence unit, which Ride agreed to call: the British Army Aid Group (BAAG), aligning it under MI-9. The next task was recruiting doctors from Hong Kong to lead the medical teams.
Gosano Enters the War
At the time of Ride’s escape, Dr. Eduardo Gosano had been working under abject conditions in the Argyle Street prisoner camp in Kowloon after transferring from Sham Shui Po with three senior medical officers. The British doctors were asked by a senior Japanese medical officer to service British and Japanese soldiers injured during the invasion. In Gosano’s memoir, he described conditions in the camp as already “crammed” with 20 to 30 prisoners in small huts without beds: doctors and patients alike were forced to sleep on wooden planks. As the junior “Chinese” officer, Gosano’s job was cleaning and dressing wounds without adequate bandages or disinfectants. His initial response to the senior officials (in his own mind) was to question why he was “required” to go to the Argyle camp in the first place. Why take the risk ?, Gosano reasoned, if he could be classified as a “Third National”, a non-combatant, and eventually migrate to Portuguese Macau ? [37] But despite feeling coerced, he wrote later: “…my senior medical officer had accorded me equal dignity in the profession and now he needed me. And who, more than casualties of the war, needed our services more ? … It was instilled in our family to serve where there was a need. I volunteered.” [38]
After seven months in the Argyle camp, Gosano was granted a Third Nation visa in June 1942. The pass temporarily allowed him to move freely in Kowloon and continue serving his patients, both inside and outside the camps. These included his younger brothers, Luis, Germano, and Zinho, in addition to an uncle and a brother-in-law, all HKDVF soldiers held in Sham Shui Po since the surrender. The pass also gave him time to secure passes for the rest of his family, which included his mother, two sisters, another brother, as well as close friends.
Occupied Hong Kong, however, continued to deteriorate. Rampant looting by bandits and collaborators had left the city in ruins. Gunfire and explosions could be heard nightly, as roving patrols of Japanese soldiers mopped up the last of the British resistance. Two uncles of Gosano’s future wife, who were British agents, were already being interrogated and faced execution by the military police, the Kempeitai. This gestapo-like unit was especially cruel and brutal, working as an extension of the occupying army to round up and torture escapees, and terrorize the remaining residents of Hong Kong. While Gosano petitioned Japanese authorities to obtain refugee visas for his family, he witnessed the aftermath of beatings and public executions on the streets daily, describing the city as a “patient nearly drained of its lifeblood.” [39]
Gosano’s situation changed course after receiving a letter from Dr. Horatio Ozorio, his family doctor, who was a refugee in Macau working for the British Consul, John Reeves. Following reports on Gosano’s volunteer work in the camps and aware of Ride’s need for doctors, the consul asked the surgeon to migrate. It is doubtful whether Gosano knew about the BAAG plan, or if he was aware of the Allied strategy involving Macau. Following Portugal’s declaration of neutrality in September 1939 and the invasion of Hong Kong in late 1941, most Macanese learned that the Japanese decided not to occupy the Portuguese colony. There was also Portugal’s willingness to sell wolfram (tungsten) to Japan, and surreptitiously accept Nazi gold in payment, while allowing the Allies to build military bases on the Azores.[40] Although Portugal appeared to appease both sides, Gosano soon realized that a large Japanese presence remained in Macau. All activities were widely suspected to be directed by the Japanese embassy, which allowed the military, the Kempeitai, and other intelligence units, to operate with impunity.
The Rise of “Phoenix” and Working with Reeves
Traveling in late June 1942 on the Third Nation pass, Gosano arrived in Macau while continuing to assist relatives and friends leave Hong Kong in small groups. As discussed later in this study, there is evidence that he occasionally slipped back into the occupied colony to check on their welfare.[41] Once in Macau, Gosano found himself in an unfamiliar setting, requiring him to adapt quickly. Consul John Reeves had been introduced to BAAG via Lindsay Ride’s request for information in the same month that Gosano arrived [42] Reeves also learned that a member of his staff, Mrs. Joy Wilson, was a BAAG agent. Gosano’s introduction began with an appointment as Reeves’ personal physician. The work soon developed into a personal relationship with the consul and his family, involving treatments for Reeves’ daughter, Letitia, who suffered from asthma. These visits led to evening meals, followed by games of Mah Jong with the consul and his American wife, Rhoda.
The situation changed once more after Joy Wilson, under pressure from the Kempeitai, asked Ride’s permission to escape to Free China. As the wife of Hong Kong’s imprisoned Assistant Police Commissioner, Wilson had been evacuated to Macau a year before the Japanese invasion and was well connected. Ride placed her in charge of local BAAG operatives, as well as codes and communications.[43] She also became one of Eddie Gosano’s first patients. At around the same time, Ride responded to Consul Reeves’ earlier request for more funds by recruiting William (Bill) Chong, a Chinese-Canadian banker living in Hong Kong, to facilitate a regular transfer of funds through Guilin, a Free Chinese outpost, to the British Consul through Macau’s Banco Nacional Ultimarino. This became a critical lifeline for all refugees in Macau. Chong had escaped from Hong Kong in early 1942, and personally delivered Ride’s first letter to the consul. Reeves also was asked to help Chong create a communications link between Macau and Guilin, which facilitated future escapes.[44]
Mrs. Wilson’s Departure
Gosano’s arrival in Macau was timely. Joy Wilson was vulnerable due to the presence of her two young sons, who lived with her in exile. Rather than risk a breach of security if Wilson was blackmailed or captured by the Kempeitai, Lindsay Ride approved her escape and Wilson’s choice of Eduardo Gosano as her replacement. Unlike Wilson, Gosano was fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, Portuguese, and the local Macanese dialect. He had long standing relations in Hong Kong, as well as relatives and friends in Macau. He well understood the social and physical typography of both cities. Gosano also was a doctor, a suitable cover for interacting with visitors to the British consulate and in the wider community. In starker terms, Eduardo Gosano was young, unmarried without a family, and expendable if captured and tortured. Consul Reeves also realized the benefits of Gosano’s presence in relations with Macau’s governor Gabriel Teixeira, who welcomed the doctor’s arrival as a compatriot.
Their overlapping mandates, however, led to conflicts that raised concerns about Reeves’ activities. The first incident involved Mrs. Wilson’s escape with others through the Japanese blockade. Some non-combatant foreigners who accompanied Wilson had been interned in the Stanley civilian camp since the occupation began on the central island. They were allowed to live at liberty in Hong Kong if relatives or friends guaranteed their support and the internees pledged not to work against the Japanese. This process was known among the internees as “Guaranteed Out”. Some used the opportunity to make their way to Macau, and many more utilized BAAG after the Japanese ended the program in September 1942.[45] In this regard, Wilson’s evacuation to Free China, with others who previously left Hong Kong for Macau, was probably less stressful than Lindsay Ride’s ordeal through the hills of Kowloon.
As Geoffrey Gunn wrote, however, Joy Wilson’s departure in May 1943 was reported on the front page of a Macau newspaper, which Ride suspected was leaked by Reeves.[46] There were at least three newspapers at that time in the territory. Reeves published a “non-official” daily, the “Macao Tribune”, and wrote most of the lead articles.[47] The consul never admitted to reporting Wilson’s evacuation, but later wrote “It was my normal practice to spread the story in Macao that a party was safe in Free China long before it was; this discouraged Japanese pursuit … .” [48] Reeves’ explanation suggests a lack of situational awareness. While his purpose may have been to “discourage” the Japanese, the consul apparently did not realize he may have altered them to future escapes on the same routes along the coast north of Macau.
Such bravado was unacceptable to British commanders. The consul had exceeded his authority and potentially exposed Allied agents. The security breach aligned with Ride’s reservations about Reeves’s expanded duties. He and other Allied officials were alarmed that such publicity drew unwanted attention to BAAG operations. As Gunn observed, “… Wilson’s exit from Macau … coincided with a shift in thinking … as to the security of British consulate in handling critical intelligence that could otherwise endanger local informants and agents in Macau reaching back to Hong Kong.” [49] As a result, Gosano’s appointment as Wilson’s successor was approved on the condition that all agents “…under pain of sanction … keep their distance from the British consulate.” [50]
As Reeves and Gosano settled into this uneasy partnership, each confronted the task of assisting thousands of refugees, while working independently for the Allies, often at cross purposes. Their relationship was complicated, and has not been fully addressed until now. It included vestiges of cultural hierarchy, which required Gosano’s well practiced “deference” to the British Consul, and may have been part of the doctor’s “cover” in relations with his family to throw off the Kempeitai. Gosano’s self-declared “friendship” with Reeves also involved periods of friction.
The source of the conflict were the different ways each approached undercover work. Espionage appealed to Reeves, who claimed to enjoy it. But he preferred to interpret those duties as “collecting information” in the course of his other work as consul.[51] Gosano, on the other hand, hesitantly accepted the roles of field agent and Allied informant, perhaps only due to the independence offered by BAAG’s director, which was unusual for a colonial “alien”. Unlike Reeves, whom Lindsay Ride considered a security risk, Gosano spent the first eleven months in Macau proving his value, earning the confidence of BAAG operatives. This was evident during Joy Wilson’s final weeks when she confided in Gosano, at great risk, about her role in the Allied network. As her departure drew near, Wilson candidly admitted that he was “the one person I feel I can trust…”.[52] Then in early May 1943, Wilson handed over BAAG leadership in Macau to Gosano, and as Lindsay Ride ordered, designated him with a code name: “Phoenix”.
John Pownall Reeves: British Consul – Allied Informant
Reeves’ interpretation of his duties developed under different circumstances. In his memoirs set in Macau, “The Lone Flag”, Reeves appears as both a heroic and problematic envoy of British imperialism. His efforts to alleviate the suffering of thousands of refugees from many nations was impressive by any measure. But Reeves’ critical flaw was a myopic enthusiasm toward intelligence work, often ignoring the risks and impact on other agents, which appeared to Ride, Gosano, and others as dangerous in wartime.[53] As we read his recollections and other historical accounts, it becomes clear, at least in the early years of the war, a lack of resources and support may have left Reeves with few options.
John Pownall Reeves graduated from Cambridge in modern languages, and following in the English tradition, was an avid cricketeer and hockey player. After joining the British foreign service, he spent two years learning Mandarin and served in various Chinese outposts. He was appointed British Consul to Macau in June 1941, following the separation of jurisdictions from Canton in 1940. Despite early signs that Imperial Japan threatened British interests, Reeves was initially unsupported by Churchill’s wartime government, and scorned by the British Foreign Office. Each paid little attention to the young consul until Lindsay Ride’s proposal for BAAG. That attitude was evident in a March 1942 poetic lampoon circulating in London called “The Song of the Second Secretary”.[54] The first lines began with undisguised “annoyance” toward Reeves:
Macao ? Macao ? Where the devil’s Macao ?
We’re bothered by telegrams all the time now.
By Golly, it’s true we did send a Consul
But forgot him the same as we would a lost tonsil,
There he is encocooned (sic) like the smallest of larva
The only one left from Siberia to Java,
And, looked at again, from Chungking to Chile
It’s really absurd; the position too silly.
London’s indifference was magnified when Reeves’ wife, Rhoda, was trapped in Hong Kong on December 8 by the invasion, and by the chronic asthma of his daughter, Letticia, who remained with her father in Macau. Rhoda had been Christmas shopping, and spent over three months with other government refugees until rejoining her family.[55] A second blow was the sinking of two British warships on December 10, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse, which provided protection to Hong Kong. Then on February 15, 1942, Singapore, the last British outpost in Asia, fell after a few days of fighting. Feeling abandoned with dwindling hope, and threatened by the Japanese military, a network of spies, and numerous collaborators, Consul Reeves joined forces with Macau’s governor Gabriel Mauricio Teixeira, and Pedro Jose’ Lobo, the local Director of the Bureau of Economic Services.
Through the end of 1942, up to one million refugees fled Hong Kong for Macau and unoccupied China. Some evacuated on small boats and junks, and others on Portuguese and Japanese vessels at the rate of up to 1,000 per day, overwhelming the colony’s resources.[56]Along with Allied military and intelligence “assets” who managed to escape on their own, all hoped to use Macau as a transit port to Free China. Yet, there was no organized method of feeding and housing refugees, nor a means of escape until BAAG first appeared in June 1942. In the interim beginning in late December 1941, Reeves, Teixeira, and Lobo contended with mass starvation on an unprecedented scale. Most of the victims were Chinese fleeing from Japanese aggression. Reliable reports placed the death toll in 1942 at 25,000, with 10,000 of those buried in mass graves on Taipa, an outer island.[57]
John Reeves was able to provide small allowances to British citizens from his meager resources, and as mentioned earlier, received more funding in the summer of 1943 through William Chong and BAAG to purchase rice and other food stuffs.[58] Through Pedro Lobo’s skill and contacts on the black market, Reeves also obtained regular shipments of grain from the sale of scrap metal and damaged military hardware. Moving quickly to allocate Macau’s gaming revenue, Governor Teixeira used those funds to provide small stipends for Portuguese refugees from Hong Kong.[59] He also organized more than fifteen refugee centers, which housed several hundred families. The heads of each center pooled individual stipends to purchase food from the Chinese black market to serve regular meals. Through Lobo, educational services, healthcare, and occasional entertainment were later added.[60]
Despite this cooperation, opponents within Macau’s bureaucracy and some residents complained about the effect of refugees on the colony, as well as resurrecting an old animosity against Macanese who “turned their backs” on Macau in the 19th century.[61] Governor Teixeira was not among the critics, but attempted to control dissent within his government through an informal agreement with Japanese Consul Yasumitsu Fukui as one of the conditions for Macau to remain unoccupied. In fact, the main objectives of Japan’s strategy were financial and covert: to launder the near worthless Yen into Portuguese Escudos, then into English pounds through Macau’s lone international bank. These funds were used to purchase wolfram (tungsten) to manufacture munitions. Macau was also an ideal listening post for Japanese intelligence to monitor Allied movements in the region.
Local criticism was soon overshadowed by threats from the Japanese military and the Kempeitai, which combined to tighten their grip on Macau. By the spring of 1942 the Japanese embassy began a campaign of harassment and violence directed at Reeves. At least three attempts were made on his life, and several threats were revealed against his wife and daughter, now reunited with him in Macau.[62] Enemy sentries were placed in front of the consulate entrance, and Reeves recounts being followed at all times by four cars, which he attempted to evade, earning a self-described reputation as a “hairbrained driver”. There were also assassinations of Portuguese officials, including late in the war of Fernando Rodrigues, head of the Portuguese Red Cross, by the Kempeitai, and against Japanese Consul Fukui, possibly by political rivals. Searches of the British consulate and other residences soon increased. Reeves also recounted Japanese intimidation in local restaurants, and discussed the possibility of a military occupation with Governor Teixeira.[63]
Reeves still managed to aid a few refugees who lost hope of leaving Macau. One case in early 1942 involved an anonymous Jewish immigrant who escaped from Berlin, and a British informant who was stranded in Macau by the invasion of Hong Kong.[64] The immigrant was a young woman in her late twenties, who fled Europe by train to Siberia, then traveled south through China to Shanghai and Macau. She was destitute and quickly running out of options. The agent was later identified as Ernest “Pat” Heenan, a representative of “Royal Insurance” in Shanghai, who previously sent assessments of Japanese movements and finances to the Allies in Chungking.[65] Informed that Heenan was a high priority asset, Reeves joined both strangers together with forged documents as a married couple from Spain. Neither spoke Spanish fluently, but with the papers they convinced French Vichy officials in Kwangchow, a colony jointly controlled by the Japanese, that they were traveling to work in the Dutch East Indies. At that point both refugees went their separate ways: the immigrant to safety in Free China, and Heenan back to London to assist British intelligence. Their successful escape, on a route later used by BAAG, suggests a side of Reeves’ that was unrecognized by his superiors in London.
The Consul’s Secret Files
Once BAAG was introduced to Reeves in June 1942, however, an unspoken rivalry developed between the British Foreign Office through the embassy in Chongqing, to which Reeves reported, and British military’s command in Chungking, which governed Lt. Colonel Ride and the BAAG unit. This created a “grey area” in British intelligence, in which neither side felt obligated to coordinate information with the other, leaving open the questions of tactical value and the security of Reeves’ undercover work. As a result, Consul Reeves did not see his duties as “espionage”, which he characterized as the activities of mysterious individuals with “false-beard complex”.[66] Instead, the consul saw his main objective, without instructions from the Foreign Office, was to collect information on certain individuals and on the Japanese military and intelligence apparatus.[67] This knowledge might involve people who may be spying or collaborating with the enemy, or commercial data, such as the number of tungsten shipments passing through Macau, or assorted “rumors” offered by visitors to the consulate, or any other “information of importance” that the consul considered valuable to Chongqing.
Organized in several hundred “secret files”, the data was collected by Reeves’ personal network of informants, including members of the consulate staff, refugees from Hong Kong he interviewed, and numerous Chinese bodyguards.[68] Confident that this intelligence would be valuable at some time, Reeves wrote later “I feel sure that if my activities had run counter to the wishes of the (British) Government to which I was accredited I would have heard about it in no uncertain terms from the Governor…”.[69] He was referring to Macau’s Governor Mauricio Teixteira. Reeves was certain that any reprimand resulting from an error in judgement would come through “diplomatic channels”, that is, from Teixeira via the Foreign Office in Chongqing. There would be no direct communications from Reeves to BAAG or the British command in Chungking, where that information may have been more useful. This diversion may have delayed the ability of Allied forces to confirm the consul’s intelligence or employ it to respond to events. The consul’s logic was stunning, given the deadly and ever changing environment in which Reeves and his family were living in Macau.
Gosano’s Delicate Balance
Fortunately for Gosano, Joy Wilson left a group of experienced operatives in Macau, and a hidden network of radio stations to communicate with British headquarters in Chungking. Reflecting competing Chinese factions, one station was operated by the Communist East River Column on an outer island. Another underground station controlled by the Nationalists was hidden at the Salesian School in Macau.[70] Now under more scrutiny from the Kempeitai, BAAG’s expanded mission seemed suited to Gosano’s skills. Chief among them was his ability to “blend in” as a refugee Macanese doctor, as well gathering information and communicating effectively through three BAAG assets: Y.C. Liang, a local compradore and rice merchant with ties to the Communists; Fung Bay, a radio expert who could organize the scattered radio stations in the region; and N.K. Nar, an escape specialist.[71] Gosano’s understanding of his role was simply “to correlate any information that could be important to the British Army”, and use it to aid the escape of Allied military personnel and other assets through Japanese lines.[72] The work soon became much more complicated and dangerous.
The surgeon’s work included joining in some of the rescues. In one instance, two American pilots and a gunner were picked up by Gosano and other BAAG agents after crashing into the sea south of Canton (Guangzhou).[73] All were hidden in the British consulate at night. During the day, the Americans were driven to “safe houses” by a Macanese refugee from Hong Kong whom Gosano and Reeves hired for protection. Guido Sequeira, the driver/bodyguard, related in a 2017 interview that Reeves’ American born wife Rhoda occasionally accompanied the airmen on these drives, hoping to hear news from the United States.[74] The airmen’s escape occurred one night on an obscure junk piloted by Communist “river pilots” and a BAAG agent, who led them to the same French Vichy port that Reeves used earlier, then overland to Free China.[75]
In another instance, Gosano organized the escape of Marcus da Silva, a Portuguese solicitor and Allied intelligence asset, who raised funds for medical supplies and food smuggled into the prisoner camps. Da Silva was considered one of the most effective BAAG agents in Hong Kong, but was forced to flee after the Japanese caught and executed his handler, Charles Hyde, a former HSBC banker.[76] On the appointed night, Da Silva arrived at Gosano’s home dressed in “full European clothing”, which risked exposure to the rag-tag river pirates hired to transport him. Thinking creatively, Gosano loaned the solicitor his “Cheong Sam” (Changshan), a Chinese dressing gown. He then asked Y.C. Liang, whom the pirates trusted, to intercede. Although the escape was successful, Gosano commented later that the gown was never returned, nor was he thanked for the gesture.[77]
Gosano’s supervision of information gathered by BAAG radio stations was another operational area. Edwin Ride wrote that the intelligence and data proved “vital to (Allied) air and naval operations in the China theatre.” BAAG specialists were particularly adept at providing Allied forces with surveillance of Japanese troop movements and concentrations, leading directly to Chinese demolitions.[78] Lindsay Ride also warned Gosano by radio in October 1943 that the financial records of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Corp. bank (HSBC), which had been hidden by Macau’s Ultimarino bank, must be secured from the Japanese secret services. After authorizations from HSBC officials and the British embassy were received via the radio network, the bank records were sent to Chungking by BAAG couriers.[79] Other intelligence included keeping Allied services informed of Japanese operations in Timor, tracking clandestine smuggling, and transmitting details of current Japanese propaganda. As the only source of information connecting Macau and Hong Kong to the outside world, Edwin Ride concluded that the radios stations helped maintain the morale of guerrilla forces and the civilian population in southern China, while representing “an active British resistance … in defiance of the Japanese occupation.” [80]
Back and Forth Across the Delta
Gosano also traveled regularly undercover between Macau and Hong Kong, forty miles each way by boat across the Pearl River delta. He may have been smuggling medicine, small gifts, and letters to prisoners in the Sham Shui Po camp, including to “Zinho”, his younger brother, a HKVDF soldier who was shipped out in April 1944 to a Japanese labor camp in Sendai. There is some evidence that the doctor was helping friends and family members as well.
Gosano’s movements in Hong Kong were tracked between January 1942 and late 1943 in the personal diary of Phyllis Lang, a twenty-one year old Eurasian student at the University of Hong Kong, whose family were old friends in Kowloon.[81] Before his migration to Macau, the doctor first appears in a January 11, 1942 entry, having tea with Lang’s aunt, and was in other diary entries on January 14 and 15. He appears again on January 22, visiting along with Hazel Lang, Phyllis’ younger sister, whom Gosano married after the war.
Several months after joining BAAG in Macau, Gosano appears again in Hong Kong on October 13, 1943. On that day, Lang writes that he delivered an upright piano to her flat in Kowloon. Phyllis apparently played quite well and gave lessons. By October 16, an emotional attachment appears evident on Lang’s part, as noted in a diary entry that she “waited ages” to “meet Eddie”, until he “finally appeared”. Her feelings for Gosano seemed to have been short-lived, however. Lang was in the process of “breaking up” with Cedric Salter, a HKDVF soldier held in the Sham Shui Po prison camp. On October 22, Gosano visited Lang once again, possibly to dissuade the young girl’s affections. But as Phyllis wrote that night: “I was furious.” His phone call to Lang the next day resulted in her hanging up “in exasperation”.
Several days later on October 31, Gosano arranged a meeting with Lang at a Wan Chai restaurant in the notorious Chinese ghetto to clear things up. That night Phyllis wrote in her diary, apparently realizing that Gosano was no longer a love interest, but a “kindred spirit” and “a pal after my own heart”. That evening, she candidly added a postscript: “Ai Ya !” (with hand to forehead), a Chinese phrase used by her father. After speaking with her aunt, she admitted, “… so it seems … madame is right… just because I wanted to be kissed of all things … what sort of a creature must I be !” [82] As Lang’s diary suggests, Gosano accepted the risks, some quite personal, to help those closest to him, and remained a trusted friend even while undercover.
Gosano’s memoir reveals that he understood the consequences all too well. Recalling his activities, he wrote: “There was not a more suicidal state to be caught in while alive, no matter what your nationality, or where you were caught. The Japanese (Kempeitai) had their counter underground too.” [83] Consul Reeves, of course, was aware of the situation, and feared for his family’s safety as well. But Gosano’s experiences in the field, and the visits back to Hong Kong, suggest that the danger was always on his mind. Further on he wrote: “I lived in a state of constant apprehension, … Being an undercover agent working against a deadly and crafty enemy was no imaginary danger. It was real.” [84] For protection, he carried a small pistol at all times. The difference was that Gosano thought of himself as a medical professional first, who unlike Reeves, reluctantly accepted the role of Allied agent while always feeling exposed.[85] Gosano’s concerns soon included Hazel Lang, his future spouse and Phyllis Lang’s younger sister, both of whom arrived in Macau in early 1944. All faced the same dangers. None of this deterred him. “Despite the abiding dread of execution”, Gosano concluded, he would remain in BAAG “… until Japan surrendered.” [86]
The Partnership Dissolves
Gosano’s relations with Reeves finally unraveled over the consul’s attempts to secure a large cache of sensitive information. Some files, Geoffrey Gunn writes, included photographs and the names of enemy agents, collaborators, and former Hong Kong officials working with the Japanese, that Reeves hid on an old ship, the Si On, which the Japanese captured in 1943.[87] As already mentioned, Reeves’ memoir revealed that he gathered information through an indexing system based on thousands of “rumors” that his staff collected. These included correspondence, relief cases, and the names, dates, and requests of visitors to the consulate, which the Kempeitai kept under constant surveillance. [88] Gosano confirmed that Reeves guarded “secret papers”, based on information he collected, which identified Allied informants in Macau and occupied Hong Kong.[89]
On one occasion, the doctor met privately with Reeves in his home. Speaking in a “most serious tone”, the consul asked Gosano to take his car and hide a briefcase full of files on intelligence contacts. Based on Kempeitai activity, Reeves was concerned that a Japanese takeover of Macau could occur at any time. Recalling, “As this was the British Consul himself speaking, the very air was palpable with fear.”, Gosano surmised that the files could expose BAAG agents and lead to hundreds of deaths if connected to family, friends, and other associates.[90] Taking the files, the doctor drove out on a dark road near a local hospital and hid them among some bushes. Unable to reach Reeves to confirm that Japanese troops were gathering for an assault, Gosano returned to the location, retrieved the briefcase, and burned the contents with the help of his brother Adelino.[91]
This proved to be a false alarm. Y.C. Liang, Gosano’s lead agent, reported that the rumors were untrue. Japan was more interested in using Macau’s banks to support the weak Yen, acquiring tungsten, and hoarding gold. But at Reeves’ insistence, Gosano destroyed the files on the basis of the consul’s fear that a Japanese occupation was imminent. After the “all clear” was affirmed, relations with the consul crumbled with a distinct change in attitude. Gosano first noticed a coolness in Reeves’ demeanor, indicating resentment toward the physician for destroying information that had taken months to gather. Rather than taking exception to Reeves, however, Gosano directed his bitterness toward the British government for placing him in this position, even as he risked everything.
Colonial Perceptions
Reeves’s Macau memoir does not mention the incident, although it clearly marked a turning point in his relationship with Gosano. But the consul’s general attitude toward his physician reveals Reeves’ limited perception of what Gosano was capable of doing. The consul’s memoir, in fact, never associated Gosano with espionage and its obvious dangers, nor did Reeves ever identify him as head of the BAAG unit, as others have done.[92] Writing in 1949, Reeves may have avoided these details because of Foreign Office restrictions. He was aware of Gosano’s other role as one of six doctors from Hong Kong who were involved in refugee relief.[93] But why would Reeves trust Gosano with “secret papers” if he had not known about the doctor’s intelligence duties since 1942 ? [94]
Philip Snow, a prominent historian of the period, suggests that while there was confusion in later accounts about the identity of BAAG agent “Phoenix” (Gosano), there was little doubt “It was Phoenix who organized the escapes routes on which Reeves dispatched Allied workers from Macao to Free China …” [95] Given the large number of sensitive files and the network of informants, in addition to daily contact with Gosano, Reeves was almost certainly aware of the full scope of the doctor’s work. There is also evidence that Reeves personally involved himself in BAAG operations after Gosano’s appointment.[96] It remains unclear whether the consul’s lack of acknowledgment was due to security restrictions, a professional rivalry, or worse, ethnic obfuscation, which may have blurred Reeves’s perception of Gosano’s dual roles,.[97] All these factors leave the impression that Reeves’s inability to consider Gosano’s full activities was indicative of the doctor’s “invisibility” as colonial alien to the British consul. Evidence of Reeves’s apparent “myopia” appears in several passages of his memoir.
In reference to an escape, for example, Reeves implies that Gosano was merely the “chief Portuguese aide and collaborator”, despite apparently knowing that the doctor was BAAG’s chief in Macau.[98] In one of the rescues of American airmen, Reeves also writes about their transfer to an “English Portuguese” (Gosano was a British subject), calling the operation “a very pretty piece of work” after the group arrived safely in Free China, but fails to mention Gosano’s role.[99] In another instance, the consul refers to the diligence of “Portuguese volunteers” to recover from setbacks due to Japanese infiltration.[100] Reeves was not referring to Portuguese nationals or government officials in Macau, but Macanese refugees from Hong Kong, like Gosano, who voluntarily joined the BAAG underground. Reeves identifies them as a “devoted band” who exhibited “cold-blooded heroism” under threats of torture and execution, again without identifying Gosano.[101] This “devoted band”, Reeves concludes, was responsible for the evacuation of more than 300 Allied military and undercover agents from Macau during the war.[102] The actual number of those assisted by BAAG, according to Edwin Ride’s account, was far greater.[103]
Falling Out
Following the lost files, Reeves’ relations with Gosano,“…plunged like a rock to the bottom of the sea.”[104] A sensitive issue was that Reeves still controlled the doctor’s meager salary for refugee services, which helped support family members, even while Gosano was unpaid as an intelligence agent. Turning to his older brother, Gosano wrote: “I remember for as long as a year or more … (Avelino) was trying to intercede for me.” Addressing Reeves, his brother wrote: “There is no need for me to remind you that he has given the Consulate loyal and untiring service as a medical practitioner since 1942 … and served His Majesty’s Government in many other ways … “[105] The latter referred to Gosano’s numerous risks as a BAAG operative. There is no indication that Reeves responded.
Left unresolved, Gosano’s frustration with Reeves continued, leading the doctor to question his own role in BAAG and express a desire to return to private practice full time.[106] By October 1943, Gosano’s concerns were shared by BAAG’s Lindsay Ride, including the need for a change in leadership.[107] Since Joy Wilson’s departure, Ride noted that the Consul continued to compromise BAAG agents due to his “indiscrete” activities, “since Reeves demands no secretiveness.” [108] Reeves’ haphazard collection of information also had become redundant. Gosano’s agents were ruthlessly efficient, less rattled, and simply more reliable.[109] On May 14, 1944, these and other factors led to Ride’s official order to transfer BAAG’s leadership in Macau to Y.C. Liang. But while Gosano was relieved to be no longer identified as “Phoenix”, he agreed to work on two important missions, but still hoped to improve relations with Consul Reeves.
Gosano’s Final Act
In February 1943, the consul was instructed by the British Foreign Office to offer ideas to prepare for the reoccupation of Hong Kong. Before Eduardo Gosano’s departure from BAAG, Reeves sought the doctor’s help once again. Gosano was specifically asked to convince Leonardo d’Almada e Castro, a personal acquaintance and a member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council, to travel secretly to London to take part in a post-war task force organized by Winston Churchill. D’Almada had arrived in Macau with his wife, Tilly, in 1942, possibly through “Guaranteed Out” or on Third Nation passes, hoping to find a haven from the war. Gunn reports that after visiting Reeves’ consulate, d’Almada was arrested on a return visit to Hong Kong, but released. This confirmed the on-going surveillance of the British consulate by Japanese intelligence.[110] Back in Macau, d’Almada was provided with a “cover” by being appointed by Governor Teixeira as a refugee liaison between the Portuguese and British governments. The legislator and his wife were comfortable housed in a pavilion near Teixeira’s tennis court.[111]
Gosano’s strategy was to approach d’Almada on two fronts. As he recalled the conversation, stating: “Leo… as head of BAAG in Macao, I know of this message from England. As the senior representative of the Portuguese in Hong Kong, it is very important to us Portuguese, as well as British subjects, for you to go to London. Our organization will get you safely to Kunming and then to London.” [112] Feeling an obligation to the British and the Macanese community, and understanding his post-war role in Hong Kong, d’Almada reluctantly agreed to go, but only on the condition that his wife join him. Both traveled under the protection of BAAG agents through China, then via India to London in late 1943. D’Almada eventually became a member of Churchill’s “Hong Kong Planning Unit” to prepare for a Japanese surrender.
Retaking Hong Kong
Gosano’s last mission of the war employed skills as both a medical officer and a covert operative. Despite the Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945, British and American commanders in Asia were unsure how to conduct the final transfer of Japanese territories, including Hong Kong, back to Allied control. Lindsay Ride was particularly concerned that although Japan had capitulated, thousands of armed Japanese troops remained “on a war footing” until an armistice could be signed in early September. Ride also feared for the fate of almost 13,000 British and Allied soldiers, as well as civilians, still imprisoned in Hong Kong. Gosano earlier reported rumors about the Japanese digging tunnels in the surrounding mountains to sequester the prisoners, and fortifying the tunnels for a final stand before an assault by Allied troops.[113] The situation was further complicated by Chiang Kai-shek’s attempts to take control of Hong Kong before his Communist rivals, which pushed Japanese commanders to demand that their forces be permitted “self-defensive measures” in the event of Chinese attacks.[114]
Ride acted quickly to preserve British sovereignty. Although it is unclear from BAAG’s official chronicle, messages from Ride were likely smuggled to Franklin Grimson, Hong Kong’s Colonial Secretary, who had been imprisoned for almost four years in the Stanley civilian camp. The result was a demand by Grimson to the Japanese on August 19 that he and other officials be recognized as the “de facto” government, and all prisoners be released. No action was taken until the formal order from the Allies via the British Foreign Secretary could be delivered to Grimson. The impasse was overcome by a second message from London to the British embassy in Chongqing, then through BAAG’s radio network to Consul John Reeves in Macau, and finally to three trusted operatives: Y.C. Liang, Eduardo Gosano, and Rogerio Hyndman Lobo (Pedro Lobo’s son). In Gosano’s brief account, the three agents “under the guise as fishermen” left Macau via small junk at night, arriving in Hong Kong harbour on the afternoon of August 22, just thirty minutes before the arrival of the British fleet led by Rear Admiral Cecil Harcourt.[115]
As BAAG’s new leader, Liang was ordered to deliver a “letter patent” from the British government personally to Franklin Gimson at Stanley on Hong Kong island. The document included an Allied order to the Japanese authorizing Grimson to retake Hong Kong and install a provisional government. This included securing the protection of all prisoners and refugees under enemy control, and beginning the civilian handover from Japanese authorities.[116] Upon receiving the long awaited order, Grimson is reported to have marched out of the prisoner camp with members of his staff, ignoring the protests of Japanese officers, and set up offices in the city.[117] Gosano’s orders were to contact Dr. Selwyn Clarke, Hong Kong’s imprisoned Director of Medical Services, to reopen Kowloon Hospital, his old posting, presumably to assess prisoners, help care for the wounded, and facilitate the distribution of medicine. Gosano also noted in his memoir that Rogerio Lobo, who was a BAAG agent, was sent to represent his father, Pedro Lobo, the director of Macau’s Economic Services, to strengthen Y.C. Liang’s position with the Hong Kong Government. This also was an opportunity for Lobo and Liang to reestablish commercial ties with local banking representatives to secure business ventures after the war.[118]
Following Japan’s formal surrender on September 2, 1945 in Tokyo, this chapter in Dr. Eduardo Gosano’s life finally concluded. After waiting two years, Gosano married Adeline Hazel Lang in Hong Kong on November 26. In spite of a delay, due to Lang’s status as a Eurasian subject, which required the British consul’s approval to enter Hong Kong, the ceremony took place as planned. Although invited, Reeves did not attend. Still the optimist, Gosano saw the consul’s issuance of Hazel’s passport, and his own efforts to liberate Hong Kong after four years of occupation, as signs that his relationship with Reeves could be healed. He wrote: “The fact that I was being asked on the mission indicated a long step toward restored friendship. It was a friendship I had sorely missed.” [119]
There are no indications that Gosano succeeded, nor does he mention any further contact with the British consul. After the war ended, Reeves remained in Macau for a few more months, but did not accompany his wife and daughter back to London. The couple separated in 1946, and there are indications that he never saw his family again.[120] Reeves was reassigned to Indonesia and Rome through 1948, and finally to South Africa in 1949. The consul died there in 1978.
Gosano returned to Hong Kong for several more years, started a family with Hazel, then attempted to renew his standing as a surgeon in the United Kingdom, without success. Returning to Hong Kong in 1948, Gosano opened a successful private practice, then emigrated with his family to San Francisco in 1960. He spent the next three years earning a certification in surgery from the California Medical Association. Gosano then continued as a well-regarded surgeon in the Bay Area until his death in 2010.
Conclusion
Reading Eduardo Gosano’s memoir, Hong Kong Farewell, published just before the colony’s “handover” to China in 1997, one cannot help noticing instances of regret, frustration, fear, and bittersweet memories, which provide insights into his state of mind during and after the war. These emotions reflect the conditions under which Gosano and many Macanese, as well as other ethnic groups, struggled throughout those years. Their wartime experiences, often written many years later, suggest that Gosano and others eventually came to realize that the sacrifices they endured, and their expectation of more equitable treatment, may have been in vain.
This realization was shared, to some extent, by the British government. While non-English subjects were expected to be loyal in the conflict with Japan, there were concerns in the military that some would not remain with the Allies because of their treatment as “aliens”.[121] There was ample justification and many examples of racial discrimination in the histories of European colonies, which Japanese propaganda exploited throughout the war years.[122] We saw several incidents in which Gosano questioned inequitable practices, including a system in Hong Kong that he identified as ripe for “economic exploitation”. But in the end, Gosano reconciled each encounter against personal standards of morality and family tradition, which allowed a tolerance for unfair protocols in his profession and in orders from his superiors, all sacrificed for the larger goal of defeating the Axis powers. There were no other options for Eduardo Gosano to remain a surgeon; to be in a position to alleviate the suffering of P.O.W.s and refugees; to work undercover for the Allies in Macau; or for that matter, to remain a member of colonial society after the war. Any protest or refusal to accept the status quo would be considered treasonous, and ironically, may have prevented Gosano’s heroic contributions discussed in this study.
In a wider sense, the expectation of loyalty might be identified as a principal requirement in the complex nature of ethnic participation, especially during major conflicts like World War II. Regardless of personal and professional slights as resident “aliens”, all were presumed to contribute to the war effort in any way they could. Some, like Gosano, chose medicine and clandestine service. In many cases, they seemed compelled to demonstrate their bravery, and clarify personal identities to themselves. This may have revealed the ultimate goal: to internalize the obligations and needs of colonial societies over many decades, effectively perpetuating systems of exploitation. During the war, these needs fed into an ideology of personal valor and self-esteem necessary for those who served, which sidelined their criticism, and postponed each system’s collapse until the war ended. The adoption of these personalized ways of coping, often following the loss of family members and individual dignity, separated those who contributed to the war effort, from those who were ambivalent or chose to collaborate with the enemy. Many who did not comply, including some Macanese, Chinese, and Indians, often stood before post-war tribunals to justify their actions.
In the final analysis, World War II in southern Asia can be viewed as both a disruptive and cleansing event that temporarily pushed social hierarchies aside for the duration of the war with Japan. The global conflict forced colonies like Hong Kong to suspend pre-war reforms. But the invasion also required the drafting of cultural elements into the Allied war plan, including the use of local languages and racial alliances for intelligence work, to undermine the Japanese military. The success of such efforts offered hope and a sense of unity among the Allies during the darkest hours, but as we have seen, eroded during the Cold War and the ensuing decades.
How these processes were employed in practice, including a recalibration of ethnic hierarchies, while presenting new opportunities to groups like the Macanese, encapsulates the relations between Dr. Eddie Gosano and British Consul John Reeves. Their relationship was certainly disruptive, but working together also revived their personal ambitions as wartime allies. Such studies blending biography and history, in the end, often enhance our understanding of these collaborations, and can offer more nuanced approaches to the research going forward.
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Roy Eric Xavier, Navigating Ideologies: Colonial Journalism in 19th century Macau and Hong Kong. Review of Culture – International Edition 70, 2022, pp. 54-68, Instituto Cultural do Macau.
Roy Eric Xavier, The Macanese at War: Survival and Identity among Portuguese Eurasians during World War II, in in Gunn (ed.), in Wartime Macau, 2016: 94-115.
Roy Eric Xavier, Hong Kong and the Introduction of “Social Distance”, Chapter 4: pp. 46-54, The Macanese Chronicles: A History of Luso-Asians in a Global Economy, , Punto Final and Amazon Books, 2020.
[1] The beginning of the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong was described in several accounts, including by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
[2] The following information is taken from Hong Kong Farewell, a memoir written Eduardo “Eddie” Gosano (Greg Publishing, Hong Kong, 1997). Additional information on Gosano’s war years and his family is taken from the following on-line sources: https://www.clublusitano.com/post/dr-eduardo-liberato-eddie-gosano-1914-2010 and
https://www.macaneselibrary.org/pub/uiExtFiles/Biographies/GosanoZinhoBio/GosanoZinhoBio.htm
[3] Gosano, p. 19
[4] Gosano’s attitude toward England, and Hong Kong in particular, was long standing, and rooted in traditional “slights and condescensions” associated with racial discrimination described by historians resulting in segregation, which his family and the Macanese community experienced over several generations. In Hong Kong, this discrimination was institutionalized by social barriers in the workplace, in government service, in religious practice, and reinforced in many daily interactions. It was used to regulate most (non-British) ethnic groups in Hong Kong since the Portuguese arrived from Macau in 1842. For more information, see my study: Hong Kong and the introduction of Social Distance. For contemporary uses of “social distance”, see sociologist Robert Park’s original conceptualization. In a paper published in 1924, he wrote that “social distance” was marked by “… an insistence on social distinctions and differences, … condescensions, …for the express purpose of enforcing the reserves and social distances upon which social and political hierarchy rests.” R. E. Park, (1924). The Concept of Social Distance as Applied to the Study of Racial Attitudes and Racial Relations, Journal of Applied Sociology, 8, (1924), p. 342.
[5] As discussed in the conclusion, this aspect of the war provides an interesting subtext concerning racial groups, including the Portuguese, Chinese and Indians in Hong Kong. Some were assumed to have “… no strong loyalties to Britian, China, or British India.” Ride, 182. The task of exploiting those sentiments fell to The Japanese Army Intelligence Bureau, BAAG’s counterpart. Ride, pp. 172-176.
[6] This article continues a series of historical and biographical sketches of Luso-Asian immigrants in Asia, who were identified by the British in Hong Kong as “Portuguese” because of their origins in Macau, a Portuguese colony. Most had never been to Portugal. The largest assembly of this group were the “ethnic” Portuguese of Macau, known as Macaense (Macanese), who first appeared in Goa and Malacca around 1511, and in several other trading ports in Southeast Asia. Studies in the series include: Luso-Asians and the Origins of Macau’s Cultural Development.
[7] Details of Gosano’s life are based on information found in Eduardo Gosano’s memoir, Other information was found in Jorge Forjaz’s study, Familias Macaense, Albergue SCM e Bambu, Macau, 2017, Vol. II, 719-722 (revised from the 1996 edition). Due to their long standing in Macau, many Luso-Asians like the Gosanos identified culturally as “Macaense”.
[8] Some readers will note a variation between Forjaz’s and Gosano’s accounts of the Gosano history, especially concerning his grandfather’s time in Timor, which is discussed in Gosano’s autobiography. Forjaz’s genealogy does not mention this period, but provides dates of births, marriages, deaths, locations, and other related information. In this case, I included Eduardo Gosano’s mention of his grandfather’s military service in Timor, despite the possible discrepancy in the births of Leonardo Jose Gosano’s children, who were all born in Macau during the same period.
[9] Jorge Forjaz, Familias Macaense, 2017, Vol. 11, 719-722.
[10] A majority of the Gosano and Marques families, like many, followed a migratory path from Portugal, Goa, and Macau, stretching across India and Asia as the Portuguese empire began deteriorating from the late 17th century. This route led family members after the Opium Wars (1839-1860) to the British colony of Hong Kong and other European enclaves along the southern coast of China. (Xavier, Luso-Asians and the Development of Cultural Identity)
[11] As Tak-Wing Ngo wrote: “The aim of the colony was … to serve as a foothold for British trade in the Far East, especially in China. … administering the colony and administering the China Trade were seen as two sides of the same coin.” Tak-Wing Ngo (ed.), Hong Kong’s History: State and Society under Colonial Rule, Routledge, 1999, 128.
[12] A review of public officer salaries between 1856 and 1889 revealed that a typical “Portuguese” worker’s annual pay averaged about 60% less than that of a similar mid-level English employee. Legislative Council minutes in 1906 also indicated that during a budgetary shortfall caused by higher exchange rates, “Portuguese” workers were preferred because they could be paid less and were more reliable than English workers with similar training. “Salaries of Public Officers”, Report of the Commission appointed by Governor Sir. G. William Des Voeux, 13 December, 1889, Appendix I, 321-323. See also “Budget Notices for 1906” by A.M. Thomson, Colonial Treasurer, HK Legislative Council Minutes, 13 September, 1906.
[13] Jose Pedro Braga (1871 – 1944), a journalist, author, and legislative representative, wrote extensively about class issues related to the Macanese community. His earliest work, written in 1895, suggests the long held belief of “second class citizenship” in Hong Kong among the Macanese middle class. J.P. Braga, The Rights of Aliens in Hongkong: Being a record of the discussion carried on through the medium of the public press as the employment of aliens in the Colony, Noronha and Co., Hongkong, 1895. For reference, see my study: Navigating Ideologies: Colonial Journalism in 19th century Macau and Hong Kong.
[14] Eduardo (Eddie) Gosano, Hong Kong Farewell, p. 9.
[15] Jorge Forjaz, Familias Macaense 1996, p.720.
[16] https://gwulo.com/jurors-list-1913, Hong Kong Government Records Office: “Jurors, Common, 1913”, p. 12.
[17] Some Macanese did manage to prosper. In later years, several became investors in the “Bank”. This information can be found in a searchable database maintained by David Bellis’, “Gwulo” website of Hong Kong’s history, which draws from the government’s website.
[18] Jorge Forjaz, Familias Macaense, 2017, Vol. II, p.720.
Following Hong Kong’s colonization in 1841, the incorporation of Luso-Asians and local Chinese as separate groups of workers in the “China Trade” ushered in a style of control that was different from other European colonies. Rather than relying on slaves as in Goa, or indentured servants as in India, it was more common for English institutions in Hong Kong to practice various forms of “social distance” and ethnic discrimination.
[19] Luís Andrade de Sá, The Boys from Macau: Portugueses em Hong Kong, Oriente Foundation and the Macau Cultural Institute, 1999. Barnabas H.M. Koo, The Portuguese in Hong Kong and China: Their Beginning, Settlement and Progress to 1949, Vol. Two, IIM, pp. 25-46, University of Macau, 2013.
[20] Forjaz, 2017, Vol. II, p. 722.
[21] Adelino “Lino” Vitus Gosano was considered the best soccer player in Hong Kong between the world wars. Five Gosano brothers, including Adelino, Bertrum, Eduardo, Germano, and Zhinho, representing the Clube de Recreio in Kowloon through 1941, won trophies in Soccer, Cricket, Swimming, Tennis, Hockey, Track, and Baseball. Forjaz, 2017, Vol. II, p. 722, and the “Life and Times of Father Jose’ “Zinho” Gosano”, UMA Bulletin, Apr-Jun 2011 Vol 34, No 2. (A copy is in the writer’s files.)
[22] Gosano, p.13-15.
[23] As referenced earlier (n14), a review of public officer salaries between 1856 and 1889 revealed that a typical “Portuguese” worker’s annual pay averaged about 60% less than that of a similar mid-level English employee.
[24] The following information is provided in Gosano’s memoir, pp. 13-15.
[25] Iris Chang, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II, Penguin, 1998.
[26] Gosano, p.17.
[27] The following account and subsequent details of Dr. Ride’s service are found in Edwin Ride’s book: BAAG: Hong Kong Resistance 1942-1945, Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1981, pgs.4-8.
[28] Ride was wounded during World War I in the battle of the Somme. In 1928 he was hired as the Dean of the Medical Faculty. According to an obituary after his death in 1977, Ride was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, and an avid sportsman, participating in cricket, rowing, and soccer. British Medical Journal, November 5, 1977. Eduardo Gosano was selected by Dr. Ride, his physiology professor, to captain the undergraduate cricket team. As a result of his military service during WW II, Ride was knighted in 1962.
[29] According to Edwin Ride, the decision was criticized by Hong Kong’s governor in the last week of the battle on a matter of protocol: the HKVDF unit’s headquarters was in a civilian hospital, rather than one for military personnel. Given that British forces were already cornered on the island, Lindsay Ride reasoned it was the only place left for the medical unit to operate effectively. Ride, BAAG, p.4.
[30] Ride, BAAG, p.7.
[30] Edwin Ride, pgs. 16-18.
[32] The group included HKDFV soldiers Lt. D.W. Morley and Lt. D.F. Davies.
[33] Ride, p.57
[34] In an order issued by General George C. Marshall, U.S. Army Chief of Staff, September 1943, BAAG’s evasion area of responsibility was set as the region of south China that included Hong Kong, Canton, Macau, and the neighboring provinces. Ride, 188-190.
[35] Sterling Seagrave, The Soong Dynasty, pp. 166-195, Haper and Row, New York, 1985.
[36] Ride, p.54.
[37] Following the invasion, the Japanese military classified some non-combatant nationals, including the Portuguese (Macanese), in Hong Kong as “Third Nationals”, who could eventually leave the prison camps. For more information, see Felicia Yap, Portuguese and Luso-Asian Legacies in Southeast Asia, in Laura Jarnagin (ed.), The Making of the Luso-Asian World: Intricacies of Engagement, ISEAS, 2011, vol. 1, p. 210.
[38] Gosano, p.20.
[39] Gosano, p.24.
[40] Gunn, pp. 26-29.
[41] See details of Phyllis Lange Robbins’ WW II diary in N66 below. Lang was Gosano’s university friend and the sister of his future wife, Hazel.
[42] E. Ride, p. 211. Lindsay Ride wrote to Reeves, “…one of my aims is to make contact with you and obtain if possible any news or intelligence you may have of Hong Kong.”
[43] E. Ride, p. 211.
[44] Gunn, p.146. Reeves estimated in his memoir that between January 1942 and June 1946 about 1,750,000 British pounds passed through his office. Most of it was provided through BAAG. Reeves, 2014, p.37.
[45] Edwin Ride, p. 212, refers to “some 100 or so people” (non-combatants) who took advantage of these passes prior to their migrations to Macau. There were reports that Scandinavians, Germans, Italians, Portuguese, Eurasians, and Chinese nationals were granted such reprieves, which saved the Japanese the cost of imprisoning them.
[46] Gunn, 147. According to Reeves, there were three or four newspapers published at the time, including the consulate’s own daily, the “Macau Tribune”. Reeves, p. 101. The quote concerning Reeves’ views on reporting escapes is on p.102.
[47] Reeves, p.118.
[48] Reeves, p.102.
[49] Gunn, p.149.
[50] Gunn, p.148.
[51] Reeves, p.94 – 95.
[52] Gosano, p.26.
[53] At times, Reeves’ attitude toward intelligence work seemed cavalier. As he wrote to a colleague, “Funnily (sic) enough I am getting used to the business (spy work) and it does not worry me as much as it worries my friends (and his wife). It does mean that I have to waste a lot of time driving five miles to see a man half a mile away…” The last remark was a reference to his method of losing cars sent by the Japanese to follow him. Ride, p. 214, (an undated letter attributed to Reeves)
[54] Reeves, p.45. The descriptive title of the 20 line “poem” included: “A ditty composed for the use of the second secretary in the Foreign Office in March 1942”.
[55] Colin Day, writing in the “Preface and Introduction” of Reeves’ memoir, The Lone Flag, indicates that Rhoda may have suffered a nervous breakdown while sequestered in Hong Kong until her arrival in Macau on March 10, 1942. Her companions reported that she refused to eat or sleep, and suffered from “a bad state of nerves”. p. xiv.
[56] Report by Ernes “Pat” Heenan, a BAAG informant and former insurance executive in Shanghai, to the British Embassy in Chongqing, June 3, 1942, National Archives FO371/41620, cited in Reeves, p. 183, Chapter II, n2.
[57] Gunn, p. 196.
[58] Reeves was loaned “several thousand” Macau patacas (equal to Hong Kong dollars) at no interest from Y.C. Liang, “a friendly compradore”, through the end of 1941. Reeves, p. 52. He estimated from Jan. 1942 and June 1946, BAAG relief funds totaled £1,750,000, at conversion rate of 15 to 1 Hong Kong dollar. Reeves, p. 37.
[59] Austin Coates estimated Macau’s gaming revenues at 2,000,000 Chinese dollars annually before the war. Austin Coates, A Macao Narrative, Hong Kong, Heinemann, 1978, p. 103.
[60] See My article in Chapter 4, The Macanese at War, pp. 94-116, in Geoffrey Gunn’s (ed.), Wartime Macau, 2016.
[61] Stuart Braga, p.123.
[62] Reeves, pp. 95-97. The Japanese also put a bounty of £4,000 ($16,000 USD) on Reeves head.
[63] Helen Rodrigues, Enabling connections in a time of disruption: The Red Cross in Macau during the Second World War, Project Macau, May, 2022. See also Ride, p. 213-214.
[64] Paul French, Strangers on the Praia, Blacksmith Books, 2020, p. 53-65
[65] Reeves wrote: “at this time (April 1942) I was not yet in touch with the organizers of the later escape routes and could, in fact, help very little. … The only one I really helped at all was Pat Heenan to whom I gave a falsified Immigration Office Permit, describing him as born in Spain … “, p. 26-27. Reeves, 2014. See Chapter III, n12, for Heenan’s background.
[66] Reeves, p. 93.
[67] Reeves, p. 94-95
[68] Reeves wrote in a letter dated in July 1943 to his superiors in Chongqing, which Ride later received, that he kept secret files that includes 3,000 names of persons and places “which might be of interest”. (Gunn, p.148).
[69] Reeves, p. 95
[70] Xavier, p. 111, The Macanese at War, in Gunn, 2016.
[71] There is a spelling discrepancy between the identification of an “N.K. Nar” as named by Gunn, and an “N.K. Mar”, named by Eduardo Gosano. No such person appears in Edwin Ride’s account. I believe both names refer to the same person, who was identified by Gunn and Gosano as a BAAG operative involved in escapes from Macau and Hong Kong to Free China.
[72] Gosano, p. 28.
[73] Gosano does not date this incident, but Reeves noted the appearance of three airmen and another flyer shot down in the same location as “the first visitors from ‘outside’ for three years”. Reeves, p. 101. This would place the rescue in late 1944. Stuart Braga wrote about a similar event occurring from January 17-19, 1945, naming four downed airmen. Stuart Braga, “Rescued from Certain Death”, Casa Down Under newsletter, Sydney, October, 2011.
[74] Guido Sequeira, the Macanese driver/bodyguard, related in an interview conducted in 2017 by the author that Reeves’ American born wife Rhoda occasionally accompanied the airmen on these drives, hoping to hear news from the United States.
[75] Gosano p. 28
[76] Information on Charles Frederick “Ginger” Hyde of HSBC can be found in Brian Edgar’s blog: https://jonmarkgreville2.wordpress.com/2012/04/20/charles-hydes-resistance-work/, and David Bellis’ website: Gwulo.com on Old Hong Kong at https://gwulo.com/node/11470
[77] Gosano, p. 29.
[78] Ride, p.306
[79] Gunn, 153
[80] Ride, p.306
[81] The following is taken from “The World War II Diary of Phyllis Katherine Lang Rollins”, Jan. 1, 1941 – Dec. 31, 1946 (PKL) – specifically, pages 113 – 199, accessible via Gwulo.com.
[82] Few, including this writer, can appreciate the emotional depths of a young woman living under the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, especially one torn between loyalty to a captured boyfriend and gratitude toward a family friend bearing gifts and messages of hope. The circumstances involving Gosano’s visits are, therefore, my humble interpretation of available records. For Phyllis Lang, the headstrong daughter of a prominent Eurasian family, the initial reaction was frustration, annoyance, and finally an understanding of Eddie Gosano’s true motives.
[83] Gosano, p. 27.
[84] Gosano, p. 28.
[85] Reeves attitude toward his espionage activities was quite different. Summarizing his experiences at the end of the memoir, he concluded: “We had an exciting time. I loved it. … But I kept my sense of humor.” Reeves, p. 107.
[86] Gosano, p. 28
[87] Gunn, p. 159.
[88] Reeves, pp. 32-33. The consul stated that his staff kept records of 4,113 relief cases and at least 33,000 index papers.
[89] Gosano, p. 33.
[90] Gosano, p. 33.
[91] Gosano does not state how an occupation of Macau by the Japanese was initially “confirmed”. He wrote: “In my estimation those documents of state must not fall into enemy hands. There was no time to contact Mr. Reeves.” An atmosphere “palpable with fear” created by Reeves was enough to act. Gosano admits, “I did a presumptuous thing. … burning all the private papers of Mr. John Reeves.” But the papers “… included lots of receipts for people who worked for him secretly.” Gosano, p. 33.
[92] Among the many references to Gosano’s intelligence work for the Allies since Reeves’ publication are: Sonny Shiu-Hing Lo, Macau in the Second World War, 1937–1945, Palgrave Macmillan, 2022; Geoffrey C. Gunn (ed.), Wartime Macau: Under the Japanese Shadow, Hong Kong University Press, 2016; Roy Eric Xavier, The Macanese at War: Survival and Identity among Portuguese Eurasians during World War II, in in Gunn (ed.), in Wartime Macau, 2016: 94-115; Helena F. S. Lopes, Neutrality and Collaboration in South China: Macau during the Second World War, Cambridge University Press, 2023; and Vivian Kong, Multiracial Britishness: Global Networks in Hong Kong, 1910–45, pp. 199-234, Cambridge University Press, 2023.
[93] In Reeves’ obtuse writing style, he mentioned an “army aid group” and a “coordinator in Macau”, and mentions later a “certain liaison” with BAAG. Reeves, p. 92-93. While Gunn suggests that Reeves was not aware of the transition of BAAG leadership from Wilson to Gosano, the consul was apparently informed enough to learn later, through his own sources, that his personal physician was, in fact, the unit’s new leader in Macau. Gunn, p. 148. See also Maria Broom’s letter in n92 below.
[94] Reeves, p. 92 n5. His editor clarifies in the note that BAAG leadership passed from Joy Wilson to Eduardo Gosano, both Reeves employees in the consulate.
[95] Philip Snow. The Fall of Hong Kong: Britian, China, and the Japanese Occupation, Yale Un. Press, 2003, p. 183.
[96] In the letter archived in the Elizabeth Ride Collection, Maria Broom, the wife Vincent Broom, a BAAG agent, described how Eduardo Gosano planned for her escape to Free China by first advising a move into a Chinese hotel near the waterfront to wait for further contact. Gosano then warned Broom that “on no account (should she) be seen anywhere near the British Consulate.” During the ten day wait, Broom stated that one of Consul Reeves staff contacted her, saying that he had extra funds to pay for the extra time in Macau, and asked her to meet at the Pan Am flying boat base at midnight. Broom testified: “The Consul was known to drink too much and was under the weather when I met him. He was very nervous and [at] the least sound clapped his hands for his bodyguard … The Consul wanted details of how I was travelling but I did not enlighten him and returned to my quarters.” Broom escaped on a low draft “snake boat” manned by a crew of smugglers one night at 2 am. “Maria Broom’s Letter Detailing Her Hong Kong – Macau Escape Experience”, undated, Appendix III, p. 188, Gunn, 2014. Elizabeth Ride Collection, Hong Kong Heritage Project.
[97] For more information on “ethnic obfuscation” see Matthew Wong Foreman, The Making of the Eurasian in Fin-de-Siècle Hong Kong, Pacific Historical Review (2023) 92 (4): 576–609. And May Holdsworth, Robert Ho Tung: Public Figure, Private Man, Hong Kong University Press, 2022.
[98] Reeves, p. 93.
[99] Reeves, p. 101.
[100] Reeves, p. 102. This labeling deserves some explanation. The ethnic identity of the Macanese in Hong Kong is often complicated by many who referred to themselves “Portuguese”, despite having no direct connection to Portugal or in most cases, ever visiting Europe. There were at least two factors at play in Hong Kong: Most Macanese rejected the colonial government’s routine of labeling them “Chinese”, which was associated with the labor class; Second, racial hierarchies and cultural traditions in both Hong Kong and Macau, a Portuguese colony, required many to place themselves firmly in the middle class by adopting Portugal as their cultural homeland. In most cases up to 1941, Macanese families were several generations removed from Portugal, and had lived in Macau or Goa for four or five generations. Most lived in a culture milieu blending Roman Catholicism, a Luso-Asian dialect, a unique cuisine, and family traditions (among other elements). For more information, see my study on the origins of Luso-Asian culture in Asia.
[101] Reeves, p. 102.
[102] Reeves, p. 102. “All told the organization (BAAG) took through more than 300 (escapees) without losing a man, for which I consider they deserve high credit, …”. Those Macanese agents working with Gosano during this period are identified in my study: The Macanese at War: Survival and Identity among Portuguese Eurasians during World War II, Chapter 4, p. 111 – 113, in Geoffrey Gunn (ed.), Wartime Macau: Under the Japanese Shadow, Hong Kong University Press, 2016.
[103] In the conclusion of the 1981 history of BAAG, Edwin Ride provides the following tally: “… 33 escapers belonging to the British and Allied services; over 400 Indians, 140 of whom were in the British military; “ … 40 American evaders … nearly 1,000 Chinese members and civil employees of the British services and supported them, and in many cases their families also, in China;” and “… nearly 120 Europeans and over 500 Chinese civilians (assisted) out of enemy territory.” Ride also writes that BAAG “… passed into prison camps medicines, messages, information and escape aids… giving comfort and hope to those … interned …” and “… provided relatives with news of prisoners. BAAG also “… planned and supervised the spending of … British funds for famine and refugee relief; its food and hospital services saved the lives of thousands …” from famine, epidemics and air raids. Ride, p.305.
[104] Gosano, p. 33.
[105] Gosano, p. 33.
[106] There was no suggestion in Reeves’ account that Gosano was at fault.
[107] Gunn writes that Ride had misgivings as early as July 1943 when he worried that BAAG expenses were rising, as well as the collection of the same information by several players besides Reeves. The consul’s compromising actions eventually made the change in BAAG leadership more pressing. Gunn, p. 148.
[108] Gunn, p. 149.
[109] Gunn, p. 148.
[110] Gunn, p.158.
[111] Gosano, p. 28.
[112] Gosano, p. 28-29.
[113] Gosano, p. 37.
[114] Ride, p. 298 – 302.
[115] The delivery of the Grimson message was delayed for a few days until Japanese mines between Macau and Hong Kong were cleared. Gunn: p.162.
[116] Gosano, p. 37, Ride, p. 299, Gunn, pp. 162-164.
[117] Ride, p. 299.
[118] In an interesting aside related to the post-war period, Gosano remained good friends with Y.C. Liang. He wrote that Liang became a link between Macau and Hong Kong, and was able to control rice, gold and opium monopolies in the region. He also purchased the Bela Vista Hotel and other hotels in Hong Kong and Shanghai, and owned interests in the Heng Sang Bank, China Light and Power Ltd in Kowloon, and the first hydrofoil company connecting the two colonies. Gosano, p. 37.
[119] Gosano, p. 36. He also hoped to restart his private practice in Hong Kong.
[120] David Calthrope, About the Long Flag and John Pownall Reeves, p. 174, in Reeves, The Lone Flag.
[121] As Edwin Ride wrote in the official history of the BAAG intelligence unit: “It was only to be expected that a number of Hong Kong Chinese and Indians had no strong loyalties to Britian, China, or British India. Some were anti-British, some pro-Japanese or pro-Wang Ching wei (moderate Nationalists). Edwin Ride, British Army Aid Group (BAAG), Hong Kong Resistance, 1942-1945: p. 182. Geoffrey Gunn, in Wartime Macau, also touches upon Allied suspicions of “collaboration” among the Portuguese and Macanese from Hong Kong and Macau, suggesting the need to cultivate wartime relationships among many ethnic groups often outweighed stricter criteria on who to trust in clandestine work. See pgs. 180-181.
[122] Ride, pp. 172-174, especially the activities of Lieutenant-Colonel Endo, a Japanese intelligence agent code name “Yamada”.
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