He ran spy rings, collected intelligence, smuggled people to freedom, took care of refugees and was threatened with assassination.
Reeves cared for more than 5,000 refugees with British citizenship or nationality, including ethnic Indians and Chinese, and helped 300 people escape from Japanese controlled areas.
[4] Reeves was perceived by his superiors as overstepping - particularly with regard to his attempts to run spy networks separately from the British Army Aid Group (BAAG), as documented by correspondence within the British Foreign Service discussing how to control his activities.
[6] Yet "The fact remains that he was the right man, at the right time, to perform the humanitarian task which history entrusted to him [helping refugees].
He completed a manuscript of his memoir of the Macau years, The Lone Flag, in January 1949, while he was posted to Rome, but the Foreign Office refused permission for its publication.