John Charter's wartime journal: View pages

July has gone and now we are in August. I wish I could wake up tomorrow morning and find that August, September and October had sped by. It seems awful to wish away whole chunks of normally precious time, but time here is nothing more than a burden to be borne and the sooner it goes the better. Besides by the end of September or October I really expect things to begin to happen fast. It seems that by then the position of internees in this camp may indeed be critical, for the food situation is becoming acute.

On August 1st the administration (Japanese) of this camp was again changed. At the beginning of the year military guards took the place of the gendarmerie who had hitherto patrolled the place; but the actual administration of the camp was still carried on by the Foreign Affairs section of the local Japanese Government although people like Mr Hatori were given rank as officers – he became Colonel Hatori and no doubt Meijima is Major or something like that. But now the camp administration has been taken over by the Military Authorities. The man in charge is (I think) Colonel Takanada, though he has not yet arrived in camp.

The Civil Authorities handed over officially on August 1st, though on July 31st we had a large scale roll-call or parade. All residents had to line up outside their blocks at the given signal (we turned out at about 8.40). When the officers came round with the lists, our names were read out and each person had to take one step forward. We were allowed to sit on cushions or stools while waiting (chairs were verboten) and were lined up outside our block in alphabetical order in two ranks. Two Japanese officers with Bickford of the Colonial Secretary’s Office staff and two guards came round (our Block Chairman also in attendance). Bickie read out the names, while the senior officer (who evidently read English well) followed with another list (I heard him repeating the names as he passed me). Instead of moving forward a pace, we were told to stand up when our names were called. This is the only roll-call here where we have had our individual names called. It all went off quite quickly and smoothly.

Later a bulletin was issued thanking the internees, on behalf of the Japanese, for our co-operation and the efficiency with which the roll-call was conducted. It was stated that one officer wanted to know why we all looked so miserable and unfriendly! Well, I don’t know quite what they expected from us. No doubt they were merely confronted by somewhat stolid and expressionless British countenances! We certainly did not raise a vociferous cheer. They were evidently so impressed by the roll-call that they ordered another one the following day! This was just an ordinary parade, however, and just the numbers were checked.

Things have been happening of late: air raids for one. Last Thursday we were rejoicing in our first evening with lights after the usual monthly black-out (which generally lasts 10-12 days), had just finished supper and were settling down to strain our eyes by reading – we have in our 18’ x 15’ room, two magnificent lights, one being 25 watts and the other 15 – when all the lights in camp, in the prison, and, in fact over the whole Colony suddenly went out. We had heard the hum of what sounded like a couple of planes, but I took them to be Japs and paid no attention. Soon after the lights went out we heard some explosions in the direction of the harbour, but no AA fire - the defence units were evidently caught unawares. Switching off the current suddenly at the power station is, I believe, a bad thing for the plant and machinery, and after this period of time, when spare parts are hard to come by, it must be quite a problem to keep the HK Electric Power Station going.

During the next day the current went off twice (much to the annoyance of the cooks, bakers and water boilers) and then stayed off altogether towards the evening. However, that did not prevent a raid, and just after the waning moon had risen at about 12.20 there was another small raid.

The next night, Saturday, we were wakened by the roar of engines or an engine which came in very low, right over the camp. I thought it sounded like a single plane but other people seem to think there were about 3. This time we saw tracer shells going up and heard detonations, though not such heavy ones as in earlier raids. One search light blinked on for a brief moment (the first search-light seen in a night raid here) but it was promptly attacked by one of the planes, I am told, and went out again. There was a glow in the sky after the raid which looked as if a big fire had been started, but a heavy rain storm, which broke soon after the raid, put that out.

Then on Sunday at mid-day the electric bells, which have been fixed at various points in the camp, sounded the air-raid alarm. The guards came rushing around and chased everone in doors, but we heard nothing and after an hour or so the ‘all clear’ sounded. These raids have not been heavy, but in view of the approaching American forces in the Pacific and Admiral Chester Nimitz’s statement that he intended to attack the China coast somewhere in the South, these raids are quite exciting. They may have been carried out as a form of reconnaissance raid and may be a prelude to heavier attacks and finally an invasion by the Americans! We hope and pray that this may be so.

I am so absolutely sick of just existing here that, for myself, I would welcome the stimulus of an invasion, whatever danger it brought with it, though I would wish Yvonne safely out of the way. The physical condition of everyone in camp is so poor that we should be of little use, I fear, if it came to trying to take an active part. However, any invasion of HK is almost sure to start from the mainland and end with the Island and in that case Stanley would be about the last place to be involved (as happened with the Japanese invasion).

The Japanese Military Authorities are evidently keen that a friendly spirit be fostered between the Japanese and the internees here. Gimson has been invited twice to dinner and bridge with the Colonel during his visits to camp; no Formosan guard may now slap an internee (there had been a good number of face slappings recently) – all face slapping will be done ‘up the hill’! In many ways they have proved more helpful than the Civil Authorities: they have allowed lights to be used before 8.00 p.m. for concerts, though throughout the Colony no lights can be used before that time; they have accelerated the delivery of parcels; I cant think of any more things at the moment - oh yes, they have agreed to meet the Chairmen of the District Blocks Committees on 1st and 15th of every month, which is a good thing. (The first meeting which should have been held yesterday was postponed!) Of course, these Military Authorities can do things which the smaller fry civilians would not have dared to do. One big fly in the ointment is that rations seem to be growing steadily worse!

For the last two days we have been suffering from another typhoon. Now the howling and blowing is over but it is still pouring with rain. This has been an incredibly wet summer- already the average rainfall (according to our local statistics) is about 15” above normal. It has been a bad summer for our gardens, which is a pity. Sweet potatoes have gone too much to leaf and not formed big tubers; onions have rotted in the ground; there has not been enough sun for peanuts and pumkins etc.

No rations came in during the last two days although they were due. Fortunately our cooks try and keep a few vegetables in hand and this a.m. we had rice and a very little vegetable stew of sweet potatoes and taros (or yams). But this evening there was simply a dollop of rice. However, the cooks appealed to private gardeners and we all donated what sweet potato tops we could spare. These were fried in oil and made enough for a table spoonful each.

Many private gardens are producing little more than the potato tops just now. One should not cut them too much as it retards the formation of the potatoes. In normal times even the poor Chinese will seldom eat these tops, though they are used quite extensively for feeding the Chinese pigs – however we are glad to eat them here. We have not yet tried grass (a few people have) though I seriously think we may before we are out of here.

Rations came in late this evening for the next two days. The typhoon had made it impossible to get the stuff across the harbour for the previous two days, said the Japanese. 

“When will the lost two days supply be made up?” enquired our Quartermaster.

“They won’t”, replied the Japanese sergeant in control of rations. “You are still alive so you don’t need them”!

Well, I suppose that is one way of looking at it. But why don’t they always keep us supplied two days in advance with say potatoes and taros, vegetables that will keep? The answer obviously is that they simply haven’t got the stuff to send in. I am afraid this is just a precursor of what will happen more and more frequently, typhoon or no typhoon. Incidentally, several blocks who had kept nothing in hand served just rice at both meals today.

In my concern for our food, let me not forget to mention the news: an Anglo–American landing on the South of France at several points, St Tropez, St Raphael and others between Nice and Marseilles! This was grand news to get on a pouring wet day and cheered us up enormously. Our forces in northern France are pushing ahead at an amazing pace now and have almost reached Paris and also have virtually cut off and surrounded the Germans in Brittany. A report states that Churchill has visited Rome where he discussed, amongst other things, the possible invasion of the Balkans. Surely, surely this war cannot last much longer.

It is still raining cats and dogs, but there is still more good news: Admiral Fraser of the Home Fleet is on his way to the Pacific with a battle squadron to join Chester Nimitz and the American fleets. We know that there are already five American fleets in the Pacific and this new British fleet together with Somerville’s fleet in the Indian Ocean brings the total up to seven. Seven fleets against the Japanese!! How I should hate to be a Japanese now.

In his recent visit to Honolulu, Roosevelt is said to have discussed and approved the plans for a new offensive in the Western Pacific. Pray heaven it includes Hong Kong! And how marvellous if the task of retaking Hong Kong is given to the British fleet!!

The British and Americans are now only about 20 miles from Paris – that news is two days old so by now they are probably on the outskirts of Paris. It can’t be much longer now. The Russians are practically onto Prussian soil and there is street fighting in Warsaw.

Someone in camp had a letter from Jack Robinson in which he said that on arrival in Canada he applied to enlist but was not accepted (it is said that he was too late to be of much use) so he was sent back by his firm (Butterfield and Swire) and is now somewhere in Free China – lucky devil!

I must say something in a general way about our food in camp; it is still, as it always has been, the principal problem here. Just at the beginning of the New Year (when we thought our food situation was going to improve) the Japanese informed us that they could no longer supply us with meat of any kind (not even the race horses that they had gradually been killing off!) and that in future we should receive fish only. Well, it was useless protesting, for meat in any quantity was evidently unobtainable. Then, during the middle of February we were suddenly informed that no more wheat flour would be issued to us as the stocks in the HK godowns were exhausted, but that we should have it replaced by an equivalent weight of extra rice – 4 oz per person per day. So now, instead of getting 8 oz of rice and 4 oz of flour we are allowed 12 oz of rice. This was another blow for it meant our precious wheat bread was to cease and the wheat flour was much better for us than 4 more ounces of rice.

However, the bakers set to work and made experiments with rice flour and since that time we have been supplied with 2 ozs of rice bread daily. The other 2 ozs was cooked into congee (a kind of rice porridge) for breakfast in the mornings. Zindel who is in charge of IRC affairs in HK had been sending in bran to camp which he purchased with IRC funds and this was mixed into the bread latterly. After the flour supply ceased he continued to send in bran and soya beans as a supplementary food supply. This amounted to 1 oz bran and ½ oz soya beans (ground into bean flour) per person per day which was divided between and mixed into the bread and congee and very much improved both, as well as increasing the food value enormously. In addition, the IRC supplied soya beans which were boiled and served at the morning meal. These amounted to 1 oz per person daily. We used to periodically run out of this supply and have had none since the end of July, until 12 more days of supply came in a couple of days ago. The price of beans is now so high that Zindel says he can no longer send in large quantities; in fact this last lot are not soya beans but some other more inferior kind, and when they are finished I expect we shall get no more.

In our blocks arrangements were made which enabled people to draw their rice in a variety of ways. In the days of the Civil Administration a person could draw all his rice raw and dispose of it as he liked. Many people, in fact the majority, drew a portion of their quota dry, ground it in the little stone hand mills that the Japanese supplied us with, and used the rice flour for making cakes, scones, ground rice pudding and congee. Y and I used to draw half ours dry, grind it and make yeast buns and, for our supper, ground rice congee into which we mixed bean flour. A number of people were simply unable to eat 12 ozs of rice per day and these proceeded to sell or exchange it for other things. Within reason this was alright, for it meant they could purchase other types of food (bean flour, peanuts etc.) from the canteen which did them much more good than the surplus rice would have done. But, of course, this practice was abused by some people in the camp ‘black market’ and the Japanese discovered that some people were swapping it for cigarettes etc. and so they put a stop to it. They issued a regulation which prohibited people from drawing more than 4 ozs per day raw, and this quota had to be made up into cakes etc. and handed back to the communal kitchens to be cooked. The last part of the regulation was not strictly observed and some people cooked their own pancakes and buns on chatties and a certain amount of trading still goes on.

In our blocks the following arrangements were made: a person could draw 2 ozs bread, 2 ozs congee, 4 ozs boiled rice for the morning and 4 ozs boiled rice for the evening meal; or 4 ozs bread and no congee, or 4 ozs congee and no bread, or no congee or bread but dry rice instead, in which case the bran and bean flour that they were due was issued at the end of ten day periods; or they could draw dry rice at one of the meals and this was also issued in a total of 40 ozs in ten day periods. Of the 4 ozs issued raw, 2 or 4 could be handed back together with the extra bran and beans (which the individual purchased at the canteen) and could have double bread or double congee or double of both. This all sounds terribly complicated but worked very easily, though it meant the Block Representative had, every 10 days, to revise his or her lists, for people were allowed to make changes every 10 days. These 10 day periods were introduced by the Japanese, for they issue us with our dry stores (rice, oil, sugar and salt) in 10 day periods.

Y and I chose the last arrangement. We had double congee in the mornings (half of which we ate for breakfast and the other half of which we ate cold for supper) double bread, then one drew cooked rice for the morning meal and one for the evening and this we shared between us. In addition, I drew extra cooked rice (6 ozs per day) as a heavy worker ( I will explain this later) which gave us a fair amount of boiled rice for our meals ; otherwise I doubt if we could have managed double bread, for rice cooked as bread, though more solid, does not fill you up so much as boiled rice. This arrangement has worked admirably, for it has saved us cooking congee for supper or buns for tea. We now eat half our bread for tea and the other half with our congee for supper. It is all rice, but you imagine you are eating something different! So much for rice!

Oh horrors! The electricity in town has failed and we are without ‘juice’ of any description. It went off early yesterday morning and has not come on since. The Japanese have said it will be off for 3 or 4 days whilst repairs are executed at the Power Station, but we have a feeling that it is off for good. I sincerely hope we are wrong in this more pessimistic view, but some acquaintance with Japanese methods and promises makes us very sceptical these days. I think they have just run out of coal and they have no ships in which to bring more – all good signs, but in the meantime it is damnably inconvenient! Not only do we have permanent blackouts, but we now have no electric water boilers working; no food clinics for invalids and babies and, worst of all, no more bread, for there isn’t sufficient wood sent in to bake bread in the auxillary wood stoves.

On top of all this, many of the water pumps at the reservoirs in HK are electrically driven, with steam auxiliaries. Now, again due to lack of fuel, our water supply has been almost cut off – water in the mains is turned on between 6 and 8 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. and that is all!  And that with all this pouring rain outside!!

It has been agreed in these blocks, that no one shall have a bath or shower during this period of water restriction. This is a beastly inconvenience in this hot weather, but it is very necessary to conserve the water in the tanks on the roof; also, we fill the bath when the water is turned on and use this water for flushing the w.c. We wash in an enamel bowl, instead of the wash basin, so that we can flush the w.c. with waste water.

In these flats there is a lavatory off the hall, a servants ‘native type’ w.c., with one large and one small sink, and the bathroom with bath, basin and w.c.; but for toilet purposes the bathroom is the only suitable place to be used except when the water is on, and there are 27 people living in this flat! Consequently we are not supposed to occupy the bathroom for more than 6 minutes at a time! The six unfortunate males in this flat never get a look into the bathroom in the morning and we have to wash in pots of water where we can. It has been too wet of late for clothes washing, but goodness knows what will happen when the first fine day comes along.

The rainfall must be at least 24” above the average by now, for over 12” must have fallen in the last 3 or 4 days. It has not been absolutely torrential, but has been heavy and persistent; the gardens are in a sorry plight. We have just lost 5 more little pumkins which is a great blow.

It is an awful strain for 6 people to be herded into one room in this wet weather; one room where we sleep, eat, cook and try and live. Tempers are apt to get frayed. Visiting is both a blessing and a curse: a blessing for the visitors and a curse for the other occupants of the room! I can understand the slum dwellers point of view now, by Jove. One good thing about this particular summer is that the temperature, generally, has remained exceptionally cool for HK and this has been a great blessing. It has not tired us out so much and it seems to have kept down the bed–bug menace quite considerably!

Hurray! The first fine day for weeks – and the water has come on again. Incidentally, there never need be a water shortage in Stanley during the wet season, for the upper Tytam Reservoir is always full and, being situated higher that this peninsula, by opening certain valves and closing others, the pumping system can be dispensed with and the supply can be affected by gravity flow. I hear that Woodward of the Water Works went up the hill to Nemuri and explained this; so perhaps that will ensure a constant supply of water. We sincerely hope so. The hospital would have tremendous difficulties with a water restriction.

No electric current has come on yet. A short announcement appeared in the paper yesterday to the effect that the Colony’s coal stores were exhausted ( I told you so!) and that no new shipments had arrived owing to the recent typhoons but that they hoped new supplies would arrive soon (perhaps!). This throws us back onto cooking all our vegetables on the chatty, which is a blow because we are at our wits end to find fuel.

Harold (Bidwell) roused my ire considerably the other day when I discovered he had chopped up and burned two decent sized planks that I had lent him months ago. Y and I had been reserving them for making shelves if we ever obtained an amah’s room to ourselves, but Harold was under the impression (in a hazy way) that he had swapped the planks for something! Anyway, it is no use crying over spilt milk, or burnt wood; but in these conditions such normally trifling incidents are apt to loom larage and we felt agrieved, for, if the planks were to be burnt, we thought we were entitled to part, at least, of the wood! Such is life in Stanley.

Now we are casting round for other sources of supply. We have our eye on a step ladder that resides on our verandah and that is seldom used. The Lammert family have now managed to obtain a small table for their use and Y and I use the table I made some time ago from the top of our ice chest. So we are also eyeing (with destructive designs) the larger teak wood dining table that we could dispense with! We admit it would be a crime but, que faire? Then there are the blocks of our wood block floor!! But we hope something will have happened ere that – best of all - we shall, perhaps, be out of this place.

But it is an ill wind etc. and to pass from the sublime to the ridiculous (or vice versa) the Japanese sent us in pheasants on Monday evening!! These birds must have been part of the Xmas stock that the Dairy Farm had laid in and put in cold storage and that the Japanese have left in cold storage all this time. Now that the electric current is off it must mean that the cold storage is no longer functioning and that they have to dispose of the food. So now, instead of sending us the usual miserable supply of sprats every other day that we have been having, they sent us in pheasants on Monday and pheasants again today. On Monday we had 42 birds which, on Tuesday, with sweet potatoes, the cooks made into game balls fried in oil and giblet and vegetable stew this morning. Today 40 birds came in (for our blocks) and we shall have, I hear, two game and vegetable stews this time. These 42 and 40 birds have to feed some 560 people in these blocks so we don’t get much more than a taste, but is that taste good! I hear that, as a nation, the Japanese are not fond of game which, if true, is fortunate for us! Earlier on they supplied us with frozen carcases of sheep and also liver; but that was in the good old days of meat and I presume they have already exhausted those stocks.

The Dairy Farm people in camp say that, at the time of the capitulation, there were 12 tonnes of cheese in cold storage! But I fear we shall never see any of that. The last time we ate pheasant was in Jimmy’s Kitchen!

The news from France is marvellous and the paper admits American air raids on Japan proper. As usual, wild rumours are flying around: that Germany has advised Japan she is about to ask for an armistice; that a military mission of 36 delegates has left Tokyo for Berlin to discuss the military situation (I don’t know by what route they would proceed!); that Amoy (Xiamen) has fallen to American officered Chinese troops and that we may expect to be incarcerated in the gaol anytime now (presumably for our protection and to keep us out of mischief)! At any rate, if this fine weather lasts at all, I think we can expect more air raids here. They never fail to cheer us up, though we feel sorry for the Chinese in town.

We hear, by the way, that there have been more food riots in town. When our last consignment of rice came in the other day, in an ex HK bus, the Japanese sergeant and the private, who were it’s armed escort, were very excited and in ‘quite a state’, as the rations squad said, and explained that the bus had been rushed by a mob of Chinese as it left the godown and that they had had to use their bayonets on them. The ration party said that the sergeant’s bayonet sheath was quite badly dented. They are said to have lost a couple of bags of rice, but I fancy this is by way of embroidery. Poor devils, the Chinese must be in a bad way if they go to the extreme of rushing Japanese rations. The remainder of the rice is said to be under guard by a Japanese regiment at present.

A few days ago volunteers were called for from this camp to go into town and load lorries with rice (presumably for this and the other camps). The list was completed and then the scheme was cancelled – as happened once before, some months ago. This certainly seems to point to trouble in town.

Now there is no electricity, the block Chairmen have asked the Japanese for additional wood to cook with. Colonel Tanaka said, when the request was made known to him, that plenty of wood was being sent in for communal purposes and that people were taking it for use in their private cooking and that therefore all chatty cooking must stop! The Chairmen protested most vigorously and Lt Hara has said it may continue for the present, pending further enquiries. A strict watch is being kept on all communal fuel, for we are already finding difficulty in cooking the two meals per day and boiling the water (there are three water boils per day in our blocks and in some blocks only two). It will be miserable if we cannot use our chatties; what will be the use of our vegetable gardens? From time to time we have heard rumours that only enough fuel will be sent in for us to cook one meal per day. They certainly are in a bad way in town.

Another blow is pending. When the military authorities took over, here, they obviously found that this camp had not been run in the same way as those of the POW camps at Argyle Street and Sham Shui Po, where communal undertakings had been developed to a far greater extent than they had here. At these camps all the gardens had been communal and they also established a piggery or piggeries, which apparently have been a great success. (We hear they are now able to kill a pig a week, though I don’t know how many of them there are to eat it.)

It is much easier to establish such undertakings amongst service men, for the word of the senior officers is law. Amongst a civilian crowd, like those in this camp, it is not possible for the nominal heads of the camp, or internees’ representatives, to force civilians to do things against their wills, for the rights of the individual are still respected as in normal times and normal British law still prevails here, and any individual can take legal proceedings at the camp court and the legal rulings are upheld. In these circumstances this has really been a source of great weakness in running this camp ( especially concerning labour and billeting) and communal undertakings could only be launched if the internees felt inclined to comply. Generally speaking the ‘communal spirit’ has been sadly lacking in this place. Most peoples’ vision has been too limited by their own small concerns to enable them to take the wider view and fully appreciate the advantages of pooling resources.

There have been many inequalities here: some people are young and fairly healthy, others are old and unwell; some people have parcels of food sent in regularly and others have none at all; some receive money and some get none (apart from IRC allowances); some people came into camp with much of their wardrope and jewellery which they have been able to dispose of at handsome prices, and others came in with practically nothing more than the clothes they stood up in.

In distributing welfare goods an effort has been made to discriminate between the needy cases and the not so needy, but this becomes more difficult as time goes on, for many people have adopted the attitude of ‘take all you can get’ and accept stuff they could well do without. Only the other day Isa appealed to one of the other rooms in this flat to provide a new rag for the purpose of cleaning the bathroom as up till now, our room seemed to provide the necessary bits. Well, one of the occupants said she had a rag with which she would mop up the floor and this ‘rag’ turned out to be a perfectly good short sleeved vest which was issued to her when the IRC clothing was issued months ago. Many a man or a mother of a small child would have been very glad of that now.

Now, private gardening has enabled many people to increase their scanty resourses and catch up a bit with the more fortunate who receive money and parcels from friends outside. Also the enthusiasm displayed amongst private gardeners has been much greater than any enthusiasm exhibited for communal gardening. But the new administration, realising the possibilities of properly organised communal gardening have decided that all private gardens must be handed over to the community and this is to take place soon. It has come as a most bitter blow to hundreds of us here. Our gardens have come to play quite an important part in our lives in Stanley; they have given us an interest, which is vitally important and they have given those who need it the chance of augmenting their food supply, which is also vitally important. Now all that is, apparently, to go.

We are to be allowed to pick and dig up the produce that is mature, or will be in the near future, before handing over the ground. Really, life here is becoming more and more circumscribed; everything seems to be closing down on us. The Japanese Civil Administration never encouraged or gave a lead in communal enterprises,  and now we feel it is too late. If this camp had been run by the military people from the start it would have been a much better place. Properly run communal gardens, a poultry farm (primarily for invalids) and a piggery would all have been possible and probably would have been more productive than private enterprises amongst which there is undoubtedly waste and inefficiency. But it is really much too late in the day to think about that now – at least we all devoutly hope so. Nothing much can be raised from communal gardens before Xmas, and we all hope to be out of this camp by then. Of course, that is a thing that our Chairmen and representatives cannot very well tell the Japanese who, apparently, are planning for 3 more years of Stanley camp!!

Our gardening committee has done all it can to persuade the Japanese to let things remain as they are, but to no avail. Now people are saying, “If we have to give up our gardens for the community, why not pool all money and parcels too?”!

I don’t think that scheme would be very popular, for everyone hopes they may someday have a windfall of food or money and then they would hate to have to pool it. Besides, recipients of parcels may, one day, have to pay for them in hard cash, in which case it would be rather unfair on them. Some people receive 3 or 4 parcels a week regularly!

A long time ago, a year or more, R.S.W. Paterson of the PWD who is O.C. Labour in camp, found that there were so many cases, amongst the heavy labourers, of men developing heart trouble and generally cracking under the work that he began agitating and agitating for extra rations from the Japanese to compensate labourers for their extra output of energy. Numerous lists were compiled and submitted to the Japanese (I had several to prepare when I was block labour officer) but nothing ever seemed to come of it. (He did manage to obtain the ingredients for making biscuits for workers, the source of supply being, I think, the IRC). Then suddenly during April of this year, the Japanese issued a new scale of rations, making allowance for workers’ extras. Everyone was most pleased and surprised, and when the details were issued many people were most indignant as well! Before the details came out it was quite surprising how the erstwhile shirkers rushed around looking for jobs! The details, when issued, certainly caused surprise.

The internees were divided into five categories: heavy workers; light workers; ordinary adults; children from (I think) 6 – 12 and those under 6. The issue of dry stores is as follows:

        Heavy   Light    Adult   Child   Infant
Rice    20 oz   16 oz    12 oz   10 oz     8 oz
Oil    0.8 oz  0.8 oz   0.4 oz  0.4 oz   0.4 oz
Sugar  0.4 oz  0.4 oz  0.21 oz 0.21 oz  0.21 oz

In addition there is a small issue of salt, most of which is given to the kitchen. Recently the Japanese have doubled the salt issue, so now we are issued with about a tablespoonful each once a week. This is not nearly enough for our needs and Y and I have to buy from the canteen about ½ lb per week. For a little while the Japanese gave us a free issue of Indian tea, but after a month or two they said the stocks had run out. We asked for the local China tea but they said there was none available – and we are in China which produces tons of tea! From time to time they give us an issue of curry powder too, some of which is used by the kitchen and some (a dessert-spoonful) is issued every month or so to us individually. That, in addition to the fish (or fowl) and vegetables that come in once in two, or sometimes three days, is the sum total of our rations from the Japs.

The oil, which is bean oil usually (though we have had coconut oil), is a fairly recent addition to our rations and it is a most valuable addition too. They started issuing us with oil at about the beginning of this year. The quantity varies slightly and is never quite up to the quota, but it is not far off and is maintained fairly regularly. The sugar too is usually short and we get about 1 ¾ oz every 10 days.

In the ‘Heavy Workers’ category the Japanese included: all the Colonial Secretary’s Office staff (which was the cause of most of the indignation); the Chairmen and Committee members of the various blocks; the Internal Administrative Office staff; then heavy manual labourers such as kitchen staff, woodcutters, bakers, rations squads, refuse disposal etc; also the doctors (block and hospital) and dentist, the nursing staff and one or two other categories. The ‘Light Workers’ include such people as the camp workshop people – plumbers, shoemakers, and the like. From the lists of workers in the various blocks, the Japanese assessed the total number of extra rations they would allow and a camp committee distributed these amongst the blocks where the Japanese allocations were not quite definite.

After I resigned from the office of Block Labour Officer at the end of February I had no regular job for a time. During my period of office I had put into operation a scheme whereby all male labourers in our blocks, who so desired, could have a chance of working for a short spell on the kitchen staff. In those days there were two kitchen squads of 8 men per squad and they had three consecutive days on duty and three off. The committee approved the scheme of 4 permanent men per squad and 4 ‘casuals’ who were drawn in turn from other workers’ squads for a period of 12 days (6 on and 6 off). This arrangement operated in the days before the extra Japanese rations (which materialised at the beginning of March) and allowed the ‘casual’ kitchen staff to draw double rations from the food queues (which were allowed to kitchen workers) on the days on which they worked. Other extra rations or workers biscuits were allowed to other workers (according to the nature of their work) but the cooks and bakers were the only people who drew double rations at both meals for their day’s work. This question of extra rations had always been a source of dissatisfaction and grumbling throughout the camp; everone thought everyone else was getting more than his or her fair share. 

Every able bodied man or woman, by the ruling of our Block Committee, had to do some job or other, the penalty for refusal being that the individual was issued with raw rations. The threat of this was sufficient to compel most people to work, but there was endless wrangling and disputing and discontent. I found that in asking many men to start a new job or to fill a vacancy, the first question I was asked was, “What extras do I get for it?”

I became sick to death of the poor spirit of co-operation that prevailed. The idea of setting good examples was about as effective as would be the attempt to open the strong room of a bank with a tin opener. The reaction seemed to be, “Well, if he’s fool enough to do that for nothing, the more fool he!” Often, too, I was told, “There’s old so and so, he hasn’t done a stroke of work since he came into camp and I shan’t do anything until you give him a job.”

It was generally quite useless to point out that old so and so had a medical certificate exempting him from work, he was then promptly pronounced a humbug or worse! As I have said, the inablility to enforce discipline in this camp has been one of its great drawbacks and weaknesses.

Roy Heasman, who succeded me as Labour Officer had a much easier time, for with the advent of extra rations he found he had more people willing to work than there were jobs to be filled! Nobody has a kick now, for, whereas before, extra rations meant depriving the community as a whole of some of its food, that state of affairs no longer obtains. It also means that workers biscuits which had hitherto been given to heavy male labourers are now available for deserving cases amongst women – school teachers, clinic workers, vegetable cutters etc. who at one time drew no extra rations at all and who still get no extra Japanese rations.

These biscuits, by the way, have good food value; they are 2 ½ to 3 inches square and about ¼ inch thick and contain rice flour (as a base), bean flour, bran, a little oil or lard and a little sugar, and Yvonne, for instance, who now cuts vegetables twice in six days, gets 2 biscuits on the days she works.

Well, to return to my work, I was given a spell on the casual kitchen squad – two spells in fact – and then I was asked if I would like to make up one of the squad of 8 from the Married Blocks who were to start on a new communal gardening scheme that the Japanese had just put into operation. This scheme was suggested, unofficially, by a policeman in the Indian Quarters to the Japanese, and it met with their approval. Meijima, who was then in charge of the camp, said he was concerned about our rations and this suggestion would enable him to put quite a good case to the (I presume) Military Authorities in town. (Meijima was a good chap in many ways and was one of the few officers here who seem to have kept out of the ‘squeeze’ business. Yamashita, for instance, insisted that our canteen goods be ordered from certain shops, and knowing the East a little, I know that could mean only one thing.)

This scheme was that all spare cutivatable land within or near the camp should be cultivated by a gardening squad of male internees, and the produce, while remaining the property of the Japanese, should be looked upon as supplementary or emergency rations for the camp in the event of some emergency arising which would prevent supplies of vegetables coming in from town. In return for the labour expended, extra half rations per day would be given to the men in the squads.

There were two squads of 30 per squad; one of which worked in the mornings and the other in the afternoons, from 9 – 11.30 and 1.30 – 4.00. The squads alternated between morning and afternoon shifts. It really was a good scheme; it received the blessing of the Japanese authorities and was put into operation on 21st April. 

There is a much larger percentage of men in the St Stephen’s and Indian Quarters Blocks than in these Married Quarters and American Blocks and consequently more men were drawn from the former than the latter in comprising the personnel of the squads. We signed on for a month, after which period a new batch was given the chance of enrolling for a month and so on. Actually, the percentage of spare able bodied men in our married Blocks is so small that several, who enjoyed the work, were able to go straight on for a second month. I found one month was quite enough for me! The extra food, I found, barely compensated for the extra output of energy.

But this was not my real objection. I did not like the work because it was so uninterestingly organised. The leaders of the two squads found it most convenient for themselves to put the same men on the same work day after day. Consequently, my recollection of it is that of a pretty ribby coolie who did nothing but hoe for several days in the blistering sun or the cold, cold rain; then who carted earth in a bucket with another coolie from one spot and dumped it in another; and then carted buckets of water up and down the hill to another chap who, with a perforated tin, sprinkled the potato cuttings etc. Had I been in charge I think I would have divided the area into 3 or 4 lots with so many men allocated to each lot and let these smaller squads see the whole thing through from breaking ground to planting and watering the cuttings. It would have added interest to the work and there would undoubtedly have been the added interest and stimulus of a mild kind of inter plot rivalry. As it was, most of us got very bored which made the work far more tiring than it need have been, and we spent our time ‘clock watching’ and sitting down for as long as we could! That, in my opinion, is a great argument against communal gardens (run on those lines) and why private gardening, where you plan what you are going to do and see the result of your labours, is so much more interesting. I found that time in my own garden always flew, while in the communal gardens it generally dragged.

On May 20th I finished my gardening contract and a day or two later, as a couple of men on the wood-cutting squad were ill, I was put onto wood cutting temporarily. I used to be a wood cutter a long time ago and though the work is pretty strenuous I had always rather enjoyed it; it is tolerably clean (better than building ovens with mud!) and the hours are regular and you know  just how much you must do each day. These are quite good recommendations when daylight is precious and you need to be able to plan your day. The rest of the squad seemed to find my work satisfactory (!) so Purves, who is now in charge, arranged with the Labour Officer that I should stay on the squad.

When I first started work, the Japanese were sending in enormous great logs, 2 or 3 feet in diameter and wet with sap and it nearly killed us sawing them and then splitting them. Much of the wood was Banyan which, owing to the peculiar growth of the tree, was so crossed grained that it was terribly hard to split. Until my flabby muscles grew accustomed to the sawing it used to exhaust me and I began to wonder if the wasted old frame could stand up to it. However, that was only the initial phase and after a day or two I got used to it and with the extra rations I actually felt fitter. Then, mercifully, the stocks of this larger timber ran out and the Japs have been sending in smaller stuff since, which is much easier to cope with.

Now the 8 woodcutters are divided into two squads of 4 each and we cut on alternate days. We have to cut and split 650 lbs per day, or just over ¼ ton. During this hot weather we start work at 06.30 and generally manage to finish by breakfast time (or morning roll-call) at 08.00., by which time the sun is up and beginning to get hot. I enjoy working in the morning with hardly anyone about. Except for special workers like ourselves and the cooks, no one is allowed out before roll-call.

In assessing the heavy workers’ rations for our blocks, the Japanese allowed 6 double rations for woodcutters. Our committee decided to put 8 men on the squad so we each get ¾ of a double ration each day. This means that for one week I get ½ ration of extra food for the morning meal and a double ration for the evening meal and the next week, double in the morning and ½ in the evening. I draw my extra oil and sugar at the end of 10 days. The oil and sugar Y and I divide, or rather, share equally and I give her some of my extra rice and when Y gets her two biscuits for vegetable cutting she gives me one, which is very nice. This means I actually draw 6 ozs extra rice each day, making 18 ozs of raw rice. We miss our bread very much these days. I have boiled rice for breakfast, the morning meal, the evening meal and supper; but I draw the line at boiled rice for tea too and content myself with a cup of tea and a cigarette! Y, however, manages rice for tea as well - as do most other people.

Looking back over these lean years, we are both very thankful to the Almighty for the good health that it has so far been our good fortune to enjoy. We have both lost weight: Y from 135 to her present 105 lbs and I from my peak camp weight of 151 to 132 (60 kilos – my father was 5 ‘ 10”). Y was 104 (47 kilos – 7 stone 6 lbs) and I, three months ago, 131 (our lowest yet) but we have both managed to put on a pound each since. My blood pressure is 115 (which though low is above average for camp) and Y’s 102 over 80 (about average for young women here). 

Though I weigh less now than during my first low level of 134 lbs which I reached during the first 3 or 4 months in camp, I do not feel as weak as I did then. This is probably due to the fact that my body can assimilate more rice than I could then; that during those first months I lost weight more rapidly than I have since; and I have grown used to feeling pretty puny and cannot so easily compare my present state of strength with my peace-time condition as I could in the earlier days.

What a day! King Michael of Romania has ordered his forces to cease fighting against the Russians; the Anglo-American forces have pushed right up the Rhone to within the vicinity of Grenoble (what a stupendous advance!); an American torpedo factory has ceased producing torpedoes as ‘the change in the war situation’ no longer renders their production necessary, and the Russians on the Eastern Front have brought up enormous reserves preparatory to a big offensive against the Germans. The war on the Eastern Front has ‘reached its climax’. The Anglo-American forces have reached the outskirts of Paris.

This morning we heard officially that our IRC parcels are now in Hong Kong and will be delivered as soon as possible. There will be two parcels each for people over 10 and one for children under that age. In addition there are: 14 cases of cream; 10 cases of medicines; 10 cases of foods for children; 7 cases of special infants food; 4 cases orange juice; 4 cases for material for shoe repairs and 3 cases of nurses uniforms. There are 617 cases each containing 8 parcels! We don’t know what is in the parcels; I think these come from Canada this time. We hope we shall see some of the cream and orange juice, but these may be kept for the TB cases. We also hear that home mail has arrived, though this is unofficial and may not be true. Also Zindel can give all internnees a small allowance – our last IRC allowance, which we received at the beginning of June, was MY12.50 each. 12.50 now would buy 1 ½ lb of wong tong or 1 lb dried beans!

Then to crown all we had grouse sent in from the Dairy Farm and tonight we had one bird between two people! It was delicious. Unfortunately, a little of that sort of thing makes you aware of the insipidness of your usual veg stew! But what a day!! Hang the gardens! The war will be over soon!

The only snag about sudden, stupendous days of news is that life has to return again to its narrow little rut, and the rut is apt to look rather smaller than usual by comparison with the gala day. However, news is still good and our troops are doing splendidly in France. If only I could be there doing something instead of just sitting and waiting and waiting for news and worrying about stupid, petty little troubles!

Today is David’s birthday (Yvonne’s brother) and he will be 9 years old. What a change we will see in him when we eventually meet; he was not quite 5 when he and Chère were evacuated. Yvonne celebrated her birthday on 6th August and our programme was much the same as that on my birthday, ending up with a select gathering in Maudie’s room. I managed to beat out from an aluminium fan blade a plate and two spoons. I riveted brass handles onto the spoons (for strength) and if we could keep them polished they would look quite smart. These by the way were Y’s birthday present, for we were short of plates and spoons. The china plates belonging to Isa and Mr Lammert have gradually been broken and spoons have mysteriously vanished.

We hear the parcels may arrive some time this week. Most of us had given up all of hope of ever seeing them. I certainly had. Well, we haven’t got them yet!

Maudie has been causing us some anxiety of late. She has lost weight slowly but steadily since she has been in camp. She told me once in England she weighed 204 lbs! When she arrived in Hong Kong she weighed 188 lbs and by taking a course of slimming exercises with Knedgie, the Russian, she reduced her weight (just before the blitz here) to 156 lbs. At that she felt very fit. But now she weighs only 104 lbs and that is much too little for a woman of her build and boundless energy.

She had kidney trouble before the war and has had one or two recurrences of stones in her kidney whilst in camp which have been excruciatingly painful and very exhausting for that reason alone. Lately, her heart has not been behaving too well and Dr Deane-Smith, who has been attending her, has ordered her a complete rest for two weeks. She must not leave her room or do any work. Poor Maudie, she was never any good at sitting still even when surrounded with all home comforts; but here, couped up in a small room it has really depressed her a good deal and she cannot help worrying a good bit. It would be awful if she was taken seriously ill now; her heart is in no condition to make a major operation advisable. 

If only this British repatriation scheme had materialised and she and others in a similar condition had been able to get away and receive proper treatment! I don’t think it will ever come now. Maudie simply hates being ill and now she is most impatient with herself. She needs more than just proper food; she needs medical treatment too which she cannot be given here. I hope for all our sakes, but especially for the sakes of people like her, that our internment will soon be ended. I am told that many of the people who have gone practically blind here have received almost irreparable damage to their eyesight. This is simply a matter of food deficiencies, but it has lasted too long now to permit of more than partial recovery.

George Merriman, Hong Kong’s leading radio expert is an example of this. He comes and talks radio and gives instruction to Mr Lammert on most afternoons and it really is pathetic to hear him asking Mr Lammert to describe to him the various diagrams in a radio text book which they are using and with which George is very familiar but which he can now no longer see.

I think Maudie’s two weeks rest will do her a lot of good, but she will have to go very carefully while she remains in here. Thank goodness she has had a regular supply of parcels from Sophie O’Dell. If she had needed to subsist on ordinary camp rations I hate to think what her condition would be like now. Thank goodness Capt. Minhinnick, now a POW in Formosa, does not know about it or he would be perpetually worrying about her. So too would Peg (her daughter). Well, I hope soon to report improvement.

During the beginning of or middle of July, the Billeting Committee told Maudie and Vera that they wished to billet a Miss Sherry in their room, as the room they occupy in Block 10 is registered for 3 people and they have been lucky enough to get on marvellously well together (though they met for the first time in this camp) and were as happy as it was possible to be in these circumstances. The news that a third person had to share their room was an awful blow, but they could raise no objections, as they had always known it was a room for three people and had always admitted their luck in having it to themselves. However, neither of them knew this Miss Sherry (a most tantalising name to live with here!) and they asked if Elma Kelly could move in instead, for she was not happy with the person with whom she shared a room. Elma was pleased with the invitation and Maudie and Vera were pleased when the committee ratified the arrangement. Phil and I and one or two more of Elma’s friends helped her to move house. When we saw all the junk she had accumulated we wondered how on earth she would stow it in her new abode. However, she managed to pack it away like any Jack Tar and now, there they are, rather like 3 sardines in a small tin, but still with enough room to allow the oil to circulate! Maudie and Vera have, of course, felt the change a good deal; they feel crowded and where, before, when one was out the other had the room to herself, this seldom happens now. Maudie says she is suffering from claustrophobia! But she is bearing it philosophically.

August has gone – the last week or so of it in a welter of much needed sunshine – and we have entered September, the fateful September. Most people seem to think that Germany will surrender before the end of this month. Please God they are right. For some time now I have had a date sticking in my mind – since my birthday in fact. The date is October 17th. What will happen on that day – if anything – I do not know. I am not psychic and I don’t know how or why this particular date intruded itself upon my consciousness except, perhaps, because it is a nice old sort of date. Any way, I must make a note of it just in case something of real importance occurs on that day and then I shall be able to point and say, “I knew it”!

We all wonder how long Japan will try to continue the struggle by herself. Some people are even of the opinion that she may pack up first to avoid the possibility of embroiling herself with Russia and thus losing territory to that old foe of hers. I think Germany will go first but Japan will sue for peace if Russia threatens her as well. It must all be over by Xmas; I couldn’t stand another Xmas as a prisoner here. 

There is another sad item of news to report. Mr Edmonston of the HK Bank, second in command after Sir Vandeleur Grayburn (who died just about a year ago) died in prison on August 29th. On the morning of the 28th Mrs Edmonston was summoned to the prison and was briefly informed that her husband was dying. She asked, what of, and was told, beri-beri. How long had he been ill? (This was the first she had heard of it) Oh, about a month. Dr Valentine came to the prison, on hearing the news, with an injection of (I think) thyami, but no doctor was allowed to see Edmonston. The Prison Authorities said their dresser could administer the injection – whether he did or not we do not know. Mrs Edmonston was allowed to see her husband, but he was in a coma and, apparently never regained consciousness before he died. I am told that he was like a wasted skeleton. After his death he was taken to our hospital where an autopsy was held. The findings were that all his organs were quite sound, that he had slight traces of beri-beri, but that he had died of ‘nutritional anaemia’ or, in plain language, starvation. For some reason the Japanese seem to want to get rid of the bankers.

It makes us very uneasy about the others still in the gaol. Cruickshank, Foy, Caniage and Leper, and Dr Selwyn-Clarke. Edmonstons’ only child, Mary, aged about 16 or 17, is also here in camp. I do not know them personally: I hear they have taken this shock with great courage. It is terribly sad that this should happen with the end so near.

Yesterday in the early afternoon, the road to the prison was closed and presently a car bearing a red flag and some Japanese officials drove into the prison. A little later, this car, accompanied by the enclosed prison van, made its way down to the execution ground below the Prep School. We hear that two persons were executed, though how this is known I cannot say. No shots were fired so the executions must have been performed by the sword. The victims must have been of some importance or the officials would not have come in especially to witness it. We have seen Europeans taking exercise in the prison grounds for some time now, though who they are we do not know. The food parcels that had been allowed in to Selwyn-Clarke and the bankers were stopped yesterday so we presume they have now received their sentences and are no longer remand prisoners. We hope to goodness that none of these or any other of the Europeans were executed. Of course, it is just possible they may have been Japanese. There are Japanese prisoners in the gaol (many of them are military men) though they seem to enjoy more freedom than the Chinese and Europeans. It is horrible waiting for news.

Well, the Community gardening has started. So far our particular plots are not affected as they are starting up here on the ex-football, ex-tennis courts field and on the St Stephens gardens. In this football field they are going to plant nothing but Lo Pak or Chinese turnip. They are quick growing and should be eatable, though not fully grown within 6 or 8 weeks. Quite a number of men who have lost their gardens through this community project have joined the gardening squads. They work for two hours in the morning – from 9 to 11 a.m. and from 2.30 to 4.30 p.m. in the afternoons. Some do only one shift per day for which they draw half a heavy workers ration; others do the double shift and earn a full double ration. The weather has turned really hot now with the sun blazing down. It must be blisteringly hot working, especially in the afternoons and I wonder if it is going to do some of the older ones any good, in spite of the extra food. When I worked on community gardening we cultivated a lot of waste ground and some old servants’ gardens on the slopes of ‘the hill’. We planted lots of sweet potatoes and quite a number of pumpkins. The latter were in an exposed position and were badly caught by the two typhoons which killed practically all of them. So the pumpkins were written off as a failure; but the sweet potatoes have gone ahead quite well and should be ready to be dug up now if required.

Before I finished my month we had started cultivating the old Indian Quarters garden. This area was left outside the camp limits when the Japanese ringed us in with barbed wire after the first 6 months or so of camp here, and when they allowed this area to be re-cultivated we had to have a Formosan guard to accompany us. Some of them are quite friendly and chatty and could speak Fukienese or Swatanese and some, Cantonese. Some, on the other hand, were very surly.

We once had quite an amusing and interesting conversation with one of them: one of our squad could speak the Swatow dialect which this guard could speak. He was most interested in our marriage customs: were we able to choose our own wives? At what age did we generally marry? How many children did we generally have? Were we allowed to kiss our wives before we were married? If we were bachelors could we kiss any girl? (Yes, if the girl holds no objection!); was it permissible to kiss another man’s wife? (Ah, that was a very difficult question to answer!)  We explained our system of a period of engagement. He envied our freedom in choosing our own wives; he said his father had selected his wife for him and that he had seen her once only before they were married and then had not even spoken to her or heard her speak. He said that nowadays, there were signs of a slight relaxation in the custom of parents setting their children’s marriages and that a very few lucky fellows were allowed to choose their own wives. The most that the majority of them were allowed to do was to express a preference for another girl if they had set their heart on one, but this carried no weight if it did not meet with Father’s approval.

This man was 24 years old and he had been wed two weeks before he was called up by the army and had not seen her since – some three years ago now. He is a pleasant lad, as most of them and, like most of them, he and his family were farmers. He said they were all shocked at the way women behave here, walking about in scant clothing and arm in arm with their husbands or friends (instead of, I suppose, walking meekly behind their husbands). He was a nice lad with a keen sense of humour. He guessed my age at 25 and I didn’t know whether to feel pleased or not.

One other amusing incident remains in my memory. Five of us were detailed one day to start hoeing a fresh plot of ground. We worked for some time, talking of this and that and I suddenly became aware of the somewhat extraordinary English that was being spoken. On looking round I found that one of my companions was a Russian, one a Polish Jew (arrived in HK shortly before the war and whose parents and relatives, from whom he had not heard since the outbreak of war, lived in Warsaw), one was a Norwegian and the fourth was Dutch! I alone represented GB! I think it is true to say that nearly every European state except Turkey, Spain, Sweden, and Germany, has its representative here. We have a couple of Hungarians, Austrians, Belgians and even a Lithuanian. Most of them have taken out British papers, or the Italian for instance would not be here. In addition there are Americans, Chinese, Indians, a Brazilian plus people from many parts of the British Empire.

But to return to gardening: another plot that is being cultivated outside the camp boundary is the old St Stephens sports field. This is really a large area and has a big squad engaged on it. Altogether there must be at least 120 men on these gardening squads.

Today the European war completes its fifth year and embarks on its sixth! I do not think it will last for much of the sixth year. A number of the more optimistic people in camp have lost bets on this date, as they had wagered the European War would be over by Sept 3rd. Well, there may be something in my date of 17th Oct. 

On Friday last we had another most pleasant surprise: the Japanese Authorities sent us in ox-tongue! So since the electricity has been off we have had pheasant twice, then grouse and now tongue. It arrived frozen in blocks. I am told it will take 3 months for the inner chambers of the cold storage depot to thaw out so we continue to live in hope! This time there was enough tongue for about 3 ½ ozs each. That was supposed to last three days, but having no refrigeration of our own we had to eat it at once – not that we minded! It was boiled and allowed to cool and then cut in slices. Each person received quite a decent slice. Then cooks made a delicious vegetable stew with sweet potato, taro and onions cooked in meat liquor with rice flour thickening. It really was a delicious meal. If we get a few more like that we shall soon be putting on weight.

Yvonne stayed in bed today with a slight feverish cold, it may have been from a touch of flu, but she is better now and will be up tomorrow. That reminds me that on Jan 16th this year I went to hospital for four days. I caught a heavy chill and had in addition an upset tummy. By the evening I had a pretty high temperature and Y sustained quite a shock when she borrowed a thermometer and found I had sent the mercury up to 105’. Dr Smalley came and packed me off to the hospital. They thought it might be malaria and took a blood smear and dosed me with quinine. The blood test proved negative so then I was dosed with castor oil, followed next morning with salts and then I was put on a course of strepticide. Their second guess was dysentery but in the end they put it down as enteritis, a mild form of dysentery. I still think it was a heavy chill on top of an upset stomach. The strepticide kept me awake for the whole of the third night. I did not sleep a wink. I thought of everything under the sun and got so bored that at 4 a.m. I just sat up in bed and smoked a cigarette! The following night I was given a sleeping draught and slept like a log.

I quite enjoyed my brief stay in hospital, especially as I was given half a pint of milk each day. Y used to visit me in the afternoons, bringing a thermos of tea and we had tea with milk in it! When repatriation was first mooted, the hospital called for volunteers amongst the men to train as male nurses for the men’s wards, as the QA’s and the Naval nurses were on the repatriation list. Some of the bankers, who had recently come into camp, volunteered and Mike Holmden, Alec Kennedy, King and a man named Evans (who had come out from England and driven a truck on the Burma Road) used to sweep the ward, wash the bedridden patients and make our beds. They have kept on with the work ever since.

The war news is simply stupendous. There is a rumour, which the Chinese newspaper announces, that our troops have entered Saarbrucken, the first town on German soil. Anyway, we know they have gone through Arras, Donai to Mons in Belgium, and have reached Sedan further south. The southern army in France have chased the Germans out of Lyons now. The German retreat has developed almost into a rout. This precipitate retreat must mean vast concentrations of men and materials along their supply or communications routes and in the virtual absence of their own air force it must mean that they are at the mercy of our bombers. If only they would pack up now and shorten the inevitable end, what wholesale slaughter they would avoid.

We hear that British and American bombers are engaged daily on the ‘carpet bombing’ of Germany. It makes me shudder to think of it. I know what bombing is like when only 250 lb bombs are used. When it comes to 1, 2, 3, or even 4 ton bombs it does not bear thinking of. I cannot help remembering that the majority of Germans wanted to remain friendly with Britain. I hope and pray that a far sighted and constructive Peace Treaty will be made this time. Finland, Bulgaria and Rumania are now out of the war and the German forces in Italy are in a critical position. The Russians have now started a great offensive against East Prussia. No one expected the Anglo-American forces to reach Germany before the Russians. This advance must have been the fastest in the history of the world. It has made the trench warfare of the last war look silly.

As usual, rumour has outstripped fact: our troops are not yet in Saarbrucken; but they are not far off. 

There was a sad death in the hospital early this morning: Mrs Hyde, who died of colitis. They operated but could not save her. She was the wife of ‘Ginger Hyde’ of the HK Bank, who was one of the seven victims from this camp, executed by the Japanese some months ago. Since that time, Mrs Hyde had withdrawn more and more into herself and when she became physically unwell she became so depressed with life and thoughts of the future that she just ceased to have the will to live – even for the sake of their son Michael who is somewhere in the region of 8 or 9 years of age. She had said that if she died her parents would look after him and that he was still young enough to get over the deaths of his Father and Mother. Poor kid, he does not yet know his father has died but I suppose someone will have to tell him about his mother.

Another tragic death occurred here during the first few days of May this year. In fact there have been several tragedies during this summer. This one, to which I refer, was the death of little Brian Gill, aged three, by drowning. We had come to know Billy Gill, his mother, through Vera Armstrong. Billy is a Chinese girl who comes from a good family. She married a British army sergeant who left her high and dry in HK, with Brian, when his regiment was called home. Whether he intended to desert her or one day intended to get her to England, I do not know. At all events, Billy had entirely to support herself and Brian and little Brian meant everything in the world to her. Down at the beach a fresh water stream trickles down the rocks and into a rock pool that has been built up. It is about 6’ or 7’ in diameter, and about 2 ½’ or three feet deep and is intended for a fresh water rinse after a bathe in the sea. It is amongst the rocks right at the western end of the beach and was a favourite haunt for children. For most children it was perfectly safe, but for a small little chap like Brian it proved fatal. The awful part about the whole tragedy was that Billy’s great friend, Nina Quin, had taken Brian to the beach that afternoon and the accident happened while she was sitting chatting to some friends. The children who were playing said they did not know anything untoward had happened until they noticed Brian lying on the bottom of the pool. He had evidently slipped or jumped into the pool and was immediately out of his depth so that he uttered no sound at all. They tried artificial respiration for over an hour, but with no success. Poor Billy was nearly frantic when the news was broken to her. She rushed to the beach and fainted three times in as many minutes and had, eventually, to be taken to hospital. The Japanese closed the beach for about a fortnight and on reopening it they put the rocks at both ends of the beach out of bounds.

Y and I have not been to the beach at all this summer, chiefly because the walk there and back is so exhausting. We intend to take our tea there soon as the weather now is very nice, though the sun is very hot. I did go once, a month or two ago, but only for the purpose of bringing back two bottles of sea water. That was during the days of an acute shortage of salt; the kitchen used the whole of the salt ration that the Japanese sent in and the canteen was unable to obtain any supplies at all. We did not realise that sea water rapidly goes bad, especially in this hot climate, unless well aerated, and when we used some of the same water on the second day it upset both of us!

A Mrs Rose died soon after the Gill tragedy, and this time it was two young children who were bereft of their mother. Mr Rose is a POW in Sham Shui Po Camp. Then on May 22nd Mrs Wilmer died. She had been in hospital for a long time, 9 months or more, following a severe heart attack. She had had a weak heart for years and in hospital she had several bad relapses and finally developed fluid in her legs which gradually rose through her body until it reached the regions of her heart. Poor thing, she had been hoping against hope that the repatriation ship would arrive. Dr Deane-Smith told me that if she could get out of this camp and receive proper food and treatment she should live for quite a number of years longer – she was 62, I think. She hated the idea of dying in camp. Mr Wilmer, who was simply devoted to her, bitterly reproached himself for not retiring in Oct of 1941 when his time was up. His firm, Jardine Matheson and Co had appealed to him to stay on for a while as so many of their junior staff had been called up and it would have been impossible to get another man out from England. Mr Wilmer said that if he had been adamant they would have left HK at the end of Oct and would have been home by the time the blitz burst upon Hong Kong, and if Mrs Wilmer had needed expert attention and special food etc. he could have obtained for her the best procurable. We tried to comfort him and pointed out that at the time and in the circumstances he did the thing which seemed best and most honourable and it was useless to flog himself with such thoughts. 

He is a very lonely man, with few intimate friends. Both he and Mrs Wilmer were most kind to nne and me in the ‘Courtland days’ (they lived there too) after Chère had been evacuated. Mrs Wilmer was a motherly soul, and I think, in the absence of her son (who is now in the army in England), she liked to have two young people to ‘mother’. I was most touched, I remember, when, just before our wedding, Mr Wilmer wrote me a cheque for $300 (about 20 pounds –pdv£900) in case I found I should need it. Actually I was able to return it unused after our honeymoon, but he said that when he was first married he had found things a bit tight and would have been grateful for a similar loan for a few months or a year. Mrs Wilmer made a plucky fight for it and almost her last words were, “I’m not going to die, Harry, I’m going to fight for it.” But later she lost consciousness and her frame proved too wasted to maintain the struggle. Mr Wilmer asked me to be one of the 6 pall bearers.

That part of burials here is rather sordid. There is just one coffin in camp – a rough and extremely heavy wooden box with a detachable bottom to which 3 ropes, which pass under it, are fixed.  The bodies to be buried are simply encased and sewn into a cover of rice sacking. The funeral processions start from the mortuary, the coffin being pushed along on one of the first aid trolleys (there are two of these trollies in camp, which are attached to the hospital and they are used for funerals, for taking people to hospital and for carrying hospital rations and firewood to the hospital). At the cemetery the 6 pall bearers carry the coffin to the grave and lower it. After the funeral service the top of the coffin is hauled up; the bottom is then tilted to one side, while the man who acts as undertaker arranges the body in the grave, and then the bottom too is hauled up. There is a Russian policeman who carves most of the headstones. These are granite blocks, a pile of which were left over when the St. Stephens Science block was built. Mr Wilmer visits the cemetery every day.

Until the beginning of July the road in front of the prison and across the old prison parade ground to the cemetery was open for our use, but when the military took charge they closed this part of the camp to internees. I think this was done because the Chinese, Indian and a few Japanese prisoners in gaol have been set to cultivate the parade ground and the area below the Prep School as a big vegetable garden, and the Japanese wished to prevent any possible communication between prisoners and internees. The prison must be self supporting as far as vegetables are concerned; they have cultivated most of the available ground within the prison too.

Now Mr Wilmer has to go to the cemetery via the steep St. Stephen’s path and he finds it very exhausting as it is much further round that way. He is none too well himself having lost 50 lbs since he came to camp. After Mrs Wilmer’s death he very kindly gave away some of her clothes to people who had tried to help her. He gave Yvonne a silk dress, two petticoats and a pair of stockings. One day he showed me something which shocked me very considerably: I ought not to mention it, but this is a private diary so I will do so. He took from a basket a silk belt containing three pouches. This belt had, I believe, been made for her by Mrs Wilmer’s mother and Mrs Wilmer had often worn it in peace time (when travelling, etc.) and ever since she had been in camp. One pouch was stiff with Bank of England Treasury notes; one contained a wad of HK$10 bills and the third was fairly well filled with American $ bills. I do not know the total value of the money contained therein, but it was considerable. M. Wilmer had often lamented the fact that he was unable to procure for Mrs Wilmer suitable invalid foods like eggs, fruit juice, extra sugar, tinned milk etc. He could have obtained extremely good rates of exchange in camp for any of those notes and there has always been a market in camp for the foods I have mentioned for people who had the money. I asked him why he had not parted with some of it and bought Mrs Wilmer these vitally necessary things?  He said that Mrs Wilmer had kept the belt in hospital and was reserving the money for an emergency. “Surely,” I said, “a state of emergency had arisen?” “She never considered her own needs to constitute a state of emergency”.

“Weak,” I thought. I know very well that were Y and I in a similar position I should have insisted on using the money. What absolute folly! The result in the end, might have been just the same, but he would at least have had the satisfaction of feeling he had done everything in his power for his wife. Curiously enough it did not seem to occur to him in that way and, of course, I did not labour the point at all.

Another sad death was that of a young ship’s engineer named Oates. A year before he had been full of vigour and when the first lot of Red Cross food arrived, was one of the enthusiastic camp boxers. Then he contracted dysentery and then malaria which pulled him down a lot and he was unable to pull up again on our camp food. Finally he caught a form of typhus – bush typhus, I think – the germs of which can be caught from the long grass in camp, though normally they have no effect on a healthy person. In his weak state he succumbed to this. He was 32, I think.

Yesterday we had news that a few hours after Russia declared war on Bulgaria, that country sued for peace with the anti-axis powers! Also liver was just sent in from the Dairy Farm cold storage!  It had completely thawed out by the time it arrived in camp and had to be cooked straight away. Hitherto these Dairy Farm goods have arrived still frozen, so it seems to indicate that the refrigeration is giving out. Today, no rations have come in at all and Gimson was told that an ‘accident’ had befallen the ship that was bringing vegetables from Canton. We wonder what the accident was.

For the past week or ten days there have been night raids on HK almost every night. They have been on a much smaller scale than hitherto, with probably not more than one or two planes participating. The night before last, however, at 4 a.m. we were wakened by some really heavy detonations and someone said they counted 18 crumps which must have meant 4 planes or more, unless they were very big bombers. Perhaps the Canton ship was bombed. Lately, a few ships have crept in and out of these waters, generally escorted by a destroyer. Nowadays they use the inside channel and come in between Beaufort Island and our peninsula – only  a few hundred yards off this headland – instead of using the much bigger outer channel between Po Toi Island and the Lemas (Jiapeng Liedao and Dan’gan Liedao islands ). I don’t know why this should be unless, perhaps, our planes have sown mines in the outer channel.

We have had two more unpleasant jolts today. The first is that no more cigarettes are going to be supplied to us. The second is really disgusting: the Japanese want us to use human manure (night soil as it is termed here) on these communal gardens. It is undoubtably true that this is the manure par excellence, but its use renders the garden areas absolutely obnoxious. It is used extensively throughout the Far East, the method being to put the sewage in tanks for a few days and then to water the plants with it – it is not even dug into the ground. That is when you must never eat raw veg in China. This football field is directly outside our block and if the Japanese have their way the stench will be absolutely unbearable.

Dr Macleod and the Chairman are, at present, vehemently objecting and protesting. They are heavily stressing the danger to our health from flies etc. This camp has always taken all precautions possible to prevent any epidemics, for once a bad cholera or dysentery or typhoid epidemic starts amongst people in these crowded conditions, people would simply die like flies. Nimurii, the Japanese interpreter, was talking to Macleod and other camp officials on this plot yesterday. He said, “Why wait for three months for your vegetables to grow, when if by using this manure, you can raise them in six weeks? We are trying to do everything we can to help you people and you do nothing but obstruct. In six weeks time there may be no more vegetables available in Hong Kong and then you people may die of starvation”. “Well,” said Macleod very promptly, “We shall die of disease in less time than that if you do use it.” “Nonsense,” said Nimurii, “On the prison parade ground they have had a manure tank for months now and nothing has happened”. “That is why we keep having dysentery cases here and can never quite clear them up,” said Macleod. The Japs have told Macleod that they don’t want to see him anymore! He by the way, was Director of the HK Health Services before the war.

In the meantime the Japanese have produced the tanks – old bitumen and oil drums – and have instructed the gardeners to get on with the job of sinking them in the ground. No official bulletin has yet been posted concerning either the cigarettes or this night soil project and we do not know for certain how the Japanese propose that this soilage shall be collected. There are rumours of two methods: a) that communal earth closets shall be built outside the blocks and b) each lavatory in the block shall be provided with a soil bucket and sand box which will be emptied three times a day (presumably by the gardening squad). I can see the personnel of the gardening squads dwindling rapidly!

I hear that the cigarette machines in the local factories were electrically driven and that they are now unable to operate as there is still no current. The available stocks are now running out. If this is the case they may still be able to let us have the tobacco and we can roll our own cigarettes. We should miss them very much as they are one of our very few luxuries here.

Every person in camp over the age of 17 is allowed 4 packets of ten per week and they cost 45 sen per packet. They are the cheapest kind of cigarettes obtainable in Hong Kong and before the war they sold at about 3 cents per packet (i.e. about ½ d per packet (pdv £0.10). Maybe our taste has degenerated a good deal, but they really taste quite nice now. There are many people who smoke more than 40 cigarettes per week and so there is a good market value for any packets that a person cares to sell. The present rate is Y4 (pdv £11.25) per packet and I have heard of Y5 being paid, i.e. more than 10 times the canteen price. So up till now, people with no money could always sell their cigarettes for Y12.40 per week profit. 

Maudie is a heavy smoker and, right from the start, Yvonne and I had let her have half our cigarettes, or more, as we could manage without the full ration. Recently, however, we let Maudie have three packets per week, kept 4 packets for ourselves and sold the remaining packet for Y4 which just about covered the cost of the 5 packets we bought for ourselves and meant we had our smokes practically free. It seems horribly like slick business methods, but some people have the money and are quite satisfied about the deal and it has been quite the recognised thing in camp these days.

Quite a number of private gardeners, particularly the police, offer garden produce in exchange for cigarettes – some, I regret to say, offer their rations of oil, sugar and canteen purchases for cigarettes, which is a bad thing as it means they are sacrificing valuable and necessary food to satisfy nervous craving. Poor Maudie has been worried about taking 3 packets a week from us as she says we could sell them for a good price. But we are glad we are able to do this for her. She has made us promise that if we run short of money we will ask her for some – which is typical of her. At present we are all right for cash.

After casting longing eyes at our tin of syrup that Yvonne Ho sent in, we advertised it for exchange for cash or food. We were surprised at the number of people who came after it. We were offered Y140 for it! (At the official rate of exchange of Y16 to the pound that is £8-15-0 for a 2 lb tin of syrup - pdv £394)!.  But we wanted to invest part of it in food because the value of cash depreciates daily, whereas the exchange rate between various foodstuffs remains about the same. In the end we accepted an offer from a Mr and Mrs Tanner of Y50 in cash and 6 lbs of dry rice. They wanted the syrup for their newly born baby and as their baby is allowed ½ lb of rice per day which it cannot possibly eat, the exchange suited both parties. At that time the black market price for rice was Y15 per lb which meant we sold our syrup for a cash value of Y140. Now one can get Y25 per lb of rice so already our syrup has brought us a potential Y200! As we are not yet out of cash we are still keeping the rice, either to sell when we want cash for canteen purchases or to keep as a reserve food ration. We do not regard it as part of our iron ration for last year we built up a reserve of 5 or 6 lbs of rice for this purpose. Some of this I saved from my double rations when I was on the temporary kitchen staff and some we exchanged for produce from our garden. 

This question of a food reserve is a sickening business and we long for the time again when we can feel we can go and buy what we need instead of hoarding food like squirrels hoarding acorns. The Bidwells and Lammerts have eaten all their iron rations, which we consider is most foolish and improvident. They however, argue that it is better to eat the food now while we need as much as we can get and they are sure that, even if this place is retaken and no food comes in at all for a few days, they could exist for those few days on whatever stocks happened to be in camp or on nothing at all, if necessary, for they are sure the hiatus would not last for more than a few days and that in any case there will be so many other people with no reserves at all that something will have to be done about it. Well, that is another point of view and it maybe they will prove right. Still, I think they would be wise to keep something in reserve. If such a situation did arise, we should feel morally bound to share some of our iron rations with them – which I am sure would make me very cross! Perhaps they will keep something from the Red Cross parcels when they arrive.

The Japs really are the limit; our parcels have not yet arrived in camp. A hope constantly deferred maketh the heart sick and by now the gilt has been quite worn off the gingerbread. It has always been the same here – promises about food, about letters, about repatriation and other things, are constantly being made and the reply to eager questions is always “manyana”. One feels like saying “Oh keep the damned things,” which no doubt, they would be only too pleased to do!

We have been told the parcels are all safely loaded in a lighter and are now only awaiting a launch or tug to bring them round the island. Apparently the Navy cannot, at present, spare a tug. Probably, in a few more days time they will say, “Very sorry; last night your aeroplanes dropped bombs on the harbour and one hit the lighter with your parcels and they are all sunk!”

Incidentally, I hope our airmen will be careful! At anyrate, we have heard (by post cards from the POW camps) that our Prisoners of War have received their parcels, which is something, 3 parcels each, I hear and a medical parcel each.

I have wondered if the food situation in town is becoming so difficult that they are deliberately holding back the parcels until more bulk supplies arrive in the Colony in case they have to use the parcels as an emergency ration for us. They have no business to do so, but unfortunately they have the last word. I expect the reason they give is the real one – there is, and apparently always has been, considerable jealousy and a singular lack of cooperation between the Japanese Army and Navy, from the lowest private to the most exalted officers. This was a well known fact before the war, when both the Army and the Navy were jockeying for the warmest place in the rays of the Emperor’s Rising Sun. Apparently the Army won in those days and could go to the Emperor either over the head of or behind the back of the Premier – in other words, the Army dictated the foreign policy. Now it seems as though the Navy is having a little more say in matters generally.

How I ramble along from one subject to another, just as thoughts come into my head. This diary will be a most annoying screed from which to collect facts – if ever I want to. However, these days I seem to be unable to collect my wits and keep my facts arranged in any clear sequence. I think many of us are going to experience considerable difficulty, at the start, in getting back to real brain work again!

While I remember it, we sold a small tin containing 6 oxo cubes for Y40 (pdv £112) There is little or no food value in oxo, and at the present canteen price we can buy 2 lbs of egg yolk powder with the money, which is a much better proposition for us.

Today the heavy workers had their monthly medical examination. I was very pleased to find I had put on 2 lbs and my blood pressure too had gone up. I now weigh 134 lbs and my bp is 122 over 70. So I am back to my weight of 6 months ago. Harold, poor chap, has lost 6 lbs this month and is down to 133 lbs. He has lost 14 lb in the last three months which isn’t so good. Yvonne too thinks she has gained a little in weight and we put down our gains to the egg yolk and bean flour and sugar that we have been concentrating on in our canteen purchases. Also, I think our garden produce has helped us a lot. But people’s weight here goes up and down in the most unaccountable manner – due probably to food deficiencies which affect various people in different ways.

Some time ago I started to write about our ration situation and got as far as the cessation of our meat and flour supply, the latter in the first half of Feb. The Japanese then substituted fish for meat and we received enough for a small piece of either fried or boiled fish once a day; or sometimes the cooks embarked upon more ambitious menus of fish balls or fish flake -  shredded fish covered with minced vegetables and baked in the bakery oven. Then, in mid March, the Japanese informed us that they were sorry but they could no longer maintain the existing fish supply and they would have to reduce our ration to half the amount. They said they would make up for this by sending in more vegetables. Soon after the New Year, when the army supplied our rations, the quality of the vegetables had improved considerably and they sent us carrots, tomatoes, European type and sweet potatoes and cabbage, all of which had higher protein and vitamin values than the quantities of local Chinese ‘greens’ we had been supplied with till then. They also sent in quite a lot of onions and the better kind of spinach and practically cut out the supply of chives, that most objectionable of vegetables, which they had sent us in large quantities the previous year. They sent us also turnips and kohl-rabbi (which is similar to turnip) but there is not much food value in these two types of veg.

Unfortunately the supply of winter vegetables began to give out by the end of April and in their place the Japs sent us pumpkins, brinjals, cucumbers, water spinach etc., all vegetable with about 95% water content and very little food value; in fact the rations began seriously to deteriorate after the army’s brief initial spurt, and there were a considerable increase in the number of cases of malnutrition. Dr Deane-Smith, with the assistance of some of the other doctors, had written a very clear and concise report on the food situation in camp and accompanied it with several graphs comparing the amounts of the various foods we received with the minimum required by a human being living a non active type of life, as laid down in a report published at the last International Medical Conference. Also, a comparison between the daily amount of calories our food rations supply and the minimum required for the maintainance of normal human life and also the amount required for those performing manual labour or active pursuits. At no time, since the beginning of this camp, have our rations from the Japanese even approximated to the minimum requirements, let alone the extra third or so necessary for manual work, and recently the graph of our supplies had shown a steady and adverse trend.

Dr Deane-Smith has specialised in dietetics and managed to bring into camp some of his books of statistics etc. He has kept records of camp supplies and malnutrition cases since the inception of this camp and intends, one day, to publish a full report on the subject as his thesis for his MD or whatever the degree is. In fact he has started work on it already. This report, which was very clearly and forcibly worded, was brought round to all the blocks and read out to us, together with a covering letter by Gimson and it was addressed to the Swiss Minister in Tokyo. The report could have left no doubt in the minds of the Japanese that their rations for us amounted to a starvation diet. One paragraph of the report stated:

“That the incidence of death in this camp coming through undernourishment has, so far, remained relatively small is due to principally three reasons:-  1) Through the supply of foodstuffs and money allowances received from the I.R.C.,  2) The private parcels received from friends in Hong Kong and  3) Through the produce of private gardens.  (For none of which can the Japanese claim any credit except that they have not prohibited these source of supply).”

This letter and report were handed to the Japanese on May 10th and some days later he was informed that they had been dispatched to the Swiss Minister in Tokyo. Whether it ever reached the minister is another matter, for Gimson never received any acknowledgement from that quarter.

Gimson was also informed by Hatori that we were receiving the same food rations as the fighting forces of the Japanese army. This we know was untrue because internees who got to know some of the Japanese guards asked them about their food and found they had considerably more. They always had as much rice as they could eat, and rice is the staple food that the Japanese have lived on for centuries and would be equivalent to giving us as much bread as we could eat. It may be that these guards were getting better rations than the Japanese soldiers in the front line but it would be impossible for any man to maintain a standard of fighting fitness on our rations.

The report listed a number of foodstuffs that were evidently procurable locally because they were sold in our canteen. The items include eggs, bananas, beans, bran etc. and the Japanese were asked to include these in our rations. Even one egg a week would have helped. However, none of these items has ever materialised. The one good thing that the Japanese have done is to issue us with ¼ lb of oil each every 10 days. This has been arriving since about March and has made a tremendous difference both to the quality and the flavour of our food. 

Yesterday afternoon, Walter Pryde, senior inspector of works in the Building Ordinance Office of the PWD died of beri-beri heart. His collapse was very sudden at the end. The day before he had walked to the hospital to undergo treatment and rest and the following day he died. The state of his health has been deteriorating steadily since he was interned, the cause being nothing more than undernourishment or starvation; he had lost an enormous amount of weight. So too has his wife and she too is in hospital at present. Poor soul, she worried and worked herself ill over her husband and all to no avail. One wonders if the arrival of the parcels would have saved him. I went to the funeral and afterwards called at block 10 to pick up Y who was visiting Maudie.

Deane-Smith was very pleased with the results of Maudie’s two weeks rest, I am glad to say. She had put on a couple of pounds in weight and her blood pressure, which had jumped up from the low region of 98 over 150 had fallen again to about 126. So Yvonne and I were much relieved. We are also relieved that she has decided to do less, in future, and take things more easily in here. She used to rush about far too much – and it was no use telling her not to! She told us, in the strictest confidence, a piece of bad news.  Elma, who is now a member of the block 10 Committee, had told Maudie the news after their committee had met in camera  (that is usually how these strict secrets are spread around! But Maudie, Y and I often exchange news which we do keep strictly to ourselves). Apparently Gimson had been summoned up the hill and had there been told by an agitated Nimurii that a mishap had befallen our parcels (“I told you so” I thought grimly!) They had been left loaded in the lighter in HK harbour and the lighter (evidently under inefficient guard) had been raided by Chinese in sampans, one night (starving wretches I expect) and a number of the parcels were stolen. Nimurii said they were very sorry this had happened and that the value of the stolen goods would be made up, but in the meantime he wanted to know if Gimson thought it would be better to inform the internees or keep silence on the matter. Gimson said he would first like to consult the District Chairmen first. Apparently the Chairmen thought the camp should be informed – which is in line with our usual British policy. The Chairman of Block 10 passed on this information to his block committee. So far, no statement has been issued on the subject. I suppose Gimson has to consider the effect on the morale of the camp. They do not yet know the extent of the losses sustained. I wonder what form (if any) the Japanese compensation will take. They must be feeling very hot under the collar for they had been asked repeatedly to expedite the delivery of the parcels and had it not been for their dilatoriness this would not have happened. If they replace the lost parcels with other kinds of food they are sure to be asked either why they have not improved our rations if there is food available or why they cannot continue to do so! The whole business is infuriating and I feel like breaking something. So near and yet so far – always the same!

This morning we heard that the parcels were definitely arriving in camp today and everyone has been talking about them. I have heard so many people say, “I won’t believe it till mine are in my own possession,” and Elsie said “Well, they haven’t arrived yet and I shouldn’t be surprised if they were finished on the way here”!

Prophetic words! It has been difficult to keep my mouth tightly shut, but those who do know have certainly kept it to themselves, for no mention of it has spread about camp and any news of our precious parcels spreads like wild fire. The Japanese must be cursing themselves for allowing the list of parcels due for this camp to be issued to us. Otherwise they could just keep quiet and say nothing. It will be very interesting to see what happens.

Now to return to the former theme, ‘food’. I have written about the medical report. Rations continued to deteriorate: instead of fish of reasonable quality arriving, the Japanese began to send us sprats – they vary in size and sometimes are the size of small pilchards and at other times are no bigger than whitebait. When they are small it is quite impossible to clean them and when they are cooked and served they are so bitter that they are almost uneatable. There is a squad of women in our MQ blocks who clean the sprats, when size permits, and for which they are rewarded with a worker’s biscuit. Now that the HK refrigeration has broken down, these fish stunk to high heaven when they came in and cleaning them must be a most unenviable job. On several occasions they have been condemned as unfit for consumption. When this happens of course, we simply lose that part of our rations and that is all there is to be said about it. These days the Japanese try and get them in straight away from the junks and they arrive during the afternoon. This is too late for the evening meal and they are cooked and served all by themselves at about 7.30pm!

About a fortnight ago, over 200 of the 700 residents of the Indian Quarters succumbed to fish poisoning! Some had to go to hospital. Some time ago the Japanese also sent us some squid (or ink fish) and once they sent us shell fish. No one ate the latter because it is known that in HK the Chinese catch shellfish in the vicinity of the sewers that debouch into the harbour and it is therefore very dangerous to eat them.

Amongst the more unusual vegetables we have received are bamboo shoots and lily roots. Bamboo shoots are considered a great delicacy amongst the Chinese, but again, their food value is very small. According to the latest scale of rations, we are supposed to receive, in addition to our rice, oil, sugar and salt quota, 11 ozs of fish and vegetables (together) per person per day. Sometimes, on good days, this amount is actually delivered, but it is often short of the specified figure.

The parcels are in! They came in yesterday and, strange to relate, the number actually delivered exceeded the amount previously stated by the Japanese! Well, someone was fooled somewhere. Gimson made no statement to the camp about the thefts from the lighter and as it turned out, it is just as well that he kept silent about it because everyone is thrilled at getting more than we expected and very few are aware that some were pilfered. No one knows how this extra is accounted for. I wonder if the Japanese had intended to hold some back and then changed their minds.

After the first lot of Red Cross parcels had arrived in camp (nearly two years ago now) plus the bulk supplies of food, quite a number of internees here received in their private parcels from friends in town, such items at tins of ‘meat and vegetables’ and brands of bully-beef which had evidently just made their appearance on the HK market and were identical with the goods we had received! It seems as though there is some giggery pokery somewhere. Anyway, things being as they are, I think we’re lucky to have done so well, and everyone is delighted. So far each of us has received two parcels and it looks as though there are enough left for one more each!

Now I must record the contents of each parcel:

• 1 lb Cow and Gate milk powder (in tins);
• 1 lb butter;
• 1 lb jam or marmalade;
• 1 lb packet of biscuits,
• 12 oz tin of Fray Bentos Bully-beef;
• 10½ oz tin luncheon meat roll,
• 8 oz tin salmon;
• 8 oz packet sugar;
• 7 oz pkt raisins;
• 5 oz bar milk chocolate!;
• 4 oz pkt cheese;
• 3 ½ oz tin sardines;
• 1 oz pkt salt and pepper;
• 6 oz pkt of coffee or 4 oz of tea; and
• a cake of unscented toilet soap.

16 items in all. They are marvellous parcels. The two best items are undoutably the milk and butter. Our bodies are so starved for these fats that when I consume them now, I can almost feel my body absorbing them on the spot! Y and I are revelling in butter and jam on our biscuits at present (spread as thickly as we do in peacetime) though after the first tin of each is finished I expect we shall content ourselves with the wartime ration of butter or jam, or a thinner scraping of both. We were lucky in getting two different types of jam (apple and raspberry, and apple and strawberry) and two different marmalades (pure orange and lemon, grapefruit and orange). It is marvellous to be able to sit back and feel that for the next two or three months our food situation is secure – we need not worry our heads for quite a time now.

One really unkind trick that Fate has played on us has been, for a long time to give us bread with nothing to put on it, and now we have the spreads but no bread to put them on! When the biscuits give out we shall have to concoct rice scones or something of the sort, or try eating the butter and jam on boiled rice, though that seems rather a waste. There is still no sign of the electricity coming on again.

Perhaps it is a good thing that a few of the parcels were pilfered, for it certainly expedited their delivery. I see, in yesterday’s paper that the Jap Govt of HK has initiated a system of harbour guards and patrols for the purpose of stopping the thefts which are taking place in the harbour.

The launch, which towed the lighter here, arrived at about 6 p.m. on Wednesday and the labour parties in camp, which had been instructed to stand by, went into action. There were 70 men at the pier unloading the lighter and loading the lorries, and about 50 unloading and stacking the goods in the godown. To begin with, there were over 1700 sacks of rice each weighing 100 kilos or 220 lbs, making a total of about 150 tons. Then there were drums of oil and (pleasant surprise) some cases of tea. These were Japanese rations and it is a comforting thought to think that the stuff is safely there in the godown. We don’t know that it is all for us, but we hope and presume it is. I don’t know the exact amount of rice this camp consumes each day, it must be nearly 1 ton; in which case we have 4 or 5 months supply in the godown. This is a much bigger reserve than they have ever kept before in camp; previously they have sent in dry rations by the month.

We read in the paper, some time ago, that a new consignment of rice had arrived in the Colony from Canton. It would appear that the food question in HK is becoming so difficult and uncertain, that the Jap army authorities have taken in big stocks now they are available for their own needs and for the needs of their prisoners for whose food they are responsible. Well, in addition to the Japanese rations, and the individual parcels, I hear there were cases of medical supplies, and nurses uniforms, of fruit juice, orange juice, cream, infants food and the other supplies formerly promised and, in addition, a case containing ‘soft ball’ playing gear and some books and indoor games. No doubt we shall get the details of the full supplies in due course.

The working parties had an awful time of it. The Japanese sergeant in charge would not allow two men to carry a sack of rice – each man had to carry one 220 lb sack. Lance Searle was on the working party and he said it was simply gruelling (and he is no weakling for he was President of the Boxing Society (or Club) in his last year at Cambridge). He said the Jap sergeant had armed himself with a soft ball bat (which is like a baseball bat) and when some of the weaker or more elderly men found the weight too much for them and stumbled and fell, the sergeant just stood and laughed and then prodded them with his bat and ordered them to get up and get on with it. Lance said he was a sadist and was just revelling in his task of European coolie driver. The first batch worked fom 6.30 p.m. till 2 a.m. They were then relieved by the second squad who worked from 2 a.m. until 9.30 a.m. All they had during this time was half a mug of congee. Lance said he thought a mug of tea would have been more sustaining. A lot of the men in these two squads came from the gardening squads, and of course, they received their double rations next day and did not have to turn out for gardening. They were absolutely whacked out poor chaps. It would have been tiring work on a normal diet, but everyone here is well below par. The weather just now is simply stifling too. I was not asked to turn out; I presume, because I was doing a block job which could not be put off for a day, as could gardening. Anyway, I am thankful I escaped!