ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT F.W. SHAFTAIN AND THE TRIAD PLOT TO MASSACRE EUROPEANS IN HONG KONG

During the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong in December 1941, the Hong Kong Police discovered an alleged plot by major triads (Chinese secret societies) to massacre all the Europeans in the colony as a means of hastening the end of the battle. A key figure involved in the incident was Assistant Superintendent F.W. ‘Our Frankie’ Shaftain, a remarkable man who served for 33 years in the Hong Kong Police and was involved in some momentous episodes. Shaftain and the Commissioner of Police were presented with an agreement between the Kuomintang and the major triads involving the payment of HK$20,000 and a solution to the entire problem, with a Kuomintang representative telling the British that he would personally make the payment and they could settle up after the war had ended. This was an accommodation with criminal triads in Hong Kong that had implications after the end of the war in 1945 due to weak British authority in the city. Shaftain, an accomplished Special Branch officer, was central to the triad accommodation and he weaved a cunning path through Chinese politics and criminality.