John Charter's wartime journal: View pages

Well, April 23rd went by without (as far as I know) anything spectacular happening: so much for my forcasts! But, thank God! It looks as though Germany has at last given up the struggle.

The news from Europe has been very exciting of late: the whole of Germany is now virtually occupied by our allied troops with just a few pockets still holding out. Hitler is reported dead (killed in Berlin by a Russian bullet). Goebbels has committed suicide; Berlin has fallen to the Russians; Hamburg has capitulated to the British; the Germans in Denmark are laying down their arms and, apparently in Norway there are signs of them surrendering. But in spite of all that this means – that the war in Germany is virtually over – there is not a great deal of excitement here; just a feeling of thankfulness that it is all over (Churchill is on his way to Germany for the official surrender); the end has been too long coming, too inevitable and too horrible to give one a feeling of excitement or elation. It was not like the end of the last war when the armies were still opposing each other in the field and the end came suddenly.This end has been too horrible; like hacking at the carcass of a stricken animal; our forces blasting the German cities to bits, and the Germans mobilising women and children from 13 to 15 to help in the defence! This has been the last great crime of the Nazis. What good could it possibly do to bring their enemies right into their cities, thus making inevitable the destruction of thousands of civilian lives as well as the greater part of the cities themselves with all their historic and artistic treasures. It went beyond heroism and amounted to brutal national suicide. There must and will be misery in Germany for years to come. Today’s paper gives news of 3rd May which is 4 days old, so it is possible by now that all fighting has ceased. How wonderful if that is so! But they may hold out in some places for a few weeks yet.

Many happy returns of the day, Mother.  We have been sending our best wishes to Betty, Chère and Mother as their birthdays have come by. We have been sending our messages over the ether for, for the last few months (March onwards I think) we have been unable to send any Red Cross cards out for the simple reason that the Japanese have run out of their supply of cards! At least, that is what they say. But cards and letters still come in periodically; last month I had a card from Aunt E (the first POW card to me she had written) dated 25th June 1942. Only 2 years and 9 months old! And one from Uncle Sydney and Winifred Morris dated 19-6-42, six days earlier! Aunt E had apparently, just heard we were safe. She says: “We have been advised to write so that directly it becomes possible letters may be forwarded!”

Many subsequent cards of hers have arrived long ere this – it is a case of, “The first shall be the last and the last first”. (Mathew 19:30)

That is what we feel about ourselves out here – we were the first British possession in the East to fall and we fear we shall be the last to be recaptured!

But this is the only card from the Morrises that I have had; it was good to see the old familiar printed Creighton Avenue address again and to hear they were all well – even though it is nearly 3 years old. Uncle was Vice President of the Baptist Union then: maybe he has been elected President since; in fact I believe the one follows the other almost automatically and so he has probably completed his year as President already. What a difficult time in which to hold the reins of Presidency; they couldn’t have had a better man for it. ((John lived with them when a student at the Architectural Association in London))

So, the Armistice was signed on 8th May and the 9th was declared a public holiday. What a grand birthday Betty must have had. How I wish we could have been with her to help celebrate. It is wonderful to feel that the fighting in Europe is now quite finished – at least, organised resistance. The early reports about Hitler having been killed and Goebbels having committed suicide and Churchill having gone to Germany seem to have been contradicted and it is not certain yet whether Hitler, dead or alive, has been found.

We read of the speedy return of British POWs from Germany; of Trafalgar Square packed with American troops as well as British on Armistice night and I really got a kick out of the thought of all their rejoicing; we could imagine the church bells peeling all over England and we longed to be there with our families.

The realisation of peace in Europe seems to have grown upon me gradually: at first, being so far away from it all, it did not seem to sink in – I couldn’t fully grasp the idea. Well, for all that we have had to put up with here, I am sure they had a much grimmer time at home and experienced many things that we have done well to miss. But one thing – a precious thing – I do envy them has been their continued and blessed sense of freedom.

Here we are in June. I am behind with my entries and must mention facts briefly. During April the Japanese cut us down to one water day in five. That was very trying, especially for washing as the weather had already become hot and sticky. Crowds of people used to take their clothes down to the pool in the Married Quarters garden and wash them there. A second pool had been constructed which held the overflow water from the first pool or tank (used for drinking purposes) and people were allowed to draw water from the second pool for personal use though no one was allowed to use the actual pool for washing. If only I had a camera! It was no uncommon sight to see someone trying, after they had soaped and lathered a sheet, to rinse it out in a small 1’ diameter bowl. In fact I myself washed a small white blanket in our precious aluminium container which is about 5” deep and 10” in diameter. It was no small undertaking and involved at least a dozen changes of water.

However, shortly after the beginning of May the Japanese supplied us with water every other day and that made a vast difference to life in general, even though the water is anything but clear. In fact, when you have a few inches in a pan you can no longer see the bottom of it. Still, we were recently inoculated against cholera and we are careful about drinking water so I don’t think anyone is likely to suffer. One is apt to use the tap for cleaning one’s teeth however, and that is not wise.

The weather turned hot during April, and in May it was very humid and terribly tiring – Hong Kong’s worst period of the weather calendar, May and June. It seems hard to believe that a month or two ago we were shivering  and praying for hotter weather. Still, for these conditions the hotter weather is more bearable. For one thing we are now less hungry than during the cold weather and that is a great blessing. Then, the clothes and shoe problem is less acute during the hot weather. Still, no doubt the cold weather was better for us really.

Mosquitos are very bad this year. Y and I have had to take down the net curtains from our windows. Y has sewn them together down their length and from this we have concocted a mosquito net. We pin one edge to the head of our bed and then drape the curtain over a cord which stretches across the bed and is fixed about 2’ from the head and 2’ above the bed. The loose end then falls on the bed just below our chests.  We crawl under this to get into bed and have to keep the lower portions of ourselves covered with the sheet, but our faces and arms can remain exposed. It is like playing tents. The others have followed suit and made themselves bags of various kinds which they suspend from above and pin to their sheets. Isa’s bag is made from some green chiffon trousers that Yvonne wore for the ballet! Mr Lammert is the only one in our room who has not indulged in a home made mosquito net. He prefers to be bitten. It certainly is much hotter sleeping under a skimpy net – unbearably hot at times and I often wake in a bath of perspiration.

This seems to be a bad Spring for flying cockroaches and the foul things come zooming in at night through the windows. They are just unpleasant and our nets provide some protection against these too, although they sometimes crawl under. On several occasions I have had them crawl over my pillow and my violent reaction nearly scares Y out of her wits.

At the beginning of May the Japanese opened the beach again. It is opening in the afternoons only now. I was quite surprised that they consented to open it at all with the threat of air raids and invasion and so on. Perhaps they don’t wish to admit to us the possibility of such things. Quite a lot of people go down. Y and I have been once so far. It was certainly very delightful but we felt a bit tired out when we got back. It just shows how much below par we are, for we just sat and had tea on the beach, read for a while and then had a gentle bathe. I wonder what it will feel like to be full of energy again. We have by now, become quite accustomed to our enfeebled physical state. I never run upstairs! 

There has been a slump in the black market jewel trade during the last few months. The German and Japanese civilians who had been buying up all the jewellery have, apparently, all but left the Colony now and this has caused a big drop in the price of gold, platinum, diamonds etc. One girl had been offered Y24,000 (pdv £36,000) for a diamond pendant (a family heirloom) but had thought she could probably get more if she waited a little. She waited just too long and eventually when necessity drove her to sell it she received less than Y6,000  (pdv £9,000) for it. She must have kicked herself.

The cost of food has not dropped much but money is very scarce in camp now and where a little while ago a man with good credit could cash a cheque at Y30 or Y35 to the pound, one can get only Y20 or Y25 per pound if you can get it at all. Y and I were lucky to have sold her ring when we did. We had two minor triumphs lately however: I sold a palm-beach suit which had shrunk and was too small for me anyhow for Y300 (pdv £450 at Y30 to £1) and Y sold a bottle of bath salts for Y200 (pdv £300)! We hear a Formosan bought it for his lady love!! But money is getting very difficult again. If I could get Y20 or Y25 I would cash a cheque for 50 pounds. I hope the Govt will give me some of my back pay when this is over!

At the beginning of May the Japanese Camp Commandant Lt Hara and the interpreter, Mr Watanabe, were replaced by two new officers; I forget their names at the moment. Watanabe was a very nice man, as I may have mentioned elsewhere. He visited Maudie quite often and spoke to her of Capt. Minhinnick whom he had got to know in the Argyle St Camp: said he was always cheerful and always had a cigarette in his mouth – a very good description of Capt. Min.

In peacetime, Watanabe was a Methodist or Presbytarian Minister and at Xmas he asked if he could attend our childrens’ party and he sang some songs to them in Japanese. I hear, fortunately, the children behaved themselves well – they seem often to have the unhappy knack of tittering at the wrong moment! His son came through HK in a crowded troop ship which lay in HK harbour for four nights. It was only on the fourth night that he learnt his son was on board and was able to obtain permission to spend the night with him. Apparently all the deck space was occupied at night for sleeping purposes, so the Japs must be very short of transports and the ships must be packed tight with troops. His son is a tank driver and Watanabe, apparently does not expect to see him again. Such is war. 

Since the new commandant has arrived there has been some trouble in the blackmarket and dealers have had to go carefully. However, things seem to have settled down again now, so I presume the new man has agreed to his rake off and business is progressing smoothly!

The issue of cigarettes to the camp this year has been very uncertain. The quota now is 2 per man per day, but actually we have received 1 per man per day and as the camp distributes evenly between men and women we actually get only one every two days. It is felt that the issues are held back deliberately, because the black market does a good trade in cigarettes. Graffe, a Dutchman, sold a piece of jewellery to a black market agent, and then heard, somehow, that the agent had received double the price from a Formosan. With (as he fondly imagined) the intention of protecting others who wished to sell things he reported the matter to Japanese HQ – a perfectly mad thing to do. The Formosans, it appears got into trouble - their leave and pay was stopped for a week or something like that. This, of course, made them furious and a day or two later, as Graffe was walking along the road by our blocks, he was assailed by three Formosans who worked themselves into such a rage that they nearly killed him. Two of them, one with his rifle butt and the other with a bamboo pole, beat Graffe over his head and arms till he sank to the ground when the third joined in, kicking him in the stomach while the other two continued to lambast him. He would certainly have been a case for the hospital, if not the cemetery, had not Vera Armstrong, with a great deal of courage, rushed down from her room where she witnessed the occurance, and almost forcibly intervened. She speaks Japanese fluently, lucky for Graffe. He was a fool even to have thought of doing such a thing. He had accepted the price and what happened thereafter was no concern of his. He appeared in public some days later with his head in bandages but is alright now.

I believe I am right in saying that no woman in this camp has, so far, been struck by a Japanese, though one or two have been made to kneel down if the Japs have disbelieved what they have said. There has been a good deal of face slapping amongst the men however. This is done with the knuckles and not the open hand.

There has been no bombing here for some time now, though there is almost daily and nightly patrol activity – usually by one large bomber which cruises about the Lamma Channel. Why they come so constantly we do not know. Occasionally we hear cannon fire from the plane as it cruises over Po Toi Island but there never seems to be any answering fire and certainly the fort never opens fire. Blasting still goes on and we can see sandy patches growing on some of the islands where they are either digging tunnels or constructing gun emplacements. 

People from Bungalow ‘C’ (which, by the way, has been quite well patched up with bricks and set in mud!) and S. Stephen’s hear a good deal of transport activity at night on its way to and from the fort, and some weeks ago people saw two guns, about 30’ long being taken up to the fort. They seem to think they were 6” guns. At present a lighter is tied up to the Prep School pier. It is equipped with a derrick and the other night they saw a big gun, brought from the fort and loaded onto the lighter. They think it may be one of the two big 9.2” guns we had at the fort and that the lighter may now have returned for the other one. They may be erecting these big coastal guns elsewhere and replacing them with smaller ones. So much the better for us if this is so.

The Japs have laid a boom right across the mouth of Tytam Bay and it stretches across our promontory to Tweed Island, some 500 yards off the shore. We can just see the line of bouys which are almost completely submerged. They are evidently taking what precautions they can against landings here. A few nights ago people saw night exercises in progress on the headland that juts out between Stanley Bay and Repulse Bay. For some reason too they have reinforced the barbed wire barricades around the godowns in which our rice and oil are stored. We heard rumours of further food riots in town and it may possibly be a precaution against attempted looting by Chinese from the village.

We wonder what is in store for us. As far as is possible arrangements have been made in camp for any emergency. Actually there is comparatively little we can do, but people have been advised to prepare for an emergency. We know that in Manila the small number of civilian prisoners were rescued by an American armoured car division. (What fun!) Their exit must have been extremely rapid and they probably took no luggage at all. The road to this camp is too easily commanded from the fort and anyway, 2,500 people seem too great a number to be moved in this way. It may be that peace will be declared before any fighting develops here; maybe the Japanese will withdraw and leave us to our own devices. But we must prepare for the worst – for being in this Camp, which may become no-mans land between the fort and the island mainland. If Japanese forces retire to this peninsula and the Americans attack it, one or two things might happen: both sides may manage to keep shells and bullets from falling into the camp (though this is most improbable); a short truce may be declared during which we shall be allowed to depart from the peninsula; the Japanese may clear us out of this camp to some other part of the island before the attack on the island begins; or we may be in the thick of the fighting, with shells and bombs bursting in the camp. In this case we must be prepared to evacuate damaged buildings and dangerous vicinities while under fire and either take the best shelter possible, or try and get out of the camp. First Aid posts and stretcher parties have been organised.

I think any of the last three possibilities are equally likely to occur. People have been asked to arrange their baggage for three contingencies; where transport and plenty of time is available; where plenty of time but no transport is available; and where no time or transport is available. For this last emergency people can take only what they can easily carry, their iron rations of food and small valuables. 

The entire camp has been divided into small groups of from 10 to 15 people. Gimson will be C- in- C and under him the District Chairmen will be in charge of the Blocks. Gimson will issue instructions by runners (two have been detailed for this). In turn the Chairmen will issue instructions to the Block Representatives (each in charge of his own block) and they in turn will issue instructions to the group leaders within the blocks. In our Married Quarters Blocks each flat has been divided into two groups. In our flat Harold is in charge of one group (totalling 13) and I am in charge of the other (totalling 12). Families have been kept together. Mr Sandbach, the MQ Chairman is in my group, but as he will probably be busy about the blocks my chief concern with regard to him will be to look after Mrs Sandbach and his iron rations.

Incidentally Mrs Sandbach is suffering from appendicitis (which isn’t much fun) but they don’t wish to operate unless it becomes acute, in the hope that we shall soon be relieved and the operation can be performed outside. It is an unpleasant situation but conditions and the necessary drugs etc. for major operations in camp are so bad that operations are avoided if possible.

The others in my group are: Yvonne, Mrs Mather and Jean, Mrs Joffe and Elizabeth (aged 3), Mrs Glanville and Joan Armstrong, and Jackie and Keith Mackie. Keith is my second-in- command. Iron rations have been prepared for everyone in camp. Each person will have one 12 oz tin of bully beef (purchased some time ago, I believe, by the Welfare with I.R.C. funds); one pound of soya bean flour biscuits made in camp; and a 20 lb tin of siege biscuits to be shared, sent in some years ago by the Japs. I gather the quantity will work out at about 38 biscuits per person. These were made before the war by Lane Crawfords to Dr Herklots’ recipe and were stored in large quantities as part of the Colony’s food reserve. They are in sealed tins which must not be opened till Gimson gives the word – in case we have one or two false alarms and the tins are opened too soon. We have to devise some sort of sling so that, if necessary, one or two people in the group can carry this tin.

The camp made biscuits are made from ingredients supplied either by canteen profits or I.R.C. funds and consist of bean flour with, probably, a little rice flour, bran, oil and perhaps wong tong. Every person had to hand in a ‘Domo’ milk powder tin (which came in the Canadian parcels), clearly marked with his name, block and room, and the biscuits were made to fit into these tins (which have lids), 12 per tin I believe. Herklot’s siege biscuits are made chiefly from soya bean residue (after the beans have been crushed for oil) and four of these per day are considered sufficient to sustain life. So we have iron rations for about a fortnight. This is in addition to iron rations that people may have kept for themselves.

Y and I have a biggish tin of Ryvita bisuits (which we brought into camp with us!), a 1 lb tin of Peak Frean biscuits which came in the first parcels; and about 6 lbs of raw rice. The rice we intend to roast or toast and then grind into flour – this, in case there is no chance of boiling it during an emergency. In that case we should just mix it with water and eat it like that. We still have about 3 tins of meat left, and also some I.R.C. parcel tins of sugar, but we are gradually eating those, for we feel that no emergency here can last very long and we hope we have sufficient iron rations to carry us through such a period, and in the meantime it is important to keep ourselves in as good a state of health as possible. We also have some peanut oil in reserve, but this too we are using gradually. It depends how much longer this war lasts!

Everyone has been told to keep by them a bottle or flask of drinking water (as much as they can carry). Water may be a far more serious problem than food. Y and I have each packed a case with our most precious possessions that we hope to be able to save (not that we have much that is really worth saving). My big ‘revelation’ case we are filling with things that we will save if we have time and transport, but would not attempt to carry it with us: the same with our blankets. One blanket we propose to sew into a kind of bag or knap-sack which one of us can wear, and into this we will put our iron rations so that in the event of a serious emergency all we should bother about would be this food bag. We wondered if we ought each to have our own bag but I don’t think we are likely to be separated.

Well, that more or less constitutes the sum total of our preparations for a state of emergency. All iron rations have been distributed to the various blocks: in our blocks it is stacked in a cupboard in each block, already divided into the 12 groups per block so that the business of issuing the rations will be quite simple. In a few of the other blocks (Indian Quarters I think), owing to lack of suitable storage space, probably, the individuals have already been issued with the meat or camp made biscuits on the understanding that they must be kept as an iron ration. Needless to say, some have already eaten these rations! The Stanley mentality I am afraid: some people are just unable to keep food and not eat it if they are hungry. Maybe we shall never need our iron rations but, if we do, I feel that those who have already eaten theirs will get little help or sympathy from the others.

Quite a number of unpleasant things have happened so far this month. First of all, Col Tanaka has forbidden any more papers to be sent into camp. This is simply awful, for news is about as important to us as food. Thank God we know the war is over in Europe. Anything may be happening outside and we know nothing about it. This is a flagrant violation of the International Code in relation to the treatment of POW. All prisoners should be provided with the principal paper or papers that are printed and issued to and by the civil population of their captors. We have now been 10 days without news. We console ourselves with the thought that it is a good sign; also on previous occasions papers have been suspended for a while and have later been issued again. Vigorous protests have been made and we are hoping they will have the desired effect.

Now food! A new scale of rations have been issued by Tokyo for all POWs in the Canton area (which includes us).  ((Weights in grams))

For the time being we are to receive 40 gms of meat for workers and 32 gms for non workers. (100 gm = 3 1/2 ozs). The rice issue is 20 ozs for workers (570 gms) and 16 ozs for non workers (456 gms); the sugar issue is 10 gms for workers and 5 gms for non workers; tea, about a tablespoon for everyone every 10 days. The chief changes are in oil, salt and meat. The heavy workers’ oil issue has been more than quartered and the non workers halved; the salt ration is halved. But the meat issue astounded and delighted everyone. The full ration of 3½ ozs for workers and 1¾ ozs  for non workers daily will more than compensate the cut in oil – even the smaller initial ration will about equal the cut in the oil. The meat is to be beef, pork or pheasant and is to be delivered every Saturday. This is a pity for, having no refrigeration we shall have to eat it at once!

But now – the fly in the ointment: came the first Saturday and the Jap Quarter Master Sergeant said: “Very sorry, we have not been able to get any meat”!

We thought it was too good to be true! We have been 18 months without meat now and although these seas abound in fish they have been unable, apparently, to spare any for us for months: how they can suddenly start a new meat issue with things as they are is a complete mystery to me. Surely the cold storage pre-war stocks of meat have long since been exhausted. So we are not very hopeful. I suppose that just occasionally they may send in a very small amount. If they started sending us fish again it would be something. Still, we haven’t quite given up hope yet. No further communication is allowed between Zindle and this camp and the small supply of bran which he used to send us from I.R.C. funds has been stopped. I’m afraid beri-beri will again become prevalent.

During the last few days there has been an awful to-do amongst the black market dealers. It started last Wednesday and apparently has quietened down now. Mrs Flaherty, the Chinese wife of the late Mr Flaherty (who died in camp about a year ago) was the beginning of the trouble. She is a born gambler. Some time ago she spent a few months in prison here because of her black market dealings with the Formosans and Indians. They took from her jewellery and money to the value of thousands of Yen (some say hundreds of thousands) and she came back to camp penniless and looking pretty thin and the worse for wear. However, quite undeterred by her imprisonment and treatment, she soon started dealing again and has long since re-established herself.

Now I don’t wish to be scandalous, but it is a fact that Mrs Flaherty (aged 40 odd) was ‘carrying on’ with a young Formosan (aged 20 or so), who had become enamoured of her. He happened to be the brother of the Sergeant of the Formosan guards. Apparently there has been a good deal of crooked business and jealousy amongst the various cliques of black market dealers and their Formosan and/or Indian associates, and some of the other Formosans told their Sergeant that he had better look into his brother’s private affairs. The upshot was that Mrs Flaherty was summoned up the hill where she was questioned by the Japanese officers and during their examination of her she said:  “Well, why pick on me amongst all the dealers?”

The Japanese in charge of the camp evidently want to stop this black market dealing and enquired who the other dealers were? Mrs Flaherty then gave a number of names and this simply infuriated the Formosans because she had split on their European contacts.

A little while ago I said no woman in camp had been struck by a Formosan or Japanese: well, it would be inaccurate to make that statement now. Mrs Flaherty was simply lambasted. People in Block 10 could see it all from their bathroom window as they beat her just outside the HQ buildings. Two Formosans stood on either side of her with poles and just whacked her back – shoulders, seat and thighs. When they had finished, she walked jauntily back to her block, pushing up her hair which had become dishevlled, just letting the guards know she didn’t care a damn for them; but then she collapsed. She was taken to hospital with two fractured ribs and both wrists fractured. Her wrists were damaged in her efforts to protect herself. People who witnessed it were absolutely shocked; but most people agree that she has asked for all she has got. 

Charlie Smith ((likely either Charles Gleroy Smith or Charles Leslie Smith)) was the other victim that the Formosans dealt with and he too went to hospital. He (to use an Americanism) had, apparently, been ‘high-jacking’ black market goods bought by other dealers. One method was to stand near the fence where, during the pitch dark nights, the Indians were doing a brisk trade, and when one of the Europeans had made a purchase and was carrying the stuff away, the ‘high-jacker’ would grunt like a Formosan, whereupon the trader would drop his goods and run like the devil and our Charlie would pick up the sack and walk home. At any rate, it’s a lovely story! However, the Formosans would not object to him doing this to Europeans, who dealt with the Indians, for the Formosans do their damndest to stop the Indians dealing.

But another method of high-jacking was for a Formosan to appear in a dealer’s room at night and say that his goods were needed for checking purposes, or some such reason. The dealer dare not resist and being unable to see or identify the Formosan in the dark would have to hand over his goods which he would then lose, for the Formosan would take the goods to his own dealer and either sell them again or split the difference. Whether Charlie Smith was guilty of either of these misdeeds, I really do not know, but gossip attaches his name to them. At all events, he did something to upset the Formosans for they beat him well and truly.

To digress a little: I hear one European handed over a packet of blank paper to one Indian in lieu of Yen notes. The Indians then retaliated by putting stones in some of the goods – both sides are guilty of crooked dealing; it is so easy in the dark: there is not even ‘honour amongst thieves’. I could almost fill a small book with tales of black market dealings, some really funny.

Well, after Mrs Flaherty had split, the Japs had one after another of the dealers up the hill and questioned them. They wanted to know from whom they received their goods and as most of them refused to mention names they were beaten on the seat until they did. Seymour and Vanthal had to spend the night there. A Formosan provided Vanthal with a blanket and when the Japs discovered it and asked who had given it, they turned to the guard and said: “Are you pro Japanese or pro British?”

A few of the dealers seem to have escaped detection but most of them were summoned up the hill. No further action seems to have been taken and no punishment, besides the corporal punishment, inflicted. But they seem to have succeeded in frightening the dealers, at any rate for the time being.

There is a story that the Formosans had stolen food from one of the Japanese army stores and sold it here. There is another story that, with a possible crisis approaching HK the Japanese are afraid that if foodstuffs can get into camp so easily, arms and communications may find their way in by the same method. This seems unlikely to me, however. Still, there does not seem to be much affection between the Formosans and the Japanese.

((Formosa - modern-day Taiwan - became a Japanese colony in 1895 after the First Sino Japanese War. The Japanese Imperial Army raised Formosan units, but they were regarded as inferior troops and tended to be used for garrison duties and as POW guards.))

Yesterday morning we had an air raid by some 30 big planes: but it was a most peculiar raid in that the planes (which came in, as they usually do, over Lamma) seemed to cruise around at a considerable height over HK, in formations of 6, 7 and 10, without appearing to drop any bombs. There was some Japanese Ak Ak fire but not a great deal. They were, I think the big 4 engined American Flying Fortress land based planes, and they looked beautiful in the blue sky with its huge white clouds. When they caught the sun they looked as if they were made of crystal. During the raid I went onto our balcony and saw, out at sea between Waglan and Po Toi, three big columns of black smoke rising from the surface of the sea. I called everyone and there was great excitement – for the least thing out of the ordinary makes us think the invasion has started or is about to start! (Here I am talking as if air raids are quite usual occurances! Well, they are in a way). We had heard no detonations and did not know if the planes had dropped smoke floats and if so, why; or whether the Japs had fired smoke floats and, again, if so, why. The smoke rose in columns and fairly soon so it was evidently not intended for a smoke screen, as that type of smoke is heavy and would hang about on the surface of the water. The raid gave rise to much speculation: some thought that officers who will command the invasion forces were being shown the lie of the land before operations commenced. I think, however, that they would get a much better idea from enlarged and annotated photographs than from looking at the land from 15,000 to 20,000ft up in the air. Also there is a risk attached to flying a large number of important officers together – we could see no fighter escort. No, I don’t think that can be the answer. It is more possible that they were flying new Air Force personnel.

Another theory is that they were thoroughly photographing the place! It would have been very thorough with so many planes! Another story is that pamphlets were dropped and this story is supported by the further statement that the pamphlets are a warning to the Chinese civilians of pending activities and telling them to go to the sea board in the event of commencement of heavy bombing. I somehow feel that this too is a product of someones imagination. Still it is rather intriguing. Another, and I think more probable suggestion is that they had raided some other place (perhaps Canton) and had been ordered to gather some information or other from over HK on their return journey.

All kinds of preparations are still taking place around here: we can just see some sort of bastion that they have erected at the fort on the end of this peninsula; it looks like a new gun emplacement – this would command the Lamma Channel. Night exercises go on and I am told that some of the newly constructed tunnels are now manned at nights. We can see in the distance from here (through a small gap) Mount Cameron which is in the ‘Peak’ district (near Victoria Peak) and within the last few months quite a high obelisk or tower has been erected. We do not know what it is, but the Japs are not likely still to be erecting monuments and memorials so it is more likely to be something to do with the defences of the Colony – possibly a listening post. In fact, many indications point to the fact that the Japs are expecting landing operations soon. Oh! If it would only hurry up and get it over! If we have a bad time coming, then the sooner it comes and gets finished the better.

Three or four weeks ago Maudie moved her billet for the second time. Dr Deane-Smith had said positively that she must live somewhere on a ground floor to avoid the strain on her heart of having to climb up and down stairs. C.C.Roberts, the Billeting Officer, had been vainly trying to find the necessary accommodation for her when Tate, the Block 10 representative, pointed out a hitherto unoccupied corner in one of the huge downstairs rooms of Block 10. This room is curtained off into cubicles and is occupied by policemen with Chinese wives and their families and is locally known as ‘Wanchai’ (after one of the salubrious districts in town). At first Maudie laughed at the idea, but on thinking it over the advantages so outweighed the disadvantages that in the end she decided to take the plunge. The epithet of ‘Wanchai’ is quite undeserved, for these Chinese really keep their quarters scrupulously clean. Most people thought her mad to go, I confess I had my doubts: but she managed to buy some blue curtain material and curtained it off (about 12’ x 7’) and turned it into a cubicle that has since become the envy of most of her friends.

It is entered directly through big French windows from the covered way on the ground floor of Block 10 and, facing west it got a lovely SW breeze while the covered way keeps out the sun until late in the afternoon – a great advantage in the tropics. Being still in the same block her friends can easily visit her and Roberts has reserved for her for two months her place in the old room (with Vera and Elma) in case, for some reason, she decides to go back there. This, of course, is nice for Vera and Elma as they won’t get a third person in the room for two months anyway.

But last Sunday Maudie had an unpleasant experience. At night she sleeps with the doors slightly open and a rope tied to the inside of the door posts across the opening. On Sunday night she woke and heard two Formosans standing just outside her door, in the dark, holding a whispered conversation. She lay still and presently they cleared off. She mentioned this to no one, though she said she nearly told me when I happened to drop in on her on Monday morning. However, on Monday night they came again and this time they tried to open the doors, but went away when they found the cord obstructing them. Maudie coughed and made some noise to generally let them know she was awake. Poor thing, she hadn’t slept much after the Sunday visit and on Monday she slept not a wink. On Tuesday she went to see Roberts and he advised her to sleep with Vera and Elma for a little while until all this black market trouble and unpleasantness with the Formosans has blown over. Mrs Flaherty (who came back from hospital yesterday) lives in this big ‘Wanchai’ area and a good many Formosans are (or were) in the habit of coming and going there during the day and night. Maudie has not got to give up her room, which she still uses during the day time, and will probably sleep there again soon. She has a padlock and chain so I must try and fix it that the door cannot be opened sufficiently to admit a person.

To return to Mrs Flaherty! Maudie has seen her and says, she really is in a terrible state, simply black with bruises. Apparently only one wrist and two ribs were fractured and not both wrists. Her Formosan guard still visits her constantly. He was such a nuisance when she was in hospital, visiting her at all hours of the day and night that when she said she wanted to go back to her own room (she too found the hospital inconvenient for receiving her friend!) the hospital authorities gladly complied.

Smith and Vanthal were both summoned up the hill again where they both made accusations against each other with the result that the Japs made them beat each other. It is disgusting; but I really cannot keep laughing at the idea. There is a certain amount of poetic justice in it, though the whole thing is degrading and in this instance, of course, the Japs just did it to amuse themselves.  

Meat actually came in yesterday! Really, it is almost unbelievable. Today we have had two meals with meat stew, totalling about 5 ozs of meat each (including bone). This comes to 20 gm per day instead of the preliminary 30 gm the Japs promised; but I don’t believe many people thought we should get anything at all. The full quota is 50 gm per day, so our hopes are rising. It will make a tremendous difference if they can keep it up.

Lately, I have found woodcutting becoming somewhat of a strain. Johnny Purvis, in charge of the squad, has been stopped working because he has lost so much weight and his blood pressure is so low. But I am still fairly fit. I am down to 133 lbs, though, so a little meat will be welcome. Lately, the Japs have sent in practically nothing but water spinach and the same in the evening except that the daily 1¼ oz beans per head were added. It has been a very low diet and we miss the oil; so this meat is most important. I still fear the deliveries will be spasmodic and below quota.

Since the new Japanese personnel took charge in May we have had regular outside roll calls or parades every Friday. For the parade before the last the Japanese ordered that, on the approach of the Japanese officers and at the order of our respective Block Representatives, all internees should come to attention, bow and then stand at ease. None of us really objected – after all, the Japs would certainly expect their own people to do it – but being British I think we all felt a trifle ridiculous and in our blocks it gave rise to some barely concealed snickering. The Indian Quarters, however, were far more blatant. When the first squad of stiff necked (or, in this case, stiff backed) Britons came to attention and more or less simultaneously bowed from the waist, it was too much for the adjacent group who simply laughed outright. The Japanese officers, who in their turn were politely bowing and saluting (they bow slightly as they salute), couldn’t see any thing funny in it at all and, in fact, were rather annoyed by it. They ordered the offenders to remain on parade after the rest had been dismissed and they kept them there for ¾ of an hour. However, the bowing order was rescinded for the next parade and now only the Block Rep. has to bow whilst we stand to attention. So I think we won – quite a bloodless victory for a change!  As a matter of fact, it is rather charming to see tiny tots gravely bowing from the waist. I love to see Chinese children do it for their elders. The Oriental must think Europeans are very lacking in polite manners.

The Japs have just dealt us another couple of blows: the first being that no rice can be issued raw and the second that they made a mistake, when the last lot of firewood was issued some months ago, by telling us the quota was 1 kilo per person per day when it should have been 1 cattie. With regard to the first, it is an awful blow as it puts a stop to all our ground rice cakes and puddings etc. but in the circumstances one cannot blame the Japs really: for they have concrete evidence that some wretched internees had been selling their rice to people outside the camp (either Formosans or Indians). Now it is a case of the many suffering because of the few.

The price of rice in camp was Y50 per lb while in town it was over Y150 so some people thought of the bright idea of selling it under the wire; in fact someone (I forget the name) was found with a sackful over 130 odd lbs! Well, there are some people in camp – chiefly women – who simply cannot eat their full daily quota of rice. Quite a number have developed an unhealthy puffy fatness due chiefly, I am told, to the large percentage of water present in boiled rice foods. These people were much better off if they could draw the rice raw, grind it and make cakes or biscuits or other dryer forms of rice food and many were able to sell their surplus rice and so obtain money for purchasing foods in the canteen or black market. There are other people (like Y and me) who can eat more than their daily issue of rice and we were glad to be able to buy or exchange things for raw rice. So long as it remained within camp it was a help all round, but now these perishing idiots have spoilt everything for us. It is possible still to buy someone’s portion of cooked rice but few people want anymore plain boiled rice and it has to be eaten straight away or else, in this heat, it soon goes sour.

Also, the business of collecting it is a fag. Our blocks provide everyone with a four ounce piece of bread each day (which contains ¼ oz ground beans) instead of allowing everyone to bake one cake per day in the communal bakery oven as they had been doing recently. In addition we get 2 oz cooked as congee for breakfast and 4 oz boiled for each meal. This makes 14 oz Nominally we get 16 oz (450 grams) per day but actually supply is always short and we never get more than 14 oz (18 for workers as against a nominal 20). The bread is quite nice but it is not nearly enough for people like Y and me and as I say, before this we were able to buy extra rice which we made into ground rice puddings or cakes for supper. So we feel a bit hungry these days!

The firewood mistake is serious. 1 kilo = 2.2 lbs and 1 cattie = 1.33 lbs which makes 0.87 lbs per person per day difference. We were somewhat astonished at the time when for no apparent reason the Japs increased our quota from 1 cattie to 1 kilo (that is the worst of working with so many different weights and measures). Gimson sent a reminder to the Japs that our next issue of firewood was due on 5th July and were they making the necessary arrangements. They replied that this mistake had been made and that our present stocks must last till September! How business is ever done in Japan I don’t know.

There always seems to be some headache or other in this camp. What will happen we don’t know for this shortage of fuel has coincided with the Jap order to issue no raw rice and now 100% of the rice has to be cooked by the community instead of about 65% and that makes quite a difference in fuel consumption. When people drew raw rice a lot of cooking was done on chatties which saved the community firewood. I think they will have to allow us something extra or by the end of July we shall have used all our carefully hidden reserves and we shall be completely out.

This war seems to be going on and on. So much so, in fact, that Yvonne and I have decided to learn Cantonese and we have actually been going now for 5 lessons. Miss Brameld or Bramweld, a missionary, is teaching us and we have a lesson every Wed and Sat evening that lasts about 1 hour. Isa has leant us her ‘Cantonese for Everyone’ by H.R. Wells, which is an English-Chinese text book. Old man Wells, who has been a missionary in China (HK chiefly, I think) for many years, is in camp here with his wife. They are both octagenarians. Both he and his wife gave Chinese lessons here, but he has no beginners’ class now and, also I am told he is a little deaf and his own diction is rather indistinct, so I think we are better off with Miss Brameld. She is very keen and says she is enjoying teaching us. Kathleen Rosselet has asked if she can join the class, so now there are just three of us. We should have started to learn when we came here. If we could only have forseen such a terribly long imprisonment, how differently we should have planned our lives and occupations. Would we? Yes, I think we most definitely would have. Anyway, we have started, so now, perhaps, the war will end!

I am no linguist and I am told that after Russian, Chinese is about the most difficult language in the world to learn. Whether this is a generally held opinion or not, I cannot say. But it is certainly amongst the most difficult of all languages. There are hardly any rules of grammar and there seems to be no regular rhyme or reason in it at all: it is just sheer memorising and my memory, which was never my forte is much worse on this diet than it normally is. Miss Bramweld wants us later to start learning Chinese characters. I don’t know whether we shall or not; they are an even worse headache. At the moment we are struggling with the tones. You can say the same word in about 6 different tones and you have six different meanings. Yvonne is the bright one at the game. I plough heavily along in her wake! But it is a fascinating language and I am glad we have started learning it. If we live on in HK for some time it will be very useful too – if we ever learn enough to talk the language.

At the beginning of this month the Japanese notified the camp authorities that in the event of heavy air raids over Hong Kong, transport facilities might be so disrupted that it might be impossible to deliver the usual rations to camp and that therefore, all land not already under cultivation must be taken over by the Communal Gardeners and prepared for vegetable cultivation. They have allowed extra rations for 60 more community gardeners. This is a good sign and a wise measure although it means there will be practically no room left at all on which to sit outside in the evenings, for they propose to dig up most of the one time grass plots that surround our blocks. Our garden should be exempt, because it is not ‘uncultivated ground’. However, the Camp Gardening Committee has decided to gradually take over the rest of the beds in the Married Quarters garden (now designated No. 1 garden) still under private cultivation. Luckily for us Bert Cox who is in charge of this garden, has a good deal of sympathy for private gardeners and has told me that he will not take away our beds until all the rest of the ground has been dug up and planted out, so we may have another month even yet. I pointed out to him that in the event of an emergency all private gardeners would be willing to hand over their gardens, as they were, to the community and that in the meantime it seemed pointless to stop this form of voluntary garden labour when the camp gardens were growing so big that the gardening squads could hardly keep pace with them.

Most of the ground is now being planted out with sweet potatoes which, once they are set, need very little attention. In the summer they take from two to three months to mature from the time the cuttings are planted. For the last few weeks we have had a lot of blazing sun and very little rain and this endless watering of newly planted cuttings occupies a large number of gardeners. So Y and I will keep on with our garden though we seem doomed to work under the continual threat of loosing it. Still, we have been very lucky to keep it so long and, “Something may have happened in a month’s time,” as we keep telling each other!

I don’t know, I feel that nothing will ever happen and we shall just go on and on in this dreary way till the crack o’doom. We were certain we should be out for our birthdays this year but now I think we shall be lucky if we are out for Xmas. It is awful having no news; only rumours, in which you can place no reliance.

I have been further occupying myself of late by designing buildings of various kinds for various people. Some time ago I planned a house for Mr Deakin which he hopes to build in England when he gets out of this camp. Then Dr and Mrs Deane-Smith came to me with a rough plan for a bungalow they hope someday, to build in HK. This I straightened out into a plan for them and someday will tackle the elevations. Hopkinson, the Govt Dispenser at Queen Mary Hospital, gave me the requirements for a new Central Medical Store with offices, manufacturing lab, students’ accommodation etc. and I planned a two storied building for him. He had no site in mind for the building and I pointed out that without a definite site it was practically a waste of time to plan such a building as it’s arrangement would depend almost entirely on the site (it’s size, frontage or frontages, approaches etc.) and this plan I had produced was no more than an arrangement showing the approximate area that would be needed for such a building and an approximate idea of the cost. I’m afraid it somewhat damped his enthusiasm but perhaps it will prevent later disappointment – the wheels of Govt turn slowly!

Now the Football Club wants me to design a new clubhouse for them because apart from the fact that by now the old one has been damaged beyond repair, the existing accommodation had proved inadequate of late and it is felt that money spent now (or in the near future) on improving the club’s amenities would be money well spent.

There were sufficient committee members in this camp to form a quorum, and Jack Skinner, the last elected Chairman, convened a meeting. I, as vice-capt. Rugger was automatically a member of the committee, but hardly ever attended it’s meetings in peace time, so this meeting in camp was even more of a novelty. I, of course, was battened upon and asked to act as Hon. Architect and to prepare sketch plans for the new clubhouse. But it all seems a waste of time to do it now. The Club possesses a bowling rink or green for the encouragement chiefly of the older members. The idea is that the new Club House shall serve both the bowling green and as a members’ stand for football. Up till now the public stands had been of ‘matshed’ construction (timber poles with matting roofs) and these needed annual attention, and about tri-annual rebuilding.

All stands in Happy Valley had to be temporary structures by reason of a Military regulation. It is thought that after this war the Military authorities will permit the erection of permanent stands (concrete) as Happy Valley has proved quite unsuitable as an air base of any description (the idea in the minds of the military). In that case a bigger scheme is envisaged incorporating a club house with proper stands and including space under the stands for say a skittle alley and even a rifle range. Others talk of a squash court. We have heard that the whole of Happy Valley (race course and all playing fields) is now under cultivation by the Japanese, in which case the football pitch as well as the precious bowling green is now probably producing pumkins or sweet potatoes.

This being so I pointed out that the first thing the Club Committee should do after the war when Govt re-allocates the ground, is to get an equivalent area, only pointing N and S instead of E and W as at present, for the sun sinking in the West was always a nuisance with the pitch running E and W. The position of the football pitch would, of course, determine the arrangement of the bowling green, club house, principle stands and all the rest, so it seems again rather a waste of time to attempt to devise any scheme till we know a little of the details. In any case it will be at least one year – more probably two or three – before buildings of that type will be attempted in the Colony after the war. But the committee feels that if they can exhibit some sort of new scheme immediately, it will stimulate interest and help them raise the capital before people have invested all their money in other things! Perhaps they are right but I can’t whip up any enthusiasm for proceeding in this manner. However, no doubt it will be good for me.

My natal month half gone: well the quicker it goes the better; and the next month and the next and so on until we get out of this death in life.

We thought fondly of Pop yesterday and hoped he was celebratin’ fit to bust and thereby, making up for our absence.

Yvonne and I lost our garden finally on July 1st. It came as rather a blow in the end for we had been led to believe that we should always retain a little of it – the small beds, which are really of no use for community scale gardening, that we had hacked out of the rough waste ground, by the sweat of our brows. But apparently the Japs said all had to be taken over and so it has been. Well, we were lucky to have kept it for so long; but it was rather sad to surrender our pumkin vines just as the female buds were beginning to form. We had planted more pumpkins this year as they had done so well last year and hoped thereby considerably to augment our food supply. We tried to transfer a few things to our plot near the cemetery, but the ground there is poor and there is no water anywhere nearby for watering purposes so apart from a few sweet potatoes which we shall leave to fend for themselves, we shan’t spend much time or energy there – it simply is not a paying proposition.

The food lately has become very bad. Much to my surprise the Japanese have maintained their delivery of meat every Saturday evening (the cooks have to stay up from 11 p.m. till 2 a.m. to prepare and cook it straight away or it would go bad. But it averages only about 4 ozs meat and 1oz bone per person which amounts to 20 grams (meat and bone) per person per day instead of the 50 they promised. This means that heavy workers get 40 grams instead of the 100 they should have and it is felt that this is worse than before the change when heavy workers received 40 grams oil per day instead of the 9 grams they now receive. The vegetables too are partly responsible for the deterioration for they are just greens (water spinach) and big tung (a large edition of the marrow family which is 98% water).

It is pretty grim to saw wood from 6.30 to 10.30 a.m. with 20 minutes off for a little congee at 8 a.m. and then go back at 11 a.m. for a scoop of rice and about a couple of tablespoons of boiled, chopped spinach. Most of the woodcutters have been loosing weight steadily. I am down to 130 lbs again, my lowest in camp, and am wondering if I had better knock it off before I knock up. My blood pressure is still quite good by camp standards 115 over 65 so I will keep on for a bit: some one has to do the work.

A most interesting chart was circulated the other day, relating to the food and health of the camp.  A copy was submitted, a few weeks ago, to the Japanese with the request that it be forwarded to the I.R.C. in Tokyo. I daresay, after the war, a much fuller statement about the whole position, as regards food and health in the camp, will be published. Deane-Smith is largely instrumental in preparing these statistics and intends to write a complete nutritional treatise based on the facts and figures obtained in this camp. In fact I believe he has already planned the skeleton of the thesis. He will be able to inform me of any publications on the subject and I must try and get hold of them for the purpose of inclusion with this diary; for food seems to have played the most important part in camp life – food and news (and just now we seem to be getting precious little of either).

The chart was full of graphs and tables giving all kinds of interesting information. I copied down some of them in case they are never officially published and hope to get a few more later if I can lay hands on the chart again. Incidentally, Deane-Smith should be able to collate some useful information because conditions here have been fairly unique: it is not often that a fairly large and representative number of people is kept on certain quantities of inadequate foods, the exact amount of which is known, for a period of years, with occasional periods of extra food and periodical changes in the basic foods – meat, flour etc. However, I’m afraid his information will be chiefly of a negative character: if they could dose us with all the different types of vitamins and different types of food and tabulate the results they would have some useful statistics; but unfortunately they have none of the necessary foods and vitamins. So it looks as though we are not even to be allowed to be useful human guinea pigs. Really, what use are we?

One of the astonishing things here is the small number of deaths in camp. It is true that the majority of people here had remained in the Colony for the purpose of carrying out war work and there are comparatively few old people here, (quite a few of the aged and infirm were taken to Rosary Hill years ago) so that the average expectation of life here is fairly long. Also, there is no traffic worth speaking of to kill us off (Bryan Gills is the only fatal accident in camp). But for all that the 115 deaths from Jan 1942 to April 1945 (3½ years) amongst 2,500 people is, I believe much lower than in normal life. We have kept remarkably free from epidemics, a serious one of which would have accounted for scores in these crowded conditions. 13 deaths have been due to malnutrition 10 of which were beri-beri. This is really another word for starvation and it is a horrid thought.

The graph showing the average weight of fit men in camp is rather interesting. It excludes all men suffering from any disease or complaint (or old age) and includes only those who are on the camp labour squads. At the beginning of camp the average weight was 172 lbs (12 stone 4 lbs) which would, I imagine be high compared with England: but the scale of living is higher out here than in England and many of the men on entering camp were too heavy. (One chap just topped 300 lbs! Now poor devil, he is under 145 – less than 50%). But they rapidly lost their superfluous flesh and by July (6 months later) the average weight was 145 lbs (10st 5 lbs). This remained about level till Oct and then the first I.R.C. parcels came in and by March the second highest peak was reached at 164 (11st 10 lbs).  By the end of March ’43 those supplies had given out and the weight steadily declined and a year later (March ’44) was down to 128 lbs (9st 2 lbs) and down another lb (127lbs) in June and July. Then the workers scale of rations came into operation and the Canadian parcels came Sept ’44 and the weight climbed labouriously to 129 lbs by Jan. 1945.

The statistics for this year are not yet available but I imagine they would show a rise to about 130 lbs by Feb. and then a steady decline again, and by now I think it must be down to 126 or 125 lbs (9 st or under). My own weight started at something under 150 lbs; dropped to 130 when the average was 145; rose to 151 when the average was 164 and is now back at 130 when the average is a little below that. I am glad to feel that at the worse end of the scale my figures compare favourably with the average. If I could stop myself worrying about one thing and another and shake off my fits of depression I’ve no doubt my health and weight would be even better. The placid people or the perpetually cheerful ones are best fitted temperamentally for this place. By now, I regret to say, I am neither placid nor particularly cheerful. Y keeps a commendably even keel though she too has her ups and downs – in fact nearly everyone has.

I have read, in this camp, of many heroic characters who turned their periods of trial into stern though faithful battle grounds for self discipline and character formation: Wilson of the Antarctic; Linaeus; St Francis Borgia – to mention a few – Rembrandt, another. But these people, it seems, were at least able to get on with their aims though often thwarted. Here, you seem to find yourself up a blind alley in whatever direction you turn. Learning Chinese seems to be about the most useful thing I have attempted here, though my memory serves me so poorly that it is slow work, rendered more difficult by nowhere quiet in which to work. Often I find that having sat down to do some Chinese I simply haven’t the mental energy to absorb anything! Life seems a negation; my spirit feels dead.

Church services seem rather ineffective as far as I am concerned: the flooring in the gallery of St Stephens hall was taken up for work on dry latrines (which, thank heavens, have never been needed) and the roof concrete base is left only. This, the lack of wooden skirting, handrails to the balcony etc. gives the hall a pretty sordid look and when people walk along the side galleries from one side of St Stephens to another during the services (the hall connects the two arms of the ‘H’) and doors bang, I’m afraid a feeling of irritation arises within me that usually spoils the service.

Lately everyone has been expecting something to happen momentarily and as nothing has (except a few small air raids) the camp, as a whole, is feeling pretty down. I have schooled myself to the thought that nothing is likely to happen here now till Nov. or Dec. and as a result I find I don’t feel quite so restless: on waking in the mornings and at all times of awareness during the night and day I find I no longer clench my fists and say: “Oh when will something happen? How long, Oh God, how long?”

Y and I are also schooling ourselves to the thought that soon we shall probably have to live on nothing but the camp rations.  

          1942  1943  1944    ------- 1945 --------
                              Jan   Feb   Mar   Apr
Rice     210.9 257.7 349.1  331.0 419.0 424.0 423.0
Flour    191.6 119.8    -*    -     -    -      -
Sugar      8.8   6.1   4.7    5.0   5.0   5.0   4.9
Salt       8.5   8.7   5.7    -     -     6.7  10.0
Oil        5.7   5.8  17.6   20.0  20.2  19.5  14.6
Beans      1.6    -    4.1    7.2   7.2  20.2  18.0
Meat     131.8  44.8    -#    -     -     -     -
Fish       7.9  81.7  57.9   27.0   6.8   -     -
Eggs       0.8   0.2    -     -     -     -     -
Potatoes  59.5  38.3  82.0  107.7  82.0  94.8  98.3
Tomato     2.3  14.6   7.8    -     -     -     -
Roots     14.2  30.6  69.8   64.5 126.1  128.3 64.7
Green    103.5  87.6  66.6   80.8  56.1   30.5 31.3
Gourds    18.4  22.9  73.8   16.3   8.9    1.6 13.3

We are nearly at an end of all our reserves, apart from our iron ration, and even that we are minimising. This is due to the loss of our garden and the virtual failure of the canteen. Well, if it isn’t too much longer, the camp rations will carry us through with, I hope, no great harm done (to teeth, eyes, heart etc.).

In June the canteen had to adopt a new method of procedure owing to the daily rise in price of foodstuffs. Everyone had to pay in their full monthly quota allowed by the Japs (i.e. Y75) if they could raise it. The canteen then made the best possible purchases available and you then had the option of taking your portion of the goods or receiving back part or all of your money. The canteen would never have difficulty in dispensing any surplus. In June we paid in our Y75 (approx £3 (pdv £135) at the current rate of exchange) and each obtained ½ lb wong tong at Y34, ½ lb bran at Y35.50, and ¼ lb salt at Y5.50; that was all: that came to Y75 exactly. But the bran has not yet arrived – they are still awaiting delivery six weeks after the order was placed. However, we hopefully paid in our Y75 for July and up till now have heard nothing further. It is this stoppage in canteen supplies that is contributing quite largely to the deteriorating food situation.

In the early days we could of course, buy such things as margarine, corned mutton and beef, sardines, peanut oil, flour, sugar, peanuts and goodness knows what else – fruit too – at prices which scandalised us then but just make us smile now. Latterly, we were able to buy useful foods such as beans, peas, egg white, egg yolk, and oil which provided the much needed proteins; but now they can be obtained only through the black market, and even that source seems to have its decided ups and downs. A little while ago the black market price of lard was Y600 (pdv £1080) per lb and wong tong Y200 (pdv £360) per lb. Helen Nobbins bought 1lb lard and 2 lb wong tong for which she wrote out a sterling cheque for £50 (pdv £2250). Lard is now Y870 per lb (pdv £1566).

Y and I decided we must at all costs try and get some egg yolk powder. (This, by the way, is processed in large quantities in China in normal times. The yolks and the whites of fresh eggs are simply dehydrated and packed up and shipped off as yolk powder and white crystals – used for all commercial cakes, biscuits etc.) Well, we had managed to sell a few things: the little gold clip of Y’s string of pearls had realised Y300 (pdv £540)! My shaving brush Y150 (pdv £270). A few odds and ends like a chiffon scarf.Then, with great reluctance, I sold my silver wrist watch that Mother and Father gave me for my 21st birthday. It was not gold, nor of a well known make that the Japs knew (like Rolex) and in the early days of camp here I had, by accident, snapped off the winding knob. But in spite of all that I got Y700 (pdv £1260) for it (egg yolk cost Y620 (pdv £1116) per lb!). The Formosan offered Y400 and I said, (via the intermediary): “Nothing doing,” So he asked how much I wanted and, quite undaunted I asked for Y1000! Whereupon he split the difference and offered Y700, so I clinched the deal.

We wanted to buy some egg white as that, beaten up with a little sugar, makes quite a nice spread for our bread or cold rice, but the Formosans say the stocks of egg white in HK have finished. After we had deducted enough for the month’s canteens we had sufficient left to purchase 1½ lb of egg yolk which is quite pleasing. We each have a teaspoonful per day. We still have a little bran left but are out of (for the first time) wong tong. We have hardly anything left to sell, except Y’s wedding ring and my gold tooth! One man got Y1000 for the gold stopping in a tooth! Mine is a golden stool and capping but I refuse to have my teeth pulled about for a pound or two of wong tong!

Platinum these days does not get a very good price although Y’s (wedding) ring was valued at about Y3000. But I should hate her to part with that. Nothing could replace its sentimental value – it has no precious stones, but precious memories. However, the typical blow that ironical Fate will aim at a person is that he will let them keep their precious treasure till the crisis is over and then snatch it from them in some quite unromantic fashion – Y will probably lose it the first time she goes bathing after she leaves this camp. We may have to dispose of it yet, but I hope not. 

It is senseless (unless you are amongst the very rich, which unfortunately I am not) to cash cheques these days. Money is scarce in camp and you cannot get more than about Y25 per £.  Egg yolk at £25 per lb (pdv £1125)  is not much fun and would soon see me bankrupt. So it seems that we shall just have to make do with our camp rations. If only we could know what was happening it would be a help.

Something has been happening to make the Japs unpleasant of late: we wonder what. It may be the heavy bombing of Japan; or the loss of territory – Burma, Singapore? At an outside roll call two weeks ago they forbade us the use of mackintoshes, hats or umbrellas (presumably because they had started without their capes) and though it came to rain quite hard they just kept us standing there. Was I mad with them; silly little so and so’s!! It really is rather funny when you see the funny side of it.

There was a nasty black market incident because the Japs had discovered a thin trail of sugar leading from the godowns to this chap’s room in St Stephens. They had started to question and beat him when a shower of rain came on and the Japs went inside. Read, thereupon cut a dash and hid himself somewhere on the hillside (a foolish thing to do, but he guessed that he was in for serious trouble and anyway he is (by his looks) a not too intelligent lad of 18. The Japs turned the whole camp out at 8 in the evening for a parade and kept us there till 9 p.m. (babies asleep in their parents’ arms). We wondered what on earth was up and fully expected to be marched straight off to the gaol! That is the sort of thing we envisage!  But it was nothing so exciting for us – only a search for the luckless Read. But they did not find him till next morning. Then they had him up and administered 3rd degree (I hear amongst other things, they pushed his head in a bucket of water and they pushed lighted cigarettes against his nose) till he gave the name of the Formosan who had taken the sugar to him from the godown. He then tried to make an end of himself by cutting an artery in his wrist with a razor blade. His efforts were not very successful and he was taken to hospital where he still remains. The Formosan in question had sworn he will kill him and Gimson is trying to get him transferred to the other small civilian camp in Kowloon. Of course, it was criminal of him to deal in the selling of food intended for the camp even though it had not yet been issued by the Japs to the camp, but he certainly paid dearly for his crime.

Last Wednesday the Camp Labour Officer (Paterson) was told to standby on the following day with his labour squads (all men engaged on heavy work such as gardening, woodcutting etc.) to take delivery of the first consignment of our next issue of firewood. The Japs had stated that 400,000 catties (about 230 tons) were coming in by lighter and had to be shifted by us from the Prep School pier to the camp. This was not quite so far as the last time, when we had to bring it practically from Stanley Village, but the road from the pier is very steep and badly rutted. They said at first that we might have the use of the camp lorry, but this did not materialise. So the heavy labourers were told to abandon their normal work on Thursday and stand by for humping firewood. Later on Wednesday, word came that the wood was not arriving on the next day after all, so on Thursday morning we all turned out and did our normal jobs. Then, at 11 a.m., a launch towing a lighter was sighted and, behold, the firewood had arrived!  ‘A’ squad (200 men) went out at noon and our ‘B’ squad relieved them at 2.30 p.m. and worked till 5 p.m. A third squad ‘C’ of 200 men relieved us at 5 p.m. and worked till 7.30 p.m. ‘A’ squad went on again at 7.30 and we were told to turn out at 9.30 to relieve them. We assembled at 9.30, but after waiting a while we were told to dismiss as ‘A’ squad had managed to shift the last of the wood. We were glad to get off, as 3 hours of humping wood on top of (for me) a morning’s woodcutting had tired me out. ‘A’ squad had been unlucky in having to do a second shift. These 600 men comprise practically all the so called ‘fit’ men in camp. Allow 50 more for cooks, doctors etc. and that makes a total of 650 out of 1220 and incidentally includes some pretty poor specimens.

The second consignment of wood was expected on Friday so we all ‘stood by’ taking good care this time not to do any other work! But this time it did not arrive until 4 p.m. the following day. ‘A’, and ‘B’ squads were augmented by ‘C’ squad on this occasion and the two squads worked alternate shifts. ‘B’ squad started at 4.30; ‘A’ relieved us at 7 p.m (which meant we did not get our 5 p.m. meal till then). ‘B’ again from 9.30 till midnight; ‘A’ from 12 till 2.30 a.m. and our luckless ‘B’ squad finished off from 2.30 till 4.30 a.m. It certainly was no picnic, and, were we tired! For some reason best known to themselves, the Japs insisted on getting the lighters unloaded and all the wood within the camp boundaries before we knocked off. I could understand them wanting the lighters unloaded immediately because both they and the still more valuable launch would be needed for other work; but why they should nearly kill us by insisting on getting it into camp straight away, I do not know. There were two lighters in the second consignment as against one in the first.

I think I should have found an aggregate of 8 hours in 24 of humping wood pretty tiring, even in England on a normal diet, but in this tropical heat and on this diet, it certainly became an endurance test. Actually, the second shift, from 9.30 till midnight was a very pleasant one. It was much cooler than during the day and as the moon was about 10 days old it gave a very good light. It set behind the hills at about 4 a.m. and the last half hour of the last shift, when we were dead tired and had to grope about and stumble along the rutted road was certainly an ordeal. Then, at the end, one of the wretched little Jap Sergeants made us parade in the area before the gaol and kept us standing at attention for fully 10 minutes while he checked and rechecked everything. Fortunately it was dark and I, with many others, kept sitting down each time he had passed!

There were one or two high lights. Marjorie Fortescue had organised a tea bar, borrowing buckets and pails and mugs, and making a collection of tea around the blocks. The various blocks provided hot water and a number of women volunteered to work in shifts and kept right on till the end – a pretty stout effort and much appreciated by the men. The tea was a Godsend, as carrying the wood was very thirsty work. The women were only allowed to work the top stage of the route, for the other stages were beyond the camp boundaries, but they were able to dispatch the pails of tea and some mugs and these were carried down by the men to the various squads. The first squad unloaded the lighters; the second carried from the pier to the Prep School; the third from the Prep School to the camp boundary and the fourth from there to a dump beside our blocks. The object of these sections was to shorten the distance and time that each man would have to carry a particular lump of wood and we were able to have more frequent rests on the backward journeys. Well, the other high light was the effort that our cooks made. They had kept our 7 p.m. meal warm and thereafter, when we came off our shifts both at midnight and 4.30 a.m. they had someone on duty with a scoopful of hot congee for everyone (and I presume ‘A’ squad was similarly treated). That too was a stout effort and helped us considerably. So that was the manner in which I heralded in my 33rd birthday!

I remember 15 years ago, at about 2 or 3 a.m. on the morning of my 18th birthday, catching a burglar at school. That I must say, was more spectacular, even if not so unusual as this method of celebrating! By the time I had finally eaten and washed last Sunday morning it was after 5 a.m. and I was so tired I could not go to sleep and dropped off only for about an hour before it was time to get up.

Y and I had arranged with Maudie to have my birthday lunch with her in her room. We had opened our last I.R.C. pudding for the occasion (a raspberry jam pud). Following a successful Stanley Camp recipe, Y had mashed up the pudding, added thereto some ground rice and water and steamed it in three separate tins for about ½ an hour. The flavour of these puddings is so excellent and strong that they could well stand the addition of rice flour; so we doubled the bulk without noticeably damaging the flavour. Y had beaten up some egg white crystals with some sugar and we each had a delicious little pudding covered with egg white and some roasted peanuts that Maudie had provided. They were simply delicious; my mouth still waters at the recollection. Maudie also provided coffee – an almost unknown luxury these days – which we had with cigarettes which, fortunately, had come in again in the middle of the month. But I have not mentioned the first course.

After the morning service, I went back to our blocks and collected Y’s meal and mine and took them back to Block 10. Being Sunday we had meat stew and when Maudie’s meal had also arrived Y made a curry with the stew plus some garlic and sweet potatoes that Maudie had contributed. So altogether we had a grand meal.  I only wish we could have them more often! Y had made me a beautiful blue (real cornflower blue) shirt from a linen skirt that Devaux had sent in some time ago. There was only just enough material and she had had to use odd bits of other stuff to back the collar, the tunic front beneath the buttons and button holes etc. But the net result is most satisfactory. Anne Muir, bless her, sent me two cigarettes all neatly wrapped up. We shall laugh at these things one day.

Well, this is my fourth birthday in camp: it is almost unbelievable. Thirty three: this is the age at which Christ was crucified: it makes one stop and think a bit. It seems strange, when one reflects upon it, that amongst Christian nations no particular celebration whatever is observed at this anniversary of a person’s life, or during the Easter time of this particular year. I must confess that I don’t appear to have achieved a great deal up to date – except for having married Y; that was clever of me.

We had a bit of excitement on Wednesday last, 25th.  We were mostly in our blocks at midday when we heard the drone of an aeroplane. It sounded at a low altitude and had the somewhat uneven and tinny sound of a Japanese made or tuned engine. It was coming from West to East and we went onto our balcony to see it when it had passed over our blocks. (We face East). As the drone grew louder we suddenly heard a distinct swishing and whistling noise which I took to be the shrieking of the wind in the fuselage and the propeller which you hear when a plane passes close overhead. Then the plane came into view – a fairly big two engined Jap flying boat that often comes round here on patrol. Then we saw people in the ‘A’ Blocks pointing excitedly in the direction of ‘the hill’ and saying that the plane had dropped something. At that moment the air raid alarm was sounded, whereupon we watched the plane with renewed interest. No one could remember seeing the red spots on its wing tips and (later) I heard one or two people say they had seen what looked like white stripes on it somewhere; but they seemed a bit vague about it. But everyone agreed that it looked an old type of plane and certainly not one used nowadays by the Americans. All kinds of conjectures were made as to what had been dropped – they ranged from vitamin pills to news of the declaration of peace! Soon after, we saw someone running down to the hospital and presently the stretcher trolley was brought out and wheeled off. After a good deal of suspense we heard that 5 missiles of some sort had been dropped, some of which had struck bungalow ‘A’, injuring several people. 

Now it is all over, I can give the true facts. All together eleven cylinders were dropped. They differed in size apparently. The one that Trevor Edwards had seen and which he described  to me was a cylinder, about 2’ long and 9” in circumference and rounded at both ends – that must have been the one that fell in St Stephens, Block 8 – and was painted black. Some others, apparently, are bigger. Most of these objects fell onto the ground round about the bungalows; one in the roadway by St Stephens and most of these entirely buried themselves in the ground. Two more fell near St Stephens, while a third struck the roof of Block 8 (the West wing of St S) penetrated the ceiling over one of the upstairs bedrooms (these rooms are cubicles whose partitions do not reach the ceiling) and ended, because of the angle at which it was falling, in the next room. It struck one bed and bounced onto the next (both, fortunately unoccupied at the time). Croucher, who was lying down on his bed, received considerable but superficial cuts about the head and shoulders from flying fragments from the roof, and several other men were similarly damaged. These rooms are now occupied by about 4 men a piece, though they vary in size to some extent. 

Two of these missiles struck bungalow ‘A’, one penetrating to the bathroom where it hit and smashed the bath (which happened to be half full with water!) and the other landing within 4’ of Revd Myhill where he sat reading. He was badly cut about and slightly stunned by falling debris and at first his condition was thought to be critical, but when they had got him cleaned up in the hospital they found nothing very serious – apart from fairly severe shock. Three other people in the bungalow received injuries:- Lila Wood, a girl of about 16, who received cuts and suffered from shock, and the two Hansen children who suffered slight cuts. The mysterious (and merciful) thing about these missiles (I purposely refrain from calling them ‘bombs’) is that, of all eleven not one exploded. Had they been bombs that had exploded the results would have been appalling – bungalows ‘A’ and ‘B’ would have been wiped out and most of a large part of St Stephens, and the death roll would have been well over 100 not to mention scores of bad cases of shock and serious injury.

Well, God be thanked, they did not explode. I know a matter of 500 or even 1000 casualties would be a mere nothing compared to what happened in London, Plymouth or still worse, the German towns, but the result here would have been completely shattering to this camp. What a merciful escape. It seems, if this place is to be retaken, that we must be prepared for this kind of thing. All I can say is: if it has to happen I wish they’d get a move on and finish it off: this waiting, waiting, waiting is really becoming unbearable.

All kinds of theories have been put forward as to the why and where for of this incident. Some little time after the first air raid signal went on Wednesday, a second one was sounded and this time people saw some American P-38 fighters about. Harold said he saw one clearly from his bed on the balcony; it had the twin body fuselage peculiar to the P-38 machines. One possible explanation is that this Jap machine received wireless warning of approaching enemy machines, where upon, in the stress and excitement of the moment the pilot, in order to gain height and speed, released all these cylinders without looking to see where he was. The plane, after passing this camp, flew over Waglan Island where there is a big wireless station. It banked steeply over Waglan (possibly picking up signals) and then continued in a due easterly direction, straight out to sea. This plane is, we think, the Jap flying boat that is used for patrolling HK waters – it frequently cruises around about this vicinity and may be engaged on anti-submarine patrol. In this case it is quite probable that these cylinders are depth charges which would not explode on contact, but would depend on contact with water and a certain pressure being attained. One theory is that they are just practice ‘bombs’ filled with sand.

Another curious thing is that someone is alleged to have seen the non Japanese figures and letters ‘100 lbs 43’ upon one of the smaller cylinders. I have not been able to verify this however. But, whereas on the last occasion there was no doubt that the plane that did the damage was American, this time we are all equally positive that the plane was Japanese. Quite a number of Japanese officers arrived by car from town within about 2 hours of the incident (some 7 of them). They inspected the casualties – photographed Myhill swathed in his bandages. I don’t know why they made such a fuss on this occasion. On the previous occasion the Colonel and one other came out on the day after the mishap.

On Friday we were told that at the morning parade Lt Kadawakie would address the various blocks. We had been told it was to be a ‘pep talk’ of sorts. We had to wait ages (we being the last blocks to be inspected) while the party inspected the various districts of the camp and Kadawakie said his little say. Eventually they arrived, and after the inspection, we were all marched to the space in front of Block 2 and when the ‘A’ blocks also had joined us Kadawakie and Gimson, with Bickerton between them as interpreter, mounted a table and the address began.

Kadawakie addressed us, with considerable animation, in Japanese (which about 2 people understood) and then Gimson gave Bickerton’s translated version. They (Gimson and Bickerton) appeared a trifle bored by the time the entourage had reached us. Kadawakie first said that he wished to confess his regret and that of the Japanese Authorities to the camp as a whole and the victims in particular of the mishap last Wednesday when an American plane dropped bombs onto this camp, injuring several persons. There was just a slight murmur after this! It seemed to us tantamount to an admission that it was a Jap plane. Incidentally, the Japs had had Gimson and Bickerton up the hill until 2 a.m. on Wed. night making Gimson sign papers about the injured people. The following morning he was up the hill again when our big friend the American  B-29 (probably B-24 Liberator), which so frequently comes over, appeared on his morning patrol. The Japs gave Gimson a pair of binoculars and tried to get him to admit that it was the same plane that had dropped these things on the camp the previous day. Incidentally, no alarm was sounded on this occasion – it seldom is when this particular plane appears! So I think the Japs have troublesome consciences about this incident.

Kadawakie then proceeded to reprimand us for failing to observe the Japanese regulations with regard to bowing to Japanese officers. On the whole he was very reasonable about it. He said that he realised that customs varied in different countries but that while we were under the protection of the Japanese we were expected to observe this custom of bowing. He said that women were the chief offenders and that he personally, had been reprimanded because when several senior officers came to inspect the camp on Wednesday, most internees in passing them had paid no attention to them at all. He said that in this respect this was the worst of all the internment camps in Hong Kong. He held forth at some length and at the end he called the Japanese sergeant to mount the table and give a demonstration. First he demonstrated how a Japanese wearing his military cap saluted in response to a bow or salutation; and then he demonstrated the bow given by a Japanese, when not wearing his cap, this being the bow we had to emulate or perform. We understood that we have to hold this pose until the officer in question had acknowledged it. No wonder the officers hardly ever walk around the camp – it must be a wearisome business!

As a result of this ‘bombing’ on Wednesday, the residents of bungalows A, B and C and those in St. Stephens Block 8 were ordered to vacate their rooms in case these missiles were time bombs. They have had to find temporary accommodation where they can in blocks 9 and 10. Poor things, they have been sleeping on the hard cement floors of the halls, landings and bathrooms and along the open cloisters. The women and children have been crowded into the ‘all womens’ second floor of block 10 where most of them are sleeping on the floor. Maudie has taken in Mrs Maitland and they have to move half the furniture out of the room at night in order to arrange ‘Auntie Maitland’s’ bed on the floor. They have had four nights of it so far and are wondering when they will be allowed back.

Today is Yvonne’s birthday and Mother and Father’s wedding anniversary. We have had quite a nice day, celebrated as our limited circumstances allow. We had some egg yolk and oil on our congee in the morning and finished with a cigarette! For lunch I made two little steamed puddings with half our last tin of bully beef mixed with some sweet potatoes and onions from our garden. Then in the afternoon Anne Muir and Terrance Feltham had tea with us and played bridge. Maudie lent us her room for the occasion. Then in the evening we went again to block 10 where Maudie entertained us, with delicious coffee and cigarettes. Maudie gave Yvonne a packet of cigarettes; Anne had made her a very smart pair of underpants and I gave her a small cigarette holder which I made from a piece of guava wood. Isa gave her an ash tray to complete the smoking outfit and the Bidwells gave her some brinjals from their garden. Surely we shan’t have to celebrate any more birthdays in here!

The evacuees from the bungalows and St. Stephens were eventually rehabilitated on Thursday Aug 2nd, 8 days after they had been turned out. Terrance, who was one of them, said he never thought he would be glad to get back to his ‘home’ in Stanley, but he was!

The camp is just buzzing, literally humming with speculation! Yesterday morning we had our usual Friday roll call and afterwards I went along to our distant garden near the cemetery. On my way back at about 11 o’clock I found that everyone seemed to be very excited about something and I soon discovered that the Japs had ordered about 100 technicians amongst the internees, together with their wives and families (if they had any) to pack all their goods and chattels and be ready to go to the Prep School pier at 2.30 that afternoon to embark for an undisclosed destination! I dashed home to see if I had been included as a technical man and was very disappointed to find our names were not on the list.

What a rush! How typical of the Japs to give only a few hours notice. Harold and I with all the other ‘heavy workers’ were told to standby to carry luggage to the Prep School at 2 p.m. This we did – and what luggage. There were quite a few respectable boxes and suitcases but a lot of it was bundles rolled up in blankets and tied with cord. There were camp beds, chairs and even a few double beds! The party assembled by the ration garages where half the camp had assembled to bid them farewell. At about 3 o’clock the Japs lined them up and after a good deal of confusion they arranged them in alphabetical order. What a motley array they were: some looking most respectable and others just the reverse.

Mr Boxer, the University Registrar (who had designated himself Prof. of Engineering) was arrayed in sandals, kahkie shorts, a short sleeved vest and a Trilby hat. He was the piece de resistance! The Director Public Works Mr Purves, Paterson and Pegg, heads of their departments in the P.W.D. were included. Cornell who had called himself Architect and Civil Engineer was included; so also was Mansell, one of the Overseer’s in our Architectural Office. The Pritchards have gone with the rest of the shore staff of the Chinese Maritime Customs. The total number amounted to 178. At about 6 o’clock the labour squads were again called out to move the luggage from the Prep School to the pier. The evacuees were assembled on the lawn on one side of the path and we were lined up on the other side and no communication was allowed between the parties (other than surreptitious signs). The evacuees had been given their evening meal early (at about 2 p.m.) and their iron rations had also been issued to them, but from 2 p.m. onwards until they arrived sometime next day (probably morning) they would have received no more food. I presume drinking water was available at the Prep School.

We found out that none of the baggage had been searched, which was reassuring (this diary will be my chief problem). After waiting some time we shifted the baggage to the pier and then we sat and waited and waited for the arrival of the boat. The Formosan guards were carrying flash lights which didn’t look too reassuring. At 8.30, as it was getting dark, a tubby kind of lighter accompanied by a small pilot launch came round the point and slowly made its way to the pier. It was quite empty and riding very high at the bows (drawing only 3’), which was just as well as the tide was low and there was only just enough water for the boat to get up alongside. Actually we pulled the darned thing alongside and loosely tied it up with two lines at the bow and stern. There are no bollards on the pier and we had to make use of the heads of the wooden balks or piles that supported the pier. Keith Mackie, a young Jardines shipping engineer was just in his element! He took the whole business in hand and issued orders both to us and the crew of the lighter. Eventually we got the thing tied up parallel to the pier but with a gap between, which varied from about 6’ to 9’ according to the inward and outward surge of the boat. Some loose planks were then stretched across this gap and loading operations commenced.

It was the most precarious and Heath Robinson process I have ever seen. Keith and Bill Gillis stood on the planks and swung and pushed up the bags and boxes from those who heaved them off the pier to those who grabbed them on the boat. Gillis was heaving up a fair sized suitcase when the boat surged away from the pier with the result that Gillis, case and plank all disappeared with a big splash. Gillis and the plank (which both floated) were retrieved, but the case sank and I’m afraid some wretched person lost probably the most precious part of their already scanty possessions.

It was pitch dark when we started loading and all operations had to be carried out by flash light and a few hurricane lamps. The Japs had lined up and marched off 100 of the squad, leaving about 70 to do the actual loading, as the pier and boat were too small for a larger number of men to work on. We finally finished at about 10 p.m. and I got back at 10.30. Yvonne had waited up, bless her, and I had my supper in the hall by the feeble glimmer of our oil lamp which happened to have a little oil in it. Well, I got to bed at 11 o’clock, but I hear the wretched evacuees didn’t finally set sail till 3 a.m. in the morning.

We had tried to find out from the Chinese crew of the lighter whither the boat was bound but they kept their mouths tight shut. But the Japanese had sent down to the pier, piles of empty rice sacks and empty oil drums, so we deduce that the boat was going to some place in HK, probably Kowloon. Perhaps we shall hear in a day or so.

As a result of this exodus, several servants’ rooms in these blocks have been vacated and Y and I lost no time in applying for one. This move has given rise to a great deal of speculation and the general feeling is that it is an added sign of the termination of hostilities – are these technicians replacing their Japanese equivilants who are being withdrawn from Hong Kong? But even if we are here for only a few more months, and though a move would involve a good deal of labour, it would be worth while. A little privacy and a small corner we can call our own would be wonderful. Also the move and the settling in would pass the time excellently. But there are only 5 vacant rooms and 250 couples or pairs have applied, so our chances are somewhat slender.

Our double bed will be a problem, but it has distinct possibilities: with ingenuity and some carpentering, I think it could be converted into an article of furniture which would serve as a comfortable couch during the daytime and a double bed at night – ideal for an amah’s room. The allocation will probably be settled by putting names in a hat and drawing (the usual Stanley procedure) unless some are given priority on medical grounds. A rumour is circulating to the effect that a second lot of technicians is to go out in a few days – in that case Yvonne and I may well find ourselves in this second group. What fun! Anything for a change.

We had some more excitement this morning. I was wood cutting when at about 10 o’clock we heard the drone of an aeroplane. Nowadays, one hardly bothers to go and look at a single plane and we did not stop our sawing operations. However, a long burst of machine gun fire quickly made us down tools and run to have a look and there, just beyond Tweed Island and not 50’ above the water was a huge American bomber, and below it was one of the small Japanese patrol-come-pilot boats at which it had opened fire. I did not see the first encounter properly, but I was told the boat returned fire with its machine gun. The boat was evidently engaged on repairing or adjusting the boom defence, as it was stationary beside the boom. The plane went away in a big sweep and we thought it had departed and were about to resume work when the air raid alarm sounded. As we were sheltered from sight from the hill by the ‘A’ blocks we went on with our work, but in a few moments we heard the plane re-approaching and ran out to have another look. A few moments later a volley of rifle shots rang out and they sounded just behind us. We thought the Japs were firing at us for not taking cover and we bolted into the buildings like rabbits into a warren. Actually, the shots were fired from the hill at the plane – nowhere near us! But they sounded mighty close.

By the time we got onto the balcony the plane had again attacked the boat and was climbing up again and circling in a big sweep as if it were flying off. But it came again a third time and this time I saw it swoop right low down, fire with its forward canon, drop a small bomb which seemed to hit the boat amidships and as it passed the rear gunner let fly with his tail gun. It was truly pathetic to see the small and helpless boat, its single gun already silenced, just lying and waiting its end. The plane came round for a fourth and final time and let fly with its guns again jetting the water on either side with scores of small columns of water. The boat must have been like a sieve at the end of the fourth attack. The plane departed after that and the boat began fairly rapidly to settle in the water. The shipping engineers here say that the boat must have had a wooden hull or it would have gone down even more quickly than it did. When it had finally sunk, a fair amount of wreckage and debris was left floating on the surface, but nothing moved; I’m afraid there were no survivors.

The Formosans in the camp had been issued with ammunition and were merrily popping away at the plane. A party of five of them ran down to the hospital from where they best commanded the scene of operations and banged away from there. A couple of them were even standing on the big white cross just in front of the hospital building! Quite a large number of people had gone to the beach that morning and they were rather nearer the scene of the operations than was comfortable: a number of children were pretty well scared poor things.

A persistant rumour has been going round that Russia has declared war on Japan. Earlier on there was news (or rumours) of a meeting of British, American, Russian and Chinese delegates at Potsdam where the conduct of the war against Japan was the matter under discussion. Stalin is said to have branded Japan as the aggressor nation and stated that she is now the only nation standing out against world peace. Russia too is said to have moved large quantities of war material and equipment to the Manchurian front. Well, let’s hope it is all true! There had even been a rumour that peace had been declared, but I guess this attack on the patrol boat knocks that rumour on the head.

The rumours of peace are still persisting! I feel, as usual, it is just another rumour. I do not think anything will happen till the end of September at the earliest. At least I have schooled myself to that thought – beginning October the earliest; more probably during Nov. or Dec. If it happens earlier, well so much the better, but now that I have ceased to worry about our speedy release and have managed to get back into my rut again I feel less restless.

During the last few days I have been thinking of producing ‘Hiawatha’ in the form of a choral reading. I have read through the poem and made a selection of the parts that are more or less necessary for the story and have made out a rough list of people I should like to ask to take a part. I think 6 or 8 sopranos, 6 contralto; 4 or 6 tenors and the same number of basses – unless I had two groups of basses on opposite sides of the stage, for there are quite a number of parts which would sound well if spoken by basses and it would perhaps, give added interest if these parts were spoken by two separate groups. I have cut it down to about 1/3 of its full length, for the whole thing would take about 4 hours to read and I don’t think a Stanley audience could stand more than about 80 minutes actual reading with a 10 minute interval. The metre and rythem in which the poem is written might become monotonous after a time, but one could avoid all monotony with choral reading where you can have all the soloists of different parts speaking separately or in unison.

I have never before attempted anything of this kind, but I think there are great possibilities in it and a narrative poem like ‘Hiawatha’, I think, would be especially suitable. The advantage would be that it would not need so much rehearsing as a play and the rehearsals themselves would be less tiring. Getting the parts copied out would be the chief difficulty. People would have to provide their own paper for it. Well, if nothing happens soon I must really see if I can collect together enough interested people to do it.

We were medically examined again yesterday and I am now 130 lbs – just a little underactually – my lowest in camp. My blood pressure was only 108 over 60 which is also lower than my usual here. But the blood pressure guage has sprung a leak now and the readings are only approximate.

What excitement in camp! They say peace, or at any rate a truce has really been signed with Japan! I have grown so chary about accepting any such news that I really do not believe it. I think that peace is round the corner, but I feel it will be a few weeks yet before it comes into sight.

The first we really knew of anything unusual was the behaviour of the Formosan guards on Thursday morning (16th August). Many of them were quite drunk; they would not bother to take the roll call chits from the Block Chairmen and many of them came round to see their black market contacts and call in their goods and money. They had somewhat differing stories, some said peace had been declared, others that it was a truce for peace negotiations. The general belief is that a truce has been called while Japan considers the peace terms and that if these are accepted a general armistice will be declared; if they reject them, fighting will be resumed.

Apparently a Chinese paper came into camp on Thursday (this I know is true) which stated that the Japanese Emperor had issued a rescript in which he said he had accepted the Russian – American – British terms as laid down at Potsdam and he ordered the cessation of hostilities. So it looks as though there really might be some truth in it.

Yesterday, everyone was running round in small circles: we dashed up to Maudie immediately we heard the story (we had been to see Vera Armstrong and verified the fact that her Formosan contact had told her this story) and sat and talked and smoked and talked.

On Thursday morning the Japanese issued everyone with a huge roll of American made toilet paper which we promptly christened ‘Victory rolls’. Now, how would the Japs have come by such quantities as that except from American supplies brought by the Awa Maru? I’m sure we shall find there were stacks of American parcels, medical and bulk supplies for us of which we never saw a sign. It is ridiculous to suppose that a big ship like that would call at Hong Kong and unload a few thousand old and damaged British parcels. Some Japanese are going to have some awkward questions to answer.

Yvonne has been up to Maudie and we have arranged to celebrate with a Victory Lunch. We are opening our one remaining tin of ‘Kam’ meatloaf for the occasion. We managed that part of our iron rations extremely well – just one tin of meatloaf left for celebrating peace! We have quite a bit of rice in hand and some tins of biscuits and quite a lot of egg yolk, so we can start tucking into those straight away! We want sugar now – or chocolate! The Japs sent in our cigarette ration with the toilet paper; also soap – we think peace must have been declared! They sent in also some of the arrears of workers cigarettes and I received 60 of these: so with our ordinary ration Y and I had 130 cigarettes between us! We had got down to 1 cigarette per day again (½ at lunch time and the other half in the evening!). We had always carried a reserve of cigarettes for the purpose of swapping them for food and latterly with the yen depreciating so rapidly we had converted all our spare cash into cigarettes which we sold again at the enhanced value when we needed cash for canteens etc.  So we had 18 additional packets which, it appears now, we can smoke instead of having to save! It is marvellous to be able to open a packet and hand them round without feeling “there goes my next week’s ration”!

Gimson issued an official statement at midday today. He stated that Lt Kadawakie had informed him that he had heard a wireless broadcast which stated that the Emperor had issued a rescript accepting the terms laid down by the allies at Potsdam. This meant that hostilities generally had ceased though as yet Col Takanada had received no official instructions and he had issued no orders regarding internees. Gimson said that during the next few days the situation would be very tense as the Japanese in the Colony were still retaining their arms and were still nominally in charge. He urged us, therefore, to exercise the utmost caution and to refrain from cheering or any kind of demonstration that might lead to incidents. He added that any attempt by any internee to leave the confines of the camp would lead to serious repercussions and that everyone was asked to “carry on as usual”. Well, no doubt he was right and wise and all that - but how tame! Fancy announcing the declaration of peace by a timid little notice like that stuck on the various block notice boards! ‘Cautious’ is certainly Gimson’s other name.

I can quite appreciate the danger of creating incidents here, for the Japanese in these circumstances think nothing of committing ‘Hari Kiri’ and if they think they are for it any way they are likely to be pretty reckless of consequences – and there are a good many men in this camp who have been beaten up by the Japs and whose fists must be itching to make contact with a Japanese or Formosan chin. But surely to goodness Gimson could have assembled everyone on (say) the Indian Quarters green, announced that peace had been declared, let us cheer our heads off and then asked us to be reasonable and carry on as usual. Now, we feel we have been cheated out of any feeling of excitement. Fancy putting up with this place for 3 ½ years and then not being allowed to cheer the news of peace! Miserable old idiot!!! Several people hung Union Jacks from their windows and he sent round an order that they be taken in.

We had our celebration lunch yesterday and another one today (also with Maudie) and much enjoyed ourselves. Anne Muir, whom we had asked, was unable to come but Marjorie Begdon was with Maudie when we arrived and we persuaded her to stay.

Yesterday evening we had a United Churches thanksgiving service to which everyone was invited. There was an enormous crowd of people and it could have been a most inspiring service but unfortunately the sermon was given by Revd Frank Short, who is a most worthy man and a very profound thinker; but in contradiction to his name he is often (as on this occasion) wearisomely long and is so lugubrious that I consider his efforts to be funeral orations. Still, it was worth going for the sake of singing the National Anthem at the end.

It is curious what a deflated feeling I have had about peace. I have not felt anything like so excited at the news of world peace as I was when Italy capitulated; and I think, generally, that that is true of a great many in camp. The Italian collapse was far more unexpected and less obvious than that of Germany and Japan. The news, as it has come, has been chiefly in the form of rumour and I have not dared believe it till it has been officially confirmed. I wish a squadron of planes had flown over the camp and done the Victory Roll. That would have given us a tremendous thrill! I just can’t realise that peace has been declared nor what it means. No doubt I shall feel excited about it soon.

I hear our own police are now in charge of the camp and will patrol it; what fun! There was quite a lot of excitement this morning when a European came roaring into camp on a powerful army motorcycle, followed fairly close by a fire engine manned by a European and a Chinese! The motorcyclist turned out to be Blumenthall, of all people! Eddie Greenwood of the HK Fire Brigade had come in with one of his Chinese firemen! These two had gone out of camp with the other technicians and when they had heard the news of peace they walked out of their camp, crossed to the island and asked the Japanese for vehicles which were promptly provided for them! Greenwood went to the Central Fire Station and took one of the engines. Blumenthall had been to the Sham Shui Po Camp and brought a case full of notes from the POWs there and he took back the replies with him when he left.

The Chinese fireman was given a terrific welcome by the crowd here. Yvonne saw him and said he was obviously rather overcome by the greeting but he could hardly raise a smile and she said he had the saddest eyes she had ever seen. The poor Chinese have obviously had a far worse time than we. He said that their ration of rice was 30 catties per month between four people, about 5½ ozs per day (we had 16 ozs per day) and a small sum of money which, as we know, would purchase hardly anything. He was taken straight off to our galley and given as much as he could eat.

In the afternoon K.S. Robertson of the HK Volunteers and Vernol (HK Wavy Navy) came over from Sham Shui Po. They were literally mobbed. I knew K.S. quite well and it was grand to see him. Vernol is an Architect in our P.W.D. office, but as he was mobilised in 1939 on the outbreak of war I had never got to know him. He had evidently commandeered a launch from the Japs, because they came all the way by launch. They had official business to see to and they were acting as liaison between Col Simon-White (now in command of the POW camp) and Gimson.

Anne, Winnie and Terrence had tea with us during the afternoon. It was a most exciting tea party. Notes and messages kept arriving from friends in Sham Shui Po. Yvonne went chasing all the way to the beach with a note for Isa from Kenneth. The POW husbands are hoping to get across soon to see their wives. Isa and Jean Mathers and the rest of them are so excited they just don’t know what to do with themselves.

During the afternoon a plane came roaring over the camp and we all rushed out to have a look – no taking cover now! It was a small fighter plane that seemed to shoot across at an incredible pace. It raced down the length of our peninsula, out to sea, then banked, turned and came racing back again. I was not in time to see it pass overhead, nor drop its leaflets, but some said unkindly that it must be a British plane because the pilot had carefully chosen the leeward side of the peninsula over which to drop his pamphlets so that they all blew out to sea! Not one settled on land! However, other planes were about so I expect other pamphlets were dropped over the Colony and when Vernol and Robertson went back we saw them change their course, stop and pick some out of the water, so we shall know soon what they said.

I am gradually beginning to realise that war is over and what that means! It really is wonderful. So much has happened during these last few days that I cannot even attempt to write it down in detail. The pamphlets instructed us to remain in our camps and maintain order until relief – which was on the way – arrived. We were told to be of good cheer, our troubles would soon be at an end and so on.

We hear the British Fleet is on its way here and we spend our time watching the horizon. The pamphlets were signed by Gen. Weydemeyer, so the plane must have been American after all ((Likely to have been a plane from the US 14th Air Force as Gen. Weydemyer was in charge of all US forces in China)).

We have not yet hoisted our flag. We are dying to see it go up and think Gimson is an awful stick-in-the-mud. However, I will say this for his point of view: if we wait until the British S. Pacific Fleet sails in and Admiral Fraser and British Bluejackets and Marines come marching in here to Stanley with their bands playing and hoist the flag – well, I think it will be one of the greatest experiences of my life and well worth waiting for. The very thought of it brings tears to my eyes. After 3½ years to see the flag of freedom fluttering over us again, will be wonderful beyond description. I hope there will be an official ceremony in any case and that the Admiral won’t be too busy to come himself. We have one main flagstaff erected and beside it seven smaller ones for the seven allied nations.

Last Sunday morning (19th August) at about 10.30, the first batch of civilians from town came in by bus to visit the camp. Zindle has arranged for a bus to make two trips per day, bringing 50 each time. They arrive at about 10.30 a.m. and depart at 12; arrive again at 2 p.m. and depart at 4. Yvonne Ho was amongst the first in bless her, with her sister Helen. Were we glad to see them again! Yvonne was so excited that she was almost incoherent at times.

Yvonne had brought with her some home made cake (made with wheat flour) and some bananas. I have never in my life realised that cake could taste so good! The civilised flavour of a sweet, wheat flour cake, after months without any is just unbelievable.

I gathered that Herbert Grose had got away into the interior and from Chungking had got through to India. Yvonne thought he had probably gone on to England but she did not know for certain. She is very unhappy about Herbert. I wonder when I shall get news of him. Hongkie, she said, had gone into the interior with his two children.

My goodness, they have had a hellish time during the Japanese occupation. Quite different to ours. They have had much greater freedom of movement and better food (the better off people) but their nervous strain must have been ten times worse. They were always being watched. Helen Ho was followed about for 8 months on end! They did not attempt to disguise the fact that they were watching her and often someone would be sitting and watching their house until she came out and would then follow her. Yvonne said that often at night she would suddenly wake with a start at the passing of a motor car and think: “My goodness, is it stopping at my house?”

People were taken off for questioning without the slightest warning. She said that people were called up for questioning quite often for nothing that they themselves had said or done but merely because a friend had written to them from somewhere in the interior and used some such phrase as: “See you soon”. The Japs would then accuse them of trying to escape from HK without a permit and smuggling out information etc.

Frank Angus, who is Dr Selwyn-Clarke’s secretary and was working for a long time at Rosary Hill, says that Helen Ho was simply wonderful. The risks she ran in getting in drugs and medical stores were simply terrific. She was detained for questioning on more than one occasion and was put in prison for some months. Frank says that he thinks, when her story is written up, she will be given a decoration of some distinction. I do hope so. ((She received an OBE in 1946 for her services during the war.)) Some of the civilians have been just wonderful.

Yvonne said that at first she was put on to organising the dispatch of parcels to the camps, but after a time the work became so exhausting that she said she could not carry on and the Japs then put her on censoring letters. There were five censors and after a while the Japs asked her to watch the other four and act as informer. She said that she told them straight out that she had never been brought up to do that sort of thing and had no intention of starting. They seem to have sold most of their possessions in order to keep going. The Japs had forced them to sell one of their houses for Y50,000 which was a negligible sum. The number of suicides and executions in town have been appalling. The atrocities too have been terrible.

Buckie says that a number of St Stephen’s girls or old students have been in to see them and they, one and all, say that they dared not write to this camp. Buckie says that nearly all of them have friends or members of their families who have been in trouble with the Japanese. One girl had a friend who left for Canton and asked this girl if she would look after her typewriter for her. Some one informed on her, the Japanese accused her of stealing the machine and put her in prison for six weeks.

Mr Lammert had a Chinese clerk from his office come and visit him. He had got away to Macao and had just returned to the Colony. He said that the food situation was so bad in the Colony at one time that hundreds of Chinese were dying daily. According to him the highest number of deaths in one day reached 800. I find that this is hard to believe for there can’t have been much more than 1 million Chinese left in the Colony. But conditions were evidently simply awful. Dead bodies in the harbour were quite a common sight. I don’t suppose we shall ever know what some of our Chinese friends suffered.

On Monday (20th August) at about 10.30 a.m., 110 husbands from Sham Shui Po arrived, to visit their wives, and amongst them was Kenneth Watson, Isa’s husband. All except wives and relatives were asked to keep away from the entrance where the husbands would arrive by bus. Yvonne witnessed the scene of reunions from afar and even so was quite overcome. It was a grand day and I really began to feel the war was over and to realise a bit what that meant for many people.

Isa brought Kenneth along to room 11 for lunch and tongues wagged hard the whole time. He was looking very fit and brown though he, like everyone, had shed a good many pounds. On the whole the POWs in the officers’ camp were all pretty well.

We decided that on the whole they had better rations than we did but that our surroundings and locality were pleasanter and healthier than theirs. They lived in big wooden huts with 50 men per hut, (one room) so they had even less privacy than we did. It was amusing to compare notes. We found that we used the same kind of tins for collecting our food and cooking in – 5 lb tins, coffee and Cow and Gate milk tins; they had the same ramps and suspicions about rations – the cooks were always distrusted! Actually, our last lot of cooks under Owen Evans have been absolutely exemplary and above the slightest whisper of suspicion; I don’t know about the other blocks.

The officers were first at North Point Camp, they were then moved to Argyle Street Camp and finally, about 9 months ago, were moved to the main camp at Sham Shui Po but were separated from the men and NCO’s by barbed wire. After most of the POWs had been shipped to Japan there were about 500 officers and 1000 troops left. I did not realise there were so few left.

There is a Major Boon, who, with some 5 or 6 stooges, have been arrested and is now awaiting Court Martial on some very serious charges of dealing with the enemy. The Japanese put him in charge of the men’s camp at Sham Shui Po and he perpetrated the most awful crimes – disclosing the existence of wireless and so on, which led to the execution of some of our men. It is a terrible business. He was put in a hut and given a revolver but evidently could not bring himself to use it. His arrest, of course, took place after the cessation of hostilities. (He was in fact acquitted in 1946 of all crimes.) They have also taken Blumenthal into custody and locked him up. I don’t know on what charges but I presume it was on instruction from Gimson or, Pennefeather-Evans and is probably because of his dealings with the Japanese in this camp. Well, many people thought that friend Blumenthal was storing up trouble for himself. There are a good many others here who will be brought to account too, though on minor charges.

The hospital conditions at Sham Shui Po were terribly bad. There was no hospital accommodation within the camp at first and on one or two occasions the doctors had to take a patient to a hut in the Indian Camp, which the Japs allowed them to use for operations, perform the operation and then bring them straight back to his own hut on the stretcher! One operation for a duodenal ulcer had to be performed with razor blades – in fact some amazingly successful operations were carried out with razor blades. And they were pathetically short of drugs. Many lives were lost because insufficient serum was supplied during the diphtheria epidemic. In this respect, little Watanabe has proved himself a true humanitarian and a real Christian, for on many occasions he brought in, quite unofficially and at his own risk, drugs and medical supplies which were most urgently needed. Yvonne Ho corroborated this and said he did the same for Bowen Road Hospital too. She said she used to urge him to be careful (she called him “Uncle John”) but he used to say;  “Yvonne, I do not mind what happens to me; I must do what I think is my duty”.
 
He is a frail looking little man and the chaps in Sham Shui Po and Bowen Road said they often saw him struggling along with large rattan baskets so full of supplies that he could hardly walk. He had seen his eldest son in a transport as it passed through HK on its way to a S. Pacific destination and Yvonne Ho said he had told her that the rest of his family was in ill fated Hiroshima which was one of the towns practically wiped out by the atomic bombs. He told her, with tears streaming down his face, that he did not expect to see any of his family again. But he keeps on with his relief work doing to the best of his ability, what he considers his duty.

He came into camp with one of our supply lorries this morning and I was glad to see John Sterricker (the BCC Sec.) greet him and shake hands with him.

((Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke dedicated his book ‘Footprints’ to Kiyoshi Watanabe. The dedication reads, ‘This book is dedicated to The Reverand Kiyoshi Watanabe, formerly Officer Interpreter, Imperial Japanese Army, who helped to save the lives of many prisoners of war and British and Allied civilian men, women and children interned in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation, 1941 -1945, at the risk of losing his own. His wife and daughter were killed during the Allied (atomic) bombing of Hiroshima on 6th August 1945.))

Yvonne mentioned four other Japs who could be called reasonable men – I forget their names, Maejima was one and he apparently is devoted to Dr Selwyn-Clark and does his best to help him. Maejima had tried all the Jap doctors in town who had failed to diagnose his complaint, so in the end he went to Selwyn-Clarke who diagnosed (correctly) TB immediately and prescribed treatment which has, apparently, been successful. But the rest of the Japanese have earned nothing but dislike and hatred.

The troops at Sham Shui Po evidently had a very bad time indeed, especially at the beginning. Their pay, compared with that of the officers’ was quite negligible and they were unable to supplement their rations from the canteen. Dystentry and malaria was very bad and their hospital conditions were terrible.

Mr Corra had an awful time: the Japs discovered that he is Austrian by birth and they sent for him and told him they wanted him to broadcast to Austria – propaganda. This he refused to do and they gave him a bad time. They questioned him non-stop for 14 hours, keeping him with powerful lights shining in his face. They had him up five times altogether, trying to force him to broadcast, but he resolutely refused. The last time they said; “You’re wife and daughter are at Stanley Camp are they not? If you do not do as we wish it may mean they are taken away from that camp”.

By then Corra was so exhausted that this final threat practically finished him and he was half demented for the next three days. He was sent back to camp and a day or so later, while wandering about the camp he fell over some obstacle and cut his leg badly. The doctors seized the opportunity and put him in hospital and when the Japs sent for him again they said he could not leave camp as he had fallen and broken his leg. Strangely enough, after that the Japs never worried him again and Poldie and Christine knew nothing about it at all until he visited them on Monday and told them about it!

These POW civilians had some grim stories of atrocities to tell. Mr Goodban, the peacetime headmaster of the Diocesan Boys School had been an eye witness of the execution of a man named Prater (Praater). I don’t know his offence, but his feet were tied together and he was killed by savage dogs that the Japs let loose on him for their amusement. Chinese refugees and homeless people (street sleepers) were treated in this way. The Japanese patrols would take their savage police dogs with them and set them onto these defenceless and often starving people. Anyone trying to assist the victims would be fired at or suffer a similar fate. There really has been a ghastly reign of terror here about which, I for one, treated it as ficticious. I realise now there was little fiction about them and the facts are far worse than we ever dreamed possible.

On Tuesday 21st, Y and I went down to the MQ gardens where a number of sampan people had landed from their boats and climbed over the barbed wire. We had taken with us a pot full of boiled rice which we wanted to try and exchange for fish. We had great fun trying out our very scanty amount of Cantonese. Anyway, we managed to get three little fish in exchange and, I think, both parties were highly satisfied. The man indicated that they wanted clothes and in the stress of the moment I said; “You come back here yesterday”! The man never so much as smiled or raised an eyebrow, so I thought I had made myself quite clear until Y pointed out my mistake.

To our great delight, Bunny Browne ((John‘s best man)) turned up in the afternoon with the rest of the Sham Shui Po party. The P0W on Tuesday were supposed to be those who had relatives in camp but Bunny, who during his internment had improved the shining hour by learning Japanese, had been sent over as official Jap interpreter. The Sham Shui Po men always have a Jap officer in charge of them! It is a ridiculous situation! Bunny was in fine form and looking most fit. He has shed a lot of weight (from over 200 lbs to 142 lbs) and though he will put a good deal back again (he has already gained 10 lbs), I really think he looks better now than before the war. These Sham Shui Po men, of course, have unearthed their best (in many cases their only) shorts, shirts, shoes and stockings to wear to Stanley. It was amusing to see how many of them took the first opportunity to divest themselves of everything except their shorts and walk about like the rest of the men in Stanley. They have been even more scantily attired in their camp where there have been men only, the only garment being a fandouche (loin cloth).

Another amusing – in fact quite touching – sight was to see them talking to and lifting up small children – the dear little brats that have been one of the plagues of Stanley! The Sham Shui Po men had a tremendous welcome from the Chinese in town: they cheered them all the way as their bus drove through the town. Fancy the Chinese being so demonstrative, especially to the ‘foreign devils’. It shows what hell they have been through for them to be glad to see the Europeans coming back again, for, fundamentally, China is very antipathetic to Western men.

One POW who wanted to get away from the milling crowds, went for a walk by himself towards Customs Pass (beyond Kai Tak up the Clearwater Bay Road). He must have been the first European that the Chinese villagers had seen for some years, for as he approached they came running out, all smiles, and they thrust upon him their scanty food supplies, eggs, bananas, stinking salt fish etc. and he said that soon both he and they were talking and laughing with tears streaming down their faces.

On Thursday, (23rd August) I happened to be standing in the road to the gaol with a number of other people, when the prison gates were opened and out came a bus full of Chinese imprisoned by the Japanese. We all raised a spontaneous cheer and waved to them and their thin emaciated faces lit up as they cheered and waved back to us.

Charles Tresidder came over from Sham Shui Po and spent the afternoon with us. It is great fun renewing old acqaintances. Sidney Burt had come out on the first day, when we met him at the hospital, where Olive was recovering from a slight attack of dysentery. He is so proud of his skinny little son (the first time he had met him). There are quite a number of camp born babies who have only just seen their proud fathers. Christopher took to Sidney like a duck to water (if that similie can be used), much to Olive’s relief.

On Thursday we had issued to us some Chase and Sanbourn coffee (7 people per 1 lb tin), 1/3   of a tin each of evaporated milk, some sugar (a good dollop each!) and a little oil. Yvonne Ho had, in the meantime sent us a tin of marmalade, so on the following morning we ate our congee with sugar and cream, followed by toast and marmalade and coffee! It was heavenly. Gimson has told Zindel to buy up food in town and send it in as quickly as possible, and these things are now beginning to arrive. In addition the Japs have opened up godowns packed full of food and prices in town have tumbled down in an extraordinary way. The Japs have sent us in packets of cigarettes – 10 per person – 5 boxes of matches each, more toilet paper, a pencil each, and the other day they sent in more than 1 lb of fresh meat per person. Fortunately we now have electricity again and refrigerators are available.

The kitchen issued raw steaks to those who wanted to do their own cooking (hot plates are in action again thank goodness!) and we fried our steaks with onions from our own garden. It is wonderful to taste more or less civilised meals again. I must say that I ate a good deal of meat and Yvonne did quite well too and we both survived with no ill effects. But this larger quantity of meat proved too much for a lot of people and many of them were violently ill and had upset tummies.

It is as well, perhaps, that we have had no butter issues yet, for we are already eating richer food than we are used to, and much fat, I am told, would really upset us – do something to our livers. We did have a spoonful of some kind of margarine a day or two ago, but even to us it seemed rather poor stuff. We have been so excited at meeting friends that, really, food has become quite an unimportant consideration. What, a few days ago would have been an outstanding camp event (say the extra issue of meat) is now enjoyed thoroughly but not raved over. We are beginning to get back our sense of proportion.

These days have been most exhausting and I feel whacked out at night; but even so I take ages to get to sleep.