John Charter's wartime journal: View pages

I think it is high time I had a moan about the weather!  I have been suffering in silence (as far as the weather is concerned) the last two months and now I must register a protest. The weather, during the spring of last year, was exceptionally fine and old HK hands shook their heads and predicted a wet summer: and by Jove, they were right! The wet weather continued through the autumn and we had comparatively few of the bright, sunny days, for which HK autumns and winters are renowned. But there was one compensation in this: except for a few hot weeks in Sept., the summer was a remarkably cool one. At the beginning of Dec. we suddenly had (for HK) a very cold snap and the temperature, one morning, fell to 38’. Usually these cold snaps, when they come, last only a few days, but this one persisted almost till Xmas. It was raw weather with a North wind and low grey skies. Then it cheered up a bit for Xmas and the sun came out for a few days. January was mostly grey and cold with North and North East winds, though we had just a few cloudless days. At the beginning of this month it again became perishingly cold and, so far, there is no sign of a let up. The new moon (Chinese New Year) is due tomorrow or the next day and this may bring in a change. Even Mr Lammert, who has lived nearly all his life in HK and who seldom exaggerates in such a manner, says he can never remember such a protracted spell of cold weather in HK before. In the famous winter when icicles festooned the Peak, he said, the cold snap lasted only a few days. Normally the Peak temp is about 8’ lower than the temperature in town and with the mercury at 38’ (3.3C) here it is probable that it must have been very nearly freezing on the Peak.

I don’t know if the thermometer has fallen below 40’ this time but I seem to be feeling the cold more now than I did in Dec.  40’ (4.4C) does not seem particularly cold when one compares it with English winters; but the condition here is vastly different. To begin with, our blood must be terribly thin – composed chiefly of rice water with a little colouring matter! Then our food is entirely deficient of fats and that makes an enormous difference to our ability to resist cold. Y and I are on our last tin of butter now: we scrape a little on our tea scones each day and that is all. In this way 1 lb of butter will last the two of us for 6 weeks! It may be that in eating it in such small doses it does us no good at all, but we feel that we must absorb all of it and none goes to waste.

The muscles of most of us, are entirely unprotected by fat and, as a result, people displace muscles astonishingly easily. Jean Walters, two days ago, badly displaced a muscle in her back by straightening up rather suddenly from crouching in front of her chatty; and one of the gardeners dislocated his shoulder whilst putting on his coat after work!

We feel the cold because of our lack of warm underclothes. I have only short cotton pants and sleeveless singlets and the same with Y. This afternoon I have been wearing a khaki shirt, a pullover, a thick long sweater, a jacket and my overcoat and I still feel chilly! Of course we have no means of heating our rooms and the temp must be about 55’ (12.7C) or so in the day time and much less at night.

Our night attire is really funny. Yvonne wears a vest, two cardigans, a pair of pants, a pair of woollen or flannel slacks (daytime garb) and two or three pairs of socks! I wear a vest, my daytime pullover and sweater, a pair of pants, my normal pyjama trousers and Yvonne’s normal flannel pyjama trousers on top, plus two pairs of socks! On top I have 5 blankets and Y’s and my overcoats and in this way I manage to keep warm at night! Y feels the cold even more than I but with the aid of her fur coat, my raincoat and a mintoi (Chinese cotton quilt) she manages to keep warm. 

Isa used to wear, at night, a pair of Mr Lammert’s grey flannel trousers, (which, according to Yvonne, Isa had bought for him by barter of a good many cigarettes) over which came her night dress (which, again according to Yvonne, had a hole in its back) plus innumerable jersies etc. She looked like an Oriental in the transitional stage between his native and European costume! There was a further complication here too, because Mr Lammert had to go to bed before Isa could have his trousers and in the mornings, Isa had to get up before Mr Lammert could complete his toilet!

“Life is real, life is earnest,” but thank goodness we can still see some of the humour in it. (I must confess that I have grown somewhat grim in this place. I trust I shall return to normal when we get out).

Some of the local sights are really worth seeing – Mr Lammert out of doors in a sort of knitted balaclava helmet and my mackintosh (which is sizes too small for him – he being 6’ 3” and I only 5’ 10”); sundry people have overcoats made out of blankets; others wear their dressing gowns under mackintoshes! Another curse about the cold is that it makes us so ravenously hungry. Well, for all these sundry reasons I hope it will soon grow warmer!

Eight days ago Y and I spent our fourth wedding anniversary in camp. Last year we were quite convinced that we should be free again by this anniversary, but here we still are! We had a cold and soaking wet day to greet us and on our way to a soya bean coffee and scone party in Maudie’s room in the morning we met Alec Potts who cheerily greeted us with,  “Quite like a summer day at home, isn’t it?”!

We had invited half a dozen of our friends to the coffee party and I took along a bottle of home made wine. We made it with some pineapple juice, a lime that Maudie had given us, some rice, and bits of raw potato and some wong tong. The cork blew off three times during the maturing process and in the end I had to tie it on! The cork came out with a rare old pop on the day and the wine really was very good and bubbly.

Some time ago they had sold some bottles of pineapple juice in the canteen (Japanese product) and Y and I bought a bottle for the purpose of flavouring our ground rice puddings etc. After it had been opened a little while it began to ferment and that gave us the idea of making wine. We made ourselves a jolly good lunch with the aid of a tin of I.R.C. meat roll and onions, carrots, sweet potato and pumpkin from our garden. Pumpkins keep for several months if the skin is not damaged. Then we had stewed prunes with rice and Yvonne Ho’s tin of condensed milk. In the evening the Corra’s came round for some cake and coffee. We look forward to the time when we can have a real celebration.

As I am writing of wedding anniversaries I had better mention Yvonne’s engagement ring. Before Xmas our funds were getting very low. We had taken a number of odds and ends to Mrs Langston’s ‘shop’ which she runs in her room at the Indian Quarters, and they sold very well. ((Probably Mrs D M Langston - there was also a Mrs E M Langston in camp, but Ron Bridge's list shows her living in one of the bungalows.)) I had an E.P.N.S. cigarette case which brought Y50 ((pdv £450)) and Yvonne a Ceylon tortoise shell cigarette case which brought Y35. There were various trinkets of hers which also sold and a nice clothes brush of mine that went for Y30 (this is the only thing we have regretted selling as it was always useful). Altogether we raised about Y250 ((pdv £2,250)) in this way. But we are each getting two Y36 canteens per month making a total of Y144 ((pdv £1,296)) per month to be raised. We felt we simply must raise money for canteening as this was the cheapest way of buying extra food in camp and it can make a lot of difference to our health. In addition to canteen goods we wanted to try and buy extra rice especially as half our garden had been taken over by the community gardeners and the other half looked as though it will go at any minute. There are people who prefer to swap or sell rice for other things, especially families with small children who cannot eat their full quota. So reluctantly we discussed the advisability of selling Y’s engagement ring.

For sentimental reasons we were of course, much against the idea, but after talking it over we decided that our health was far more important than sentiment and we decided at any rate, to try and find out what we could get for it. The ring was a blue sapphire surrounded by ten small diamonds set in a heavy platinum ‘crown setting’. Well, eventually we went along to a friend of ours who had had dealings in these matters and asked what he thought we could get for it. He said that there was no sale at all for sapphires, apparently diamonds were the only stones in which the Chinese were (and are) interested – in jade too, of course, though few Europeans possess good jade. This news rather dashed our hopes, but our friend went on to say that there was a great demand for platinum now (a few months earlier there was no demand for platinum at all!) and after weighing the ring he said there was so much platinum in it that, with the small diamonds which would not fetch very much, we should get about Y3,500 for it. We tried not to show too much surprise or excitement for, with the exchange then at 10-1 this represented 350 pounds sterling ((pdv £15,750)) – a great deal more than I paid for the ring. This price, by the way, was for the carcass of the ring after we had removed the sapphire. This was grand because it meant we retained the big stone, the really important part of the ring and disposed of the small diamonds and the metal which really had little sentimental value in themselves. We therefore asked this friend to get in touch with his ‘dealer’, remove the stone and get a price. A few days later we were told that when they weighed the metal on accurate scales they valued it only at Y2,200 and the ‘dealer’ didn’t think the diamonds would bring the total up to Y3,500; what did we want to do?

The method of dealing is as follows: the owner states his price to the dealer who then approaches the Formosan with whom he deals. The dealer adds to the owner’s price whatever commission he hopes to make and offers the article to the Formosan at the total figure. If the Formosan thinks he can sell the article in town for the figure demanded he will often produce the cash on the spot and the deal is concluded there and then. If he is not sure that he can sell it for enough to make his profit too, he will give, as deposit the full sum asked by the dealer, and try his luck in town. If he can get what he wants for it he will say all right to the dealer and the money (less commission) is then handed to the owner. If he cannot get a sufficiently high price, the Formosan will make an offer and the owner can then decide whether to climb down or have his article back. This system was instituted after one or two pieces of jewellery had been lost or otherwise gone astray. Of course, it is safer all round to offer the article at a price which the Formosan will pay for straight away, but this means the owner probably loses a bit on the deal. On the other hand, if you ask too high a price, the Formosan will just refuse to negotiate. As the value of the Yen depreciates, the dealers have to push the prices up gradually, and as the dealer who gets the best prices (and there must be some half dozen or more in the game) gets most custom and therefore makes most commission, there is quite keen competition! Also, one imagines, this condition obtains amongst the Formosans.

Well, our hopes were a little dashed on hearing the revised prices and I was tempted to say, “Ask Y3,000 for it”, for even 300 pounds sterling was very handsome.

I wasn’t too keen on waiting about while the ring was sent into town. However, a last moment whim prompted me to ask the dealer to try Y3,500 and imagine our surprise when, a couple of days later, our friend turned up with the money in full! The Formosan had paid up like a lamb!

Having got the money we decided we had better dispose of it as quickly as possible. Our friend further assisted us in obtaining cheques from reliable people to the value of 200 pounds sterling for Y2,100 which left Y1,400. We were able to give some money to friends and we even bought 35 packets of cigarettes in the black market at Y16 per packet ((pdv £72)). No sooner had we bought them than the price of cigarettes dropped to Y11 and Y12 which made us feel rather silly! However, we hung on to them and have since bought 10 more packets at Y20. The price has now risen to Y25 ((pdv £112)). We kept the balance of the money for canteens and also bought some rice. If it were not for the fag of having to perpetually re-convert cigarettes back into cash when we wanted money for a canteen, it would have been better to invest all our money into goods of one kind or another, because the cash itself, always depreciates, while the value of goods continually rises. But it is astonishing how quickly the money goes. If we want more later we can cash some of the 200 pounds and still leave sufficient to cover the cost of setting the stone. A man with good credit (Govt servants are considered pretty safe!) can now get from Y25 to Y30 per £1 and heads of the big firms are getting Y35 or even Y40 per £1 for cheques written on their firms. Towards the end, in a month or so, I have no doubt the exchange will rocket to 100:1 and over. Of course the cost of goods will keep pace with this increase.

All kinds of things come in ‘through the wire’ at night; duck eggs @ Y40 per egg; bacon @ Y460 per lb (about £15 ((pdv £675)) per lb!); lard @ Y600 ((pdv £900)) per lb; wong tong @ Y150 per lb (compared with the canteen price of Y38 per lb!). One dealer got in a whole roast pig which he sold in no time at Y250 ((pdv £375)) per lb! Oil also comes in and egg yolk powder. In fact the Chairmen of the blocks think that the Japs in charge of this camp were making so much ‘squeeze’ on these dealings that they deliberately held up the supply of canteen goods during Jan. to force people to buy through the black market. I think this is very likely.

At the end of Jan. nearly every one had run out of matches and they were being sold at Y12 per box - at that time, about £1 ((pdv £45)) per box. This meant that the black market was doing harm to the camp in general; but now canteen supplies have been resumed (after continual requests and interviews by Gimson) the black market dealings mean that a lot of additional food is finding its way into camp and ramp or no ramp, that in itself is a very good thing.

The other day Y and I sold an 8 oz tin of I.R.C. salmon for Y150 ((pdv £225)) and bought four fresh duck eggs for Y120 ((pdv £180)).  A doctor told us that the eggs were better value than the salmon. We have another tin of salmon, but now eggs are Y40 each we must try and get more for it! If we wait too long, however, the (we hope) approaching food ship will bring down the value of tinned foods and we won’t be able to do our deal – what a game!

Most of these black market dealers have their agents in blocks all over the camp and, much to our surprise, Harold (Bidwell) has become an agent. I don’t know what his commission is and I am sure, by the amount of rushing around he has to do, he earns it. But one would hardly expect a person in his position to do this. However, it is no business of mine and, having just spoken of the good that this dealing is doing for the camp, I am either contradicting myself now or being a snob! However, I would not feel comfortable doing it myself and as they have just got a very good price for Elsie’s diamond ring, cannot imagine why he bothers with it. There are very few married women in camp, these days, with their engagement rings and many have parted with their wedding rings as well! We trust we shall not have to part with the family wedding ring.

Y and I have decided to budget and ration ourselves to the end of May. By then surely something will have happened. If not we shall cash some cheques. We buy chiefly rice at Y30 – 35 per lb, or exchange 3 packets of cigarettes for 2 lbs. Rice has come down in price since the beginning of Feb. for, from the first of this month, the Japanese, by an order from Tokyo, increased our daily quota from about 12 ozs to 480 grams - 16.8 ozs. This was marvellous news. Why is Tokyo so concerned about us at this late hour, especially when Japan’s supply questions must be growing more and more difficult. Have our numerous medical reports and requests borne fruit at last? Has the Red Cross been making representations on our behalf? Have the reports from the repatriated Canadians been in any way responsible!? Whatever the reason we are more than thankful.

For the last 6 or 7 months our rice rations have always been short and have varied between 88% and 98% of the full amount. When it was as much as 12% short it made a big difference to our meals. The average was short by 10%. For the first 10 days of the new scale we were 13% short! But for this next 10 days we are only 10% short which means that each person gets 2½ ozs per day more than the January maximums. This means that people who before Feb. had rice for swapping have even more rice now and, consequently, where we had to give 3 packets of cigs in Dec. and Jan. for 1 lb of rice we can now get 2 lbs for the same number. People also swap their oil for cigarettes, but we do not attempt to get extra oil chiefly (I am bound to admit!) because we manage to make do with our ration but also, (a little bit!) because we don’t think people should be encouraged to swap their oil for cigarettes. The same applies to butter, milk etc.  However, if we felt we really needed it I think our worthy scruples would just go with the wind! In here I’m afraid it is a case of ‘take care of yourselves and the devil take the hindmost’. Not that people will not help, in case of serious illness etc. but, on the whole, people don’t spend much time looking round to see if others are really in want. I now have a much greater respect for the widow with her two mites than I ever had before. 

Incidentally, I hear that one black market dealer possesses cheques to the value of £70,000!! ((pdv £3,150,000))  Wartime profiteering! Well, I hope he realises them all.   

There was a spot of excitement this afternoon. Mr Lammert came bustling into the room saying: “There’s a battleship inside the Lemas ((Jiapeng Liedao and Dan’gan Liedao islands)) going east”.

And we all rushed onto the verandah and there, sure enough was a big warship with the heavy superstructure, forward, of a battleship. It was some distance out but most people (including the merchantile mariners in camp) seemed pretty sure they were battleships. I say “battleships” because after a little while a second big fellow came into view. They were escorted by 5 destroyers and the rear was brought up by a cruiser. When they came abreast of Waglan they began to turn north. We all wonder from whence they came. It is quite evident that they are escaping north to join up with the main Jap fleet. I wonder if there has been a recent naval action and the Japs have lost some ships, because 5 destroyers and a cruiser seems a very small escort for two battleships. We could hear planes buzzing about overhead but could see nothing owing to the low cloud ceiling. They must have been the naval air escorts on the lookout for enemy planes. They passed out of sight without incident – unfortunately!  

Someone in camp has a book with the silhouettes of all the types of battleships in the world, commissioned before 1936 or thereabout and the two that passed yesterday were identified as belonging to the Iash or Iasay (or some such name) built during the last war, of 29,000 ton displacement, with a max speed of 23 knots and an armament of 12 x 12”guns.  Some say 12 x 15” guns but the former seems more likely. They certainly looked pretty old models with their very high control towers and squarish lines.

((It is likely that these two battleships were sister ships of the Ise class, Ise and Hyuga completed in 1918 with 12 x 14”guns. After the loss of 4 aircraft carriers at the Battle of Midway the IJN decided they needed to quickly supplement their fleet air protection capability and Ise and Hyuga were converted to battleship–carriers. With their rear turrets removed they could carry up to 22 float planes launched off the stern by catapault. Ise and Hyuga left Singapore on 10th February in the company of 3 destroyers and a light cruiser before successfully reaching Japan on 20th February, carrying oil and rubber supplies as well as nearly 1000 oil field workers. Although allied intelligence were aware of this Completion Force, as it was designated, and although they deployed 26 submarines along their route to sink them, as well as conducting sorties by approximately 100 land based aircraft, the poor weather with low cloud and visibility, deliberately chosen by the Japanese as the time to attempt the breakout, prevented any successful attacks. Both ships were subsequently sunk at Kure naval base in July 1945.))
 
Two more destroyers came in this morning coming from the North. During the night a plane or two was buzzing about and there was one colossal rumble of explosions which awakened most of us. There has been some heavy bombing recently near the Lema Islands and Waglan and, as a result, scores of dead fish have been floating about and have been caught up on the local beaches. The Formosans have been collecting them (unfortunately they wont let us get them) and we can see numerous sampans being paddled about by Chinese who pick them out of the water. We have had no more fish since I last mentioned the subject.

There are a great number of planes buzzing about just now. I think they are Japs. It is terribly bad weather for air activities at present. If it would only clear up, things might begin to happen. We hear that England and Europe are experiencing the bitterest weather for 50 years and that ice has drifted down to parts of the British coast. If this is so it seems that the whole of the world (Northern hemisphere anyway) is experiencing exceptional weather.

The plight of the refugees in Germany does not bear thinking of. We hear that thousands are flocking to Berlin where they are given rations for three days and sent on. There must be more than a grain of truth in this story. Poor things! What a terrible plight especially for the old people and people with children in the bitter weather. They seem to be faced with two hopeless alternatives – the promise of their own leaders of a condition worse than death if the nation gives up the struggle; or sure destruction by the armies closing in on them.

What an astonishing grip the Nazi party still seem to have on the nation – they seem now to have embarked on a policy of sheer national suicide. What a pitiless and barbarous thing is modern war – or any other war – and how senseless. Seeds of bitterness have been sown which will take generations to uproot. If only they would see that further resistance is futile. One cannot help admiring their dogged, if senseless resistance in the face of overwhelming odds. I suppose we British would probably behave in the same way if the positions were reversed. So is this going to be the last war? Will the peace settlement hold out hopes of permanent peace or will fear and hate ruin the chances again?

I confess I am fearful of Russia’s attitude and policy. I feel something better than the old kind of capitalism is necessary – a greater levelling up of mankind as a whole – but I mistrust communism. Sir William Beveridge’s scheme for national insurance, education and medical attention in Britain seems (from what little we know of it) a great stride in the right direction. I remember in 1931 and 32, when I was playing in the London University Rugby team, Sir William was President of the University Rugger club and he used occasionally to come and watch matches and chat afterwards with the team. Also, he was photographed with the team (I’m afraid my two team photographs must have been looted with the rest of our goods from our flat). Little did we think, in those days, that he would become so important a personage.

A few days ago “a perpetual blackout until further notice” was ordered in camp. Now we cannot use even our little oil lamps. Y and I have our supper at 7.30 p.m. by which time it is too dark to read or write. Then at about 8 p.m. we walk round and round the blocks for 20 minutes or half an hour to warm up before going to bed. After that there really isn’t anything to do but go to bed! I usually try to sit up till 9 or 9.3 p.m. unless I begin to get cold again. Otherwise, I wake up at some unearthly hour and will just be waiting for the day to dawn.

Half of Feb. gone, thank goodness. It is still perishingly cold and most or at any rate, many people are suffering from chillblanes. Well, we have already had a wet Chinese New Year which, according to the Chinese, means a good year for crops. Last New Year was dry and it certainly proved a very bad season for the gardens. We have been told we can retain the remainder of our garden until the 15th April, so things might have been much worse. Our carrots have done quite well and at present we are eating chiefly carrots and carrot tops made into stews with a little ground rice, or curried with the garlic and chillies.

Block lectures have been organised and, they are a very good thing, though some are rather poor. These take place every Monday and Thursday. On Tuesdays Miss Gibbens (Headmistress of the Diocesan Girls School in HK) lectures on European history (continental) from Napoleonic times to the 1914 war. These are exceptionally good and instructive and Y and I go regularly. We are fortunate to have her in these blocks. The lectures began at 7.30 p.m. and that means I begin to feel hungry again before I go to bed! I have tried keeping a little to eat when I come back, but it really is most difficult and uncomfortable to eat in the dark. However, the evenings are slowly drawing out now, which is a blessing. If we don’t eat something before we go to the lectures we find we get so hungry that we simply cannot concentrate on the subject! It is awful! Incidentally I think most of us are going to have difficulty, at first, in concentrating for any length of time on any subject.

Today started extremely well, for, what should we see sailing in from the North but a very nice looking ship (about 20,000 tons) with a couple of very large white crosses on her side – the Awa Maru we presume with our I.R.C. food! There was great excitement and a good deal of surprise that it should have arrived so soon – at least four days earlier than the most optimistic guess. In fact people in the shipping business seem to think this is a new ‘Awa’ which is considerably faster than its predecessor. I suppose too, that it may have started even earlier than its scheduled date of 17th Feb. Some optimists think that it was unable to make its call at Formosa because that island has been, or is about to be, invaded by the Americans! That is I fear, wishful thinking. Well, thank God it has come. We are sadly in need of something cheerful just now – at least, I am. The more incredulous think it might be a hospital ship, but I think if it were it would bear red crosses on a white background.

The weather is still bitterly cold and rain has set in and as I have only one pair of shoes, which are not waterproof, it means that when I go out working I have to go in bare feet – a somewhat uncomfortable condition, especially as they seem to be frozen for the rest of the day. However, “cheer up,” I tell myself, this state of affairs must end one day – though it seems to be taking a hell of a long time about it. To sit cooped up in this room, day after day, just depresses me beyond endurance and I think fondly of a bright fire and crumpets in the grate! Ah well, it can’t be more than a few years now!

There has been a good deal of shipping activity of late: a convoy of five merchantmen and two destroyers crept out two or three evenings ago and early next morning two of the same ships (easily identified by peculiarities in their superstructure) came creeping back again. Later that day (evening) a third ship, which may or may not have been in the convoy, stole in and crept into Tytam Bay where she took shelter for the night. A most unusual procedure. She sailed out again the next morning. In spite of the very low clouds, which shroud the hill tops, there have been an unusual number of Jap planes about of late, so it seems as though something is afoot nearby. If only the weather would clear.

Well, the Americans have landed in the Bonines – Iwajima – only about 600 miles from Japan! The American fleet (or fleets) must be simply enormous if they can afford to cruise around like that in Japanese waters so far from their own bases and must, one surmises, consist, to a large extent, of aircraft carriers, for they seem to have complete air superiority. Does all this mean that they are going straight for the Japanese islands and are not going to bother invading the China continent? If so it probably means that the war out here will end sooner which will be a good thing, though it also means we shall probably be here much longer. Still, if some decent food arrives for us we shall be able to face longer internment with greater equanimity.

We hear, however, that 30,000 American troops with a tank corps have recently arrived at Kunming whence the Chinese chief-of-staff moved a little while ago from Chungking, so it looks as though full use is now being made of the re-opened Burma Road and the Chinese and Americans are preparing for a drive to the coast. If it is in our direction and if their attack coincides with a landing here and the two forces link up, the Japanese forces in the Malay Peninsula, Burma and Indo China will be completely cut off. If only I could wave the next two or three months by with a magic wand. Still, I remember thinking that when I first came here!

For the last month or six weeks an epidemic of a mild kind of chicken-pox has been doing its rounds. Yesterday Yvonne succumbed! She had been feeling a little shivery the day before and when, next morning, she went to the bathroom to wash, she found her chest covered with spots. Dr Smalley soon confirmed our amateur diagnosis. There is nothing we can do about it: I still continue to sleep in the same double bed and the other four, of course, still continue to live in the same room. Dr S has told Y that she can get up and about as soon as she feels like it, for he says, everyone in the camp must have come into contact with the germs by now in one way or another and as there is no chance of isolation here and as the nature of this particular brand of germ is very mild there is no point in sticking in one room all day – the rest of us are carrying the germs all over the place anyway!

Last night, which was a bit finer than most nights of late, I was awakened by heavy machine gun or small canon fire from a plane that was buzzing about. Harold, who is sleeping on the balcony, gave a running commentary and said the plane was firing at something on the small island of Po Toi for it was using tracer shells or bullets which he could see quite clearly. This firing went on and on – I thought for about 20 minutes, but I must have gone to sleep again in the middle of it for Elsie said it continued for about an hour. At all events, I was quite amazed that one plane carried so much ammunition as that. It dropped no bombs, which seemed strange and there appeared to be no retaliatory fire from the small island.

Still no news of the food though multitudinous rumours! The most popular one is that it is due here on Friday (two days time) though if that were true I think an official announcement would have been made by now. Another is that the invoices have not yet arrived and that nothing can be done until they do. It is most tantalising for we cannot even be certain that this ship was the Awa Maru and that the food has arrived at all and consequently we do not know whether we can open and eat up the remaining tins of food that we have or whether we must continue to eke them out. The ship was in HK for 24 hours (during which period it rained most of the time) and left next morning, headed in a southerly direction. I hope 24 hours gave them enough time to unload a large quantity of stores.

There has been a great deal of Japanese activity about here of late: continual blasting which carries on through the nights; pretty active air patrol and a good deal of shipping movement. Last night another cargo vessel and a small destroyer anchored in Tytam Bay. This is rather too near the camp to be comfortable! Numerous supplies have been arriving by junk and lorry for Stanley Fort and the other day four small mobile guns were taken up. I imagine the blasting is caused by preparations for gun emplacements round about here.

At the beginning of this year a new Japanese Military Governor replaced the Civil Governor and soon after he arrived he stated that the intended to convert HK into an impregnable fortress. “What, again?” said we. We thought we British had done that in 1941! Well, it remains to be seen if the Japs can make a better job of it. It is evident, however, that they are making hasty preparations for an attack on this Colony. This is the last day of Feb. something might happen next month; if not I hope it will be the month after.

For the last three days we have been revelling in the beneficence of warm sunshine. The temperature has risen quite a bit and what a difference it makes to life. Today is cloudy again but still fairly warm. Yvonne, who is now feeling fairly alright, has gone to sit out on the hillside. Her attack of chicken-pox has been pretty mild and she has not got a great many spots. The danger in this place is that some of the spots may go septic, but I don’t think this will happen in her case. In fact we have both been fairly free from that sort of thing. The others in this room have had quite a lot of trouble in that way. Elsie has, of late, developed signs of this ‘central blindness’ and has gone to the hospital this p.m. to be examined by Harry Talbot again. It is due, mainly, to malnutrition. I hope Elsie’s is nothing serious.

Fresh fish came in yesterday the first time for weeks! It was only a small amount but better than nothing. People are losing weight again after the good effects of the Canadian parcels.

Yesterday Y and I each received a POW card from England; Y’s from Chère and mine from Betty. They are dated 23rd Aug. ’44 and 11th Sept.’44 respectively – only about 6 months old. They are 25 word messages written on official POW air mail cards bearing a 3d printed stamp (nice to see how old George still looks the same!). They bear some Jap characters as well as the printed English instructions.  Chère’s card says they are all well (as does Betty’s) and that they have had letters from the Charters.  Also: “Reunion soon our dearest wish”.

Hear, hear! Betty says she has opened my trunk and everything inside was alright (my goods which I left behind in England). Then she says: “Off to McCrea’s next week, hope to visit Crowley’s while there”.

So by now, it is probable that they have met. We still don’t know if our respective parents have met. I think these letters must have come on the ‘Awa’. It is marvellous to know our families were well 6 months ago; we have never had such recent news as that as far as I can remember. Maybe we shall get some more.

There is still no official statement about the parcels; by that I mean an official statement from the Japs. Gimson, however, has circularised all blocks with a notice to the effect that he has appointed a committee to consider the best way to distribute the I.R.C. stores which are expected shortly in camp. That, I think, is good enough! The committee is composed of: Wickerson (Chairman), Sandbach, Pritchard, Russle, B. Wylie and Dean-Smith with Bickford as secretary. Anyone who has ideas or suggestions to make about the method of distribution is invited to do so in writing and are assured that the committee will consider all such proposals. The general opinion seems to be that most of the stores are bulk supplies with only a small percentage of parcels – perhaps one parcel each. This is all to the good, for though it is great fun having individual parcels, bulk supplies of corned beef, cocoa, sugar etc. seems to indicate a much larger quantity of food – like the first supplies that arrived from England via Lorenco Marques on the Kamacura.

I hear that the opinion of the medical board is that everyone should be issued and encouraged to eat one tin of bully beef per day for the first month as we are so totally deficient in proteins. What a marvellous idea! One whole tin each per day! I daren’t believe it. I shall want to know what sort of a balance that will leave before embarking upon such a menu! I must say I could do with some meat now. In spite of my wood sawing and wood chopping which normally would develop one’s muscles, my arms and legs are so thin and skinny with the veins sticking out like cords because there is no fat to cover them, and my chest is just a bony structure with skin stretched over it! It really will be pleasant to fatten up again so that on warm days I can take my shirt off without feeling self-conscious. Really, in this camp we seem to alternate between the crest of a wave and the trough – the crests, which are regrettably few and far between, being the arrival of food supplies. On the strength of this news Y and I think it is fairly safe to eat up our remaining tins of food a little more quickly, though even so we are not being exactly rash about it.

Someone in camp whose husband is in Formosa has received a letter from him in which he says they are receiving their fortnightly issue of I.R.C. parcels regularly. Lucky devils! We really do seem to be the ugly ducklings here. This man further added that he heard food was on the way to Hong Kong and that if his wife had a chance to choose which kind of parcel she could have he advised her to choose the American ones as they were best! They would be of course! However, we shan’t feel forgotten anymore when all this food arrives. We simply do nothing but talk about it or discuss the various ways of cooking it up etc. that we will shall try.

Oh grief! Oh disillusionment! Oh cruel capricious Fate that flaunts Abundance with a generous seeming grace before our famished eyes and then with most malicious mirth whisks away his bounty with a laugh and leaves us, poor deluded fools, to lick our chops and pick the hungry crumbs that from his trenches spill. Lackaday; lackaday!

Yesterday, just before the evening meal was served, Mr Sandbach stood on a table, waved a list in the air and called to everyone to gather round. He then read, ‘The advanced manifest of the Canadian stores that the Japanese hoped to send into camp on the following day’. (Sunday) There was a buzz of excitement!  What were we going to get?

The list was as follows: 600 cases of comfort parcels (2,500 parcels); 21 cases medical and surgical supplies; 37 cases Men’s clothing; 2 cases men’s boots and shoes; 1 case boot repair equipment; 5 cases relief goods and toilet articles; 1 case cigarettes (9,000); 2 cases books. There was polite clapping and everyone did their best to look pleased and not disappointed! One parcel each and four cigarettes each!! Where, oh where were the wonderful bulk supplies?

Well, I suppose it jolly well serves us right for being such greedy gubbins and expecting more. Still, I must say it’s a long time since I have felt so flat and let down. One gets a horrid feeling that we don’t count for anything in the war effort and consequently the Govt at home doesn’t bother about us much. The Americans were repatriated; the Canadians were repatriated; the Dutch get their regular parcels from town but the poor British get nothing! In fact, we feel a little sorry for ourselves! However, self pity never got anyone anywhere and in any case we are sure we are not really forgotten. We are sure it is all the fault of the Japanese – they have double crossed us somehow.

Today the parcels and stores have been coming in. Imagine our surprise when we saw from the canvas wrappers of the parcels that they are part of the original lot that came from Lorenco Marques.

The parcels were distributed today. The chocolate in about half of them too mouldy to eat and in quite a number of them some of the tins were blown or damaged. It really does seem a shame. Y and I were fairly lucky: we had one good packet of sugar sweets (each in cellophane wrappers), all but a crumb of the original sweets had melted and run out of the wrapping all over the rest of the parcel! Still, none of our tins was blown. A few parcels were left over after everyone had received theirs and with these it was possible to replace the damaged tins. In some cases several items were entirely missing from the parcels: Joan Armstrong had eight items out of sixteen missing and Mrs Glanville had three missing. This, I’m afraid, looks like dishonesty amongst the packers at home – or perhaps it was an error.

I had thought our ever present food worries would be settled for some time, but now we have to try and arrange a new system of rationing. One is tempted just now to eat the stuff up and trust to luck that something else will arrive. With just rice, a few vegetables, oil and a little sugar coming in from the Japs it seems imperative to eat this I.R.C. food fairly quickly in order to maintain even a fair standard of health.

There is, in camp, a steadily growing feeling that there is a lot more food in town that has not yet been sorted out and sent to the different camps. This, it is thought, includes the more recently packed bulk supplies and also the American parcels. I am torn between a desire to credit this theory and a great fear of hoping for anything more at all in case it all turns out to be groundless. But looking at it logically, it does seem extraordinary that such a large ship as the Awa Maru should bring such a small quantity of supplies to Hong Kong, especially as it must be much more difficult for the Japanese to bring I.R.C. supplies to their enemy internees in the S. Pacific regions (like HK and Singapore) than to places like Shanghai and Formosa, and it would therefore seem that when a special ship is chartered for this purpose they would take full advantage of it.

We know that originally there were about 300,000 prisoners of war in Japanese occupied territory. The shipping experts here say that the ‘Awa’ is capable of carrying at least 12,000 tons of cargo. Assuming there are still 300,000 prisoners to be supplied (in spite of re-conquered territories such as the Dutch East Indies and the Philippines) it would mean that on a pro rata basis this camp alone should receive just about 100 tons; i.e. 90 lbs per person. These parcels altogether weigh about 8 lbs, plus say, 2 lbs per person of other goods makes it about 10 lbs. So there seems to be a big discrepancy between the 90 and the 10 lbs. Then again, fancy sending 4 cigarettes each all the way from America! ‘Old Gold’ they are and quite nice. No doubt the Japs have kept most of them for themselves.  

78 pairs of boots have been sent – between about 1,200 practically shoeless men! Why no Canadian parcels at all when it stated the goods were Canadian. Formosan guards are alleged to have said that our Sham Shui Po prisoners each received 2 parcels similar to ours and 150 cigarettes. Well, good luck to them if it is true. The cigarettes are said to have been ‘Craven A’. It would be lovely to have some English cigarettes or, better still, for me, some decent pipe tobacco.

Mr Kiley, the Chairman of the few remaining Americans in camp, paid a visit yesterday to Lt Hara and asked him when the American parcels were arriving in camp. Kiley spoke to us this morning while we were wood cutting and he said that Hara received him very cordially and said he was glad he had come. In reply to his question Hara said there were no more parcels in town. He said that he was equally surprised that the parcels were an old stock of British goods when the reports had promised American and Canadian supplies and he ended by saying, “Perhaps some more will come later on”.  Precisely what he meant by the last remark we are left to guess. Well, it seems useless to hope for any more after that. If Hara was thinking of the arrival of another ship I myself feel that is an unlikely event in view of the Pacific war situation.

There is a theory in camp that these parcels have been kept in HK all this time as an iron ration for us and that they have now been replaced by the later stock of American goods. This too, I think, is unlikely. In fact, I now believe we must be thankful for what we have received and not hope for anything further.

Today and yesterday, the remainder of the goods were distributed. It was quite fun. After everyone had received their parcel, and missing and damaged tins had been replaced, there was a small balance left over, enough for about one tin per person. These were distributed evenly amongst the blocks and then members of all the block drew for the goods. In our block (B4) each tin was numbered; 155 tabs were put in a tin, numbered from 1 to 155, and everyone drew a tab and according to their tab, so they were allocated a tin. I drew for Y and myself and my luck was in as I drew a tin of margarine and a tin of bacon. The worst packets, in my opinion, were a tin of tomatoes and small packet of tea, and a 3 oz tin of meat paste and cake of soap; but I managed to miss both of these. That draw finished all the food.

This morning the men had to go down and collect the clothing they had drawn. Each of the 37 cases of mens’ clothes contained a complete outfit for five men, making a total of 185 sets. The quality of the stuff was really extremely good. It is apparently, regular US army stuff. I don’t know what a full set consisted of but it included: pyjamas, thin pants and vests, long cotton and wool pants and vests, shirts, cotton and wool socks and a few very nice silk and wool socks, long trousers of a very nice quality, short and long sleeved cardigans, jackets of the windbreaker type, long legged and sleeved overalls, peaked woollen caps and caps of the balaclava type and handkerchiefs. These had been divided into lots and all males of 16 and over participated in the distribution. Goods were again allocated by drawing from a hat. I forgot to mention towels which were also included. Y and I had been hoping against hope that I would draw a towel, as the so called towels we have been using are completely in shreds – just big holes held together by a little material.

I was as pleased as a dog with two tails when I found I had drawn a towel – some were khaki and some were white, mine was white. Inside it I found a pair of summer pants and a balaclava type helmet. The pants I was badly in need of too, but the helmet was of no use to me. However, I happened to meet Mr Raymond who enquired what I had drawn; showed him and asked if he would like to swap the helmet for another pair of pants. To my surprise he said he would if he drew pants and not a helmet. What can he possibly want with a warm helmet now that the weather is about to get warm, I really do not know, however, that is his concern.  He did not draw pants but he brought me a nice pair of socks instead. Y is going to cut the towel in half (it is a normal sized bath towel) and we shall have one each. It is so white that it makes the rest of our linen (so called) look decidedly grey! However, this is not surprising after three years of washing in cold water with inferior soap.

In the afternoon we completed the draws. The relief goods were divided into four groups one of which was for women only and one for men and the two others were for both sexes. In these groups there were about 48 prizes in each, to be drawn for by 150 people so you had a 30% chance to draw something. The first group was toilet paper and soap – Y and I drew nothing. The second was shoe polish, shoe laces, toothpowder, tooth-brushes – between us we drew a tin of shoe polish. In the women’s group there were little sewing compacts (‘housewifes’ for the troops) and combs. Elsie drew for Y and drew a blank. On the men’s group were shaving soap and a few razors – I drew a tube of shaving soap. Each man was given one safety razor blade of the Gillette type. So now I have two new blades left. A few blade sharpening machines were included – only two amongst these four blocks. These I think should have been made available for everyone to use, but they were drawn for too. So Y and I got 2 out of a possible 6 – just the average. Some lucky people drew three things and some unfortunates drew nothing. We shall try and swap the shoe polish and shaving soap for food if we hear of any offers.

The boots and shoes were drawn for separately; I was not lucky. So that ends all the excitement. I feel rather sorry for the women and children who received nothing in the way of clothing. I think this camp will be practically a nudist colony if we are here this summer! We really are becoming rapidly reduced to rags.

During the last few days I have been suffering from another mood of black depression. Life in this place seems to be growing more and more damnable and I wonder despairingly how much longer it is to go on. So many stupid little things happen which, in these trying circumstances, become upsetting in a most absurd way. I suppose living in these intolerably crowded conditions has gradually worn us down till our nerves are all on edge.

Keith Mackie and Jackie Anderson, who became engaged at the end of last year, have decided to be married at the beginning of April. Keith and Tony Sank share a boiler room on the servant’s verandah of this flat and Tony very nobly offered to move out if the rest of this flat would agree to him occupying the back of the kitchen. Hitherto we have kept in the kitchen a big wooden ice chest with a large shelf fixed across the back of it, and in the chest on the shelf we have kept our food tins (in which we collect our food), plates, mugs, cutlery etc. and bottles of drinking water and sea water; also frying pan and sauce pan. Other people in the flat also kept stuff in the kitchen. Of course, we all agreed to move our stuff out, but it was very inconvenient and meant we had to put the ice chest on the verandah and dispense with the shelf – all most annoying!

At the end of last year, when I was returning one morning with the breakfast tea, I trod on the edge of my dressing gown while climbing the stairs and went sprawling. Fortunately I saved the Lammert pot but our own was smashed. There were none left in the canteen so we were reduced to our thermos. Actually, during this cold winter, it has not been too inconvenient, for the thermos certainly kept the tea hotter, though it tended to get a little stewed. We always said that one day the precious thermos would be smashed – well, today was the day! Y was carefully putting it on the floor in a corner where we have kept it for safety, when it tipped over and smashed. Well, that was that. We decided straight away to buy another as without one life would really be too difficult. I wrote out a notice and took it to Roe to have it put on the board. We said: “Wanted to buy one medium sized thermos flask”.

It will probably cost us from Y250 to Y300 - £10 or £15 (pdv £450), for I shall have to write a cheque to obtain the Yen. Thermos flasks can be purchased more cheaply at the canteen – about Y200 for a refill, I think, but as, between us, we can spend only Y150 per month, it would mean forfeiting all our food purchases for about 5 weeks.

There has been rather a lot of friction in the room of late too, which tends to make things more difficult. The weather also has been putrid! Cold and foggy of late. However, no doubt things will brighten up soon.

I am glad to report the barometer is on the up again! The breaking of the thermos was, I quite believe, a good thing as it seems to have developed in Y and me quite a feeling of light hearted abandon. I think we have been worrying too much about the future (the future in camp I mean) of late. We have decided to worry less about food and such and let the future look after itself a bit more; in other words, not to take our hurdles before we reach them. Something usually seems to turn up when we are practically on our beam ends and things never seem to turn out as badly as we fear they will.

For instance, the water supply has always come on every third day so far, even though sometimes the pressure is insufficient to bring the water to the taps and we have to collect it in buckets at the hydrant in the yard. This means that we get about 2 pints of boiling water per day and as much chlorinated water as we want instead of the 1 pint of boiled water and no chlorinated water that we had expected. It also means there is a limited amount of water for flushing purposes and we have not had to resort to out-door dry latrines – an inestimable boon.

The communal gardens, too, have been producing extra vegetables for the camp and the sparing use of ‘night soil’ has not been nearly as objectionable as we feared it would be. And the sun has been out during the last few days which has made all the difference in the world. We have been able to get out of our room and bask on the hillside, which has been delightful.

For the last month or so Yvonne has been busy rehearsing for ‘The Housemaster’ which Bill Colledge is producing. The first rehearsal (for the children and the aged) is due on the 27th of this month and the other performances are on the 30th and 2nd and 3rd of April. Y is much enjoying it as it as it creates a pleasant diversion and there is a nice cast. She is playing the part of Rosemary, the eldest girl. I have very happy memories of seeing the West End production with HP in the first week of its run in about 1933 or so, and am looking forward to seeing the Stanley show. I cannot, myself, summon up sufficient energy to do any more acting here though I enjoy reading and discussing plays.

Bill has organised several play readings for these blocks and they go down very well. They are put over in the form of radio plays, the cast reading from behind a curtain of some sort fixed across the landings of the various staicases and reading by the light of a shaded peanut oil lamp, usually with three or four people craning over one script! Bill is a human dynamo where drama is concerned and always seems to have something in hand. He has asked me to read a part in the ‘Flashing Stream’ which is to be his next ‘radio production’. He quite often reads a part himself or, if not reading, he manages the noises off – even, on two occasions in one play, sobbing for two quite separate female characters when the artists had forgotten these important sound effects! How he manages it on this diet beats me. 

Apparently no more fish is going to come in, for the Japs are now supplying us with a very small quantity of beans to replace the fish. People often get a sudden craving these days, for something sweet, or a chance remark will suddenly conjour up, unbidden, a vision of  a delicious dish of bacon and eggs or Irish stew or roast beef or lamb – nothing fanciful but just plain, wholesome and satisfying food.

I had an amusing dream a night or two after we had received our parcels. It was during the days when we still thought there was more food in town. I dreamed that I opened the drawer of a table that used to stand in the living room of our flat in HK, in which we kept tins of cigarettes, playing cards etc. To my surprise I found, at the back of this drawer, a vast box of chocolates the possession of which came as a complete surprise to me, having forgotten when I had bought it. I seized the box and turned round and found the room miraculously full of my friends to whom I handed the box. I then returned to the drawer and pulling it out further I saw lots more boxes of chocolates. These too I fetched out and helping myself liberally, said: “Come on everyone; I’d forgotten all about these; have as many as you like because there are lots more in the drawer!”

I woke up and found myself absolutely dribbling over the taste of chocolate!  It was too cruel to come back to earth again.

Some people find they simply cannot ration themselves with wong tong and cigarettes and quite a few (Isa and Lyn Joffe) have hit upon the expedient of asking a friend in another room to look after these items and only issue so much each day! I heard that some time ago Blair (who is taking the part of ‘Donkin’ in ‘The Housemaster’) used to feel so hungry when he went to bed that he could not get off to sleep. So he tried the ruse of saving all his food till the evening and then eating it altogether and going to bed soon after. The evening part of this arrangement worked quite well but he felt so miserable during the rest of the day that he had to give it up! Really, the things people try!!  

The news is good – it always is these days; but my goodness how these Germans hang on and hang on. One cannot but admire their stoicism but I do wish they’d be good fellows and give up trying; it would make things so much easier.

For the last month or so the Japanese have been working like badgers on anti-invasion defences around Stanley. They are busy tunnelling into the hillsides, not much above water level, at numerous points on this peninsula and the adjoining bays and headlands, and blasting goes on day and night. Tunnels command Stanley beach (double tunnels at both ends) and I imagine they will be used as heavy machine gun nests to repel any landing. They are blasting level patches for gun positions too. They are at work on one of the hillsides just above the gaol. It faces to, and commands, the narrow neck of this peninsula at Stanley village and they have constructed a roadway which connects it to the road leading to the fort.  They have driven a tunnel into the hill too, behind the gun platform. Mobile guns have been seen, some weeks ago, on their way to the fort. But this particular position seems a very bad and exposed one to my inexperienced eye. It is true that it will command, admirably, the Stanley mound and Mt Parker range of hills but, then, it too is easily commanded from these very ranges and I doubt if the Japs will achieve much in the way of camouflage. The gaol and our blocks will be in the direct line of fire and shells that fall short may do serious damage to civilians. Judging by reports of the fighting on Leyte, the Philippines, Iwajima etc., it seems that the Japanese garrisons usually retire to one final fortified position and there fight it out to the bitter end. We are wondering if they have picked upon Stanley peninsula for the position of their last stand in HK. This place saw the last of the British resistance in Dec 1941. It is the most natural stronghold on the island and it is a place to which forces on the other parts of the island can easily retire if the attack comes from the mainland – as in the case of the Jap attack on this Colony.

The individual parcels that were sent to a few fortunate internees by friends in Canada, have been distributed. There were some 200 parcels I think, quite a few of which were addressed to people who have long since left camp (Canadians) or died. The wife of Bill Evans, Harold’s cousin who was here during the blitz, sent him a lovely parcel. But Evans had managed to escape from HK between the surrender and our internment and has never been in this camp. Harold put in a claim to the parcel as being Evans’ nearest relative here and eventually he was allowed by the Japs to take possession of it. This has happened in the case of all ownerless parcels. Unfortunately neither Y nor I have had any departed relatives in camp!

Harold’s parcel contained clothes and toilet accessories: I cannot remember all the items but it included: a hand knitted pullover, 2 pairs hand knitted mens stockings, 3 pairs socks, two or three shirts, underpants and vests, 2 pairs shorts, handkerchiefs, 5 large cakes Palmolive soap, 5 big tins Gibbs Dentifrice, 3 Lek toothbrushes, a Gillette razor in case with 30 blades! And I almost forgot the two boxes of Keatings insect powder! I think every parcel that arrived in camp contained bug powder of some make! How did they guess?! I wonder who recommended it. It was a lovely parcel and has quite set up old Harold for clothes, though it does not help Elsie much. He had 2 towels also, so Elsie can use these, the soap, toothbrushes, dentifrice etc.

Marjorie Fortescue had a parcel too, full of lovely clothes for herself. She does not know the sender and it is someone whom her mother contacted from England and requested to buy and dispatch the goods. The Fortescue’s still recieve monthly parcels from town that Zindle purchases with money sent by Marjorie’s mother through the Red Cross. Marjorie’s mother seems to be a clever woman, for I don’t think many other people in camp receive goods in this way.

There has been a good deal of activity of late – chiefly reconnaissance but a few bombs have been dropped. Of shipping activity there has been very little; most of the Jap ships seem to have cleared out by about the end of last month. I wonder if it presages anything.

Easter has gone: it was unmarked by anything worth mentioning except the weather has been simply heavenly – such a change from the bleak, grey winter. On the Wednesday I fell rather bilious and spent a couple of days more or less in bed. Both Y and I seemed to loose our appetites for a bit, which was really marvellous! It has enabled us to build up quite a reserve of rice flour which, now we are hungry again, as usual, we can now eat. In fact a touch of indigestion in this place is quite a Godsend!

April has arrived at last; the month of big events? The big conference of the allies at San Fransisco is scheduled for April 25th and a number of people (including Mr North) attach quite a lot of importance to the date. Russia may refuse to renew her pact of non-aggression with Japan, which is due for renewal by that date. With the British and American forces now well across the Rhine and advancing rapidly on Hamburg and Nurenburg it seems that the issue in Europe is settled and can only be a matter of time.

Goebells’ orders to all Nazi’s to remain in their respective areas and fight to the death shows what a ruthless grip the Nazi party has on Germany. It would seem that, after the attempt on Hitler’s life and the subsequent executions both of high ranking German army officers and members of the German aristocracy, that the Nazi Party still has undoubted control of Germany and is not at all afraid to use its power. In fact, by their system of Gestapo Police they remove and deal promptly with any anti-Nazi elements, thus making it impossible for any other party to be formed which might ask for terms, and so, if the Nazi’s decide to fight to the bitter end (as they seem to have done) then the fighting will continue until the greater part of Germany is occupied. To me, this seems a crime of the greatest magnitude that the Nazi’s are perpetrating against their own nation and countrymen. The thought of women and children being trained to assist in the defence of Berlin is too appalling. Poor things! I hope it will all end quickly.

In the meantime things are going ahead pretty rapidly in the Pacific war. With the new American bombardment of Shikoken Island it looks as though they mean to go straight for Japan and finish off the war there. On the other hand, three cruisers bombarded the Pratas islands, about 150 miles S. or S.E. of Hong Kong and for the last three days we have had very heavy air raids on HK, so it looks as though something may be about to happen here. The weather, as I have said, has been simply perfect, with excellent visibility.

They seemed to wait till Easter Sunday was over, for the first raid started at about 11.45 on Monday and lasted till about 2 o’clock or a little later, the ‘all clear’ being sounded at about 3.30. On Tuesday and today exactly the same thing happened. The American bombers are simply enormous. They are mostly B-24’s, the flying fortresses with their twin tail rudders, with a few B-29’s, the Super Fortresses with their single, very big rudder. I do not propose to know much about the shapes and appearences of these giant machines, but I am told that is one way of telling the difference and could just make out these details though the machines were very high – between 15,000 and 20,000 feet I should think. These flew chiefly in flights of 6, sometimes 4 and 3. It is difficult to say whether some of the flights circled around, dropping their bombs in two lots instead of just one, but I should say there were between 20 and 30 of these giants in each raid plus some fighter escort planes. When the sun caught them they looked very beautiful, like great silver birds floating slowly through the azure sky (although they would be doing about 300 mph). They dropped some tremendously heavy stuff – on Monday it seemed like the docks again, and Kai Tak; Tuesday it was much more distant and sounded as though the New Territories were having a plastering – probably the railway and military concentrations etc. Today it was nearer again and we saw huge columns of black smoke and yellowish grey smoke rising over the Stanley range of hills. The black smoke looks like an oil dump.

As far as we can see the local Japanese air unit of late has consisted of two small fighter planes, ‘The Flying Sampan’ (our pet name for a fair sized flying boat they have) and ‘Donald Duck’ (a sea plane). At all events, of late we have seen only two little fighters which do quite a bit of patrolling about here. In the Monday raid these two had ventured forth, though what they were supposed to be doing so low down when the bombers were at such a height, I do not know. I was looking over our verandah when I heard a plane rapidly approaching from the west, and a moment later one of these Jap planes came hurtling across our blocks, going at a good lick but with its engine making a very peculiar noise. As it was passing D’Aguila peninsula it emitted a stream of smoke from its exhaust and suddenly nose dived, wheeling slightly to the right as it went down behind the hill. I thought at first it had suddenly dived to attack something but my suggestion was somewhat ridiculed because the plane was already too low to start diving at that angle and because no American bomber was at all likely to be coming in just above sea level. In addition, people in the Indian blocks saw a cloud of smoke rise from behind the hill where the plane went down. So it is pretty certain that that poor chap crashed. People in Block 2 actually saw the dog fight which took place some distance off Stanley Bay. These two Jap planes were, apparently out after the Americans when about 5 American fighters suddenly swooped out of the sky onto them and riddled them with bullets. They say the other Jap plane tried to make off but also seemed to be badly hit and was loosing height; so that too was probably lost.

Some weeks ago two B-24’s were cruising about HK, very low. There was a launch off Stanley Bay towing a big lighter and one of the planes zoomed slowly down and raked the ships with her canon and the ships returned the fire. The plane then wheeled and dived again and dropped a bomb which hit the lighter right in the middle. The two ends lifted into the air, one sinking immediately and the other sinking a little more slowly.

On another occasion, one of the afore mentioned Jap fighters sailed boldly in to attack one of these giant fortresses, but the American just turned round and the Jap thought better of it and made off pronto.

Today the weather has broken again; it is windy, with low clouds and poor visibility. We wondered if the US planes would visit HK again or whether, because of the bad flying conditions, would give it a miss. We felt that, if they did come in this bad weather they might be working at some schedule for an invasion here or nearby and not just taking advantage of the fine weather to damage Japanese installations and military objectives.

Well, they did come again; at about one o’clock this time, and again they dropped a lot of heavy stuff. There was a short raid too at about 5 a.m. this morning, before daylight. I wonder what it all means. The paper quoted an article in an American paper which said that it is unlikely that the British Fleet will engage the Japanese Fleet, but no doubt it will be used in the recapture of Singapore and HK. This, the Japanese claim, is because of disagreement between the US and British naval authorities, stating that the Americans allege the British warships are out of date and of no use for long range activities. The Americans have obviously been equipping their ships for very long range action in the Pacific, but I hardly think the British Fleet can be too slow and out of date to be of any use. However, perhaps I am predjudiced! Anyway, if the British Fleet were to retake HK I should not grumble!

The weather is even worse today and there has been no raid that we are aware of, though a big American plane came cruising round this morning, probably on reconnaissance and checking up on results. The paper states that the French Hospital received a direct hit which resulted in killing 4 of the Revd Sisters at their devotions in the Chapel, while three more are buried and have not yet been recovered; the orphanage was also hit, killing and wounding, so says the report, 100 children. The patients’ wing also collapsed, burying many of the patients. This is another tragedy. The French Convent and Hospital have been doing heroic work. I have heard that the Japanese Naval Transport HQ is situated nearby and that the bombers were after that objective. The night before last night there was a big glow in the sky from the burning oil depot – it had been burnt out by the next day.

Blasting operations still persist around here. The side of the hill (on which Stanley Fort is situated) which overlooks the camp viewed from the cemetery, begins to look like a giant rabbit warren. It is full of these tunnels. There was a mishap the other day at the tunnel and gun emplacement above the gaol when the Japanese supervisor, thinking all the charges had exploded, walked back to the tunnel and was blown right down the hill and killed by the delayed explosion of one of the charges. There are so many bangs these days: bombs, blasting and A.A. guns. But it is surprising how quickly one learns to differentiate between them.

These air raids have decidedly upset the performances of ‘The Housemaster’. The dress rehearsal on March 27th at which children, invalids and the aged were allowed to attend and the first performance on the 31st, went according to schedule. The Monday and Tuesday performances, however, could not take place owing to the air raids. They were postponed to the Wed (also washed out) and this Saturday. Now it will be Saturday and the following Monday (raids permitting). I went to the first performance so at any rate I have seen it once. I enjoyed it immensely; in fact I think it is the most enjoyable show I have seen in Stanley.

It is a very nice play to begin with – if slightly overdrawn in parts and it was very well put over. Also, it brought back happy memories. Yvonne played the part of Rosemary very well and with the sympathy that it demands. All the girls were excellent as too was Jack Armstrong as ‘Ovingdon’, the Head. The others were all pretty good. It was noticeable how much better dressed were the women than the men. The women, as is only to be expected I suppose, had gone borrowing all over the camp until they fitted themselves out with nice clothes, while the men togged themselves up in the best of their own clothes. These normally would have been quite nice, but many of them, particularly Blair as ‘Donkin the Housemaster’ have lost so much weight in camp that their clothes hung on them like clothes horses!  Perhaps I should not say ‘all’ the men, but poor old Blair has certainly lost 50 lbs or more! Maudie and I were going to see it on the Monday but so far we have been out of luck. It is very trying for the cast and they are beginning to feel a bit flat. Hope it won’t affect the remaining performances.

Towards the end of March the Japs suddenly increased the camp’s firewood quota. Until fairly recently we had been allowed one catty per head per day - 1.34 lbs. Then the kitchens had to manage on grass every 5th day making the average 1.1 lbs per day. Now we get 1 kilo per head which is, I think, 2.2 lbs, or just double! The Japs have started chopping down the trees on the island now and we can see the pinewoods above the Maryknoll Mission where the Chinese coolies are at work. HK will be a terrible shambles at the end of this war. We had always managed adequately on our 1 catty per day and I cannot understand why they have suddenly increased our quota by so much. However, we now get 4 water boils per day again and can have cakes baked on four days in the week, so we don’t mind. I, as one of the woodcutters, have to cut just about double the quantity of wood each day. This baking of cakes will help people considerably with the chatty firewood problem.

It was last November I think, when we decided to chop up the teakwood dining table that was too big to be used in our room! We shared it out between the 6 of us and it burnt very well! I made a second small table with parts of our share (as we are more economical with chatty wood than the Bidwells) which is proving very useful. By Dec. or Jan. the Bidwells were out of wood (having in addition chopped up the two drawers in a kitchen table of theirs) and we all cast our eyes on the floor boards (which other people in other flats had already taken up and were burning). The Block Committee made a feeble attempt to stop this practice by saying that the boards were to be regarded as an emergency reserve in case the supply from the Japs failed (this, in the days when the Jap supplies were irregular and below the proper quota) and would be used for boiling water. They stated that in the event of the boards being required for this purpose a record would be kept of those who had used their flooring and they would be precluded from participating in the supply of boiling water. But no one took the slightest notice! And working on the maxim that, ‘A cake in the hand is worth two quarts of water in the bush,’ the raising of the floors went merrily on.

I forget which day we started – I know it was a Sunday (the better the day the better the deed! We started under our beds first and for quite a time the room still looked quite respectable. But gradually the cancer grew. Then one day a rumour went round that the committee had decided to take up the remaining wood blocks in all rooms where the demolition had been started. That settled it! Everyone’s blocks came up pronto although the rumour proved to be false! So now we have a beautiful black carpet!

The wood strips measure 12” x 1 ½” x ¾”. They are (or were) set in bitumen on the concrete floor and the bitumen that sticks to the strips, when they are pulled up, burns extraordinarily well (albeit somewhat smokily), so this type of fuel is eminently suitable for domestic consumption, especially for starting a fire as paper is now almost unobtainable and is far too precious for burning.

People in the Indian Quarters and Block 10 have cement floors and are therefore out of luck: there is, therefore, a good market price for floor strips, the price starting at Y1 per strip and quickly mounting. People have paid as much as Y7 (pdv £30) per strip! We have not sold any of ours – we find them very acceptable as small gifts and birthday presents! What will happen to the bitumen on the floor when the hot weather comes, remains to be seen! It will be awful if it melts!

Harold removed the fireclay lining to our fireplace which has enlarged the space and means we can have two chatties going at the same time – both families cooking together. But a fair amount of smoke escapes into the room and our blankets and clothes etc. get awfully dirty. It is incredible to think of a house where you have a room for cooking, another for eating, another for sleeping etc.