What a mercy it is that the food arrived, for the daily rations supplied by the Japs have fallen off again and we are receiving very small supplies. Fortunately they have maintained the flour ration and each day we receive about 6 to 8 oz of bread with an occasional meat pasty meal. For about the last month, however, we have had fish instead of meat and so have not had pasties, but the extra flour has been issued to us dry and we are able to make pancakes or cakes etc. on our hot plates. Unfortunately I am not a fish fancier and am very tired of this fish already – but that is my misfortune. We get about 2½ - 3 oz of fish per day, this is only enough to cook for one meal; so for lunch we get rice and a spoonful of turnips or cabbage, or a small piece of sweet potato, and in the evening we have rice again, another small portion of vegetable and the fish ration.
Owing to the bread issue and the fact that many people now receive money and or parcels from town, quite a number of people in these blocks, particularly the women, do not eat all their rice and do not collect it at meal times. Consequently, there is now a liberal supply of rice and those who want it can have extra. I eat as much rice as I possibly can, though I do not think it really does me much good beyond a certain limit, except to stave off the pangs of hunger. It makes me shiver when I think of our condition this time last year and I am devoutly thankful that we are in a better plight now. We think with some trepidation of the interim period that must ensue if Hong Kong is recaptured by our allies, when presumably the Japanese will no longer send us food and, apart from the risky procedure of supplying us with food dropped from planes, our allies will be unable to. Apart from the iron rations that each person has decided to keep, there are no food reserves here. It is impossible to build up such a reserve, as there is no suitable store in which goods can be kept dry, and more important, if we did pull in our belts and build up a reserve, the Japanese would say we did not need so much and cut down the rations, (this happened once) so we dare not do it.
Yvonne and I open one tin of bully beef every three days, so we each have 2 oz of meat per day in addition to the supply from the Japs. A 16 oz tin of meat and veg lasts only 2 days, as there is comparatively little meat in a tin. Last week the canteen managed to get in a large supply of pork dripping, enough for ¾ lb per person at MY2.55 per ¾ lb (pdv £28). So we bought 1 ½ lb (pdv £56) between us and an excellent buy it was, for we lack fats of any description. Tim has just poked his head in at the door to say we are each to have MY20 more next Monday, March 1st! If only we knew this was to be a regular allowance it would be so much easier. We have never known, in this camp, when our next windfall was coming or what it was going to be.
The 50 odd Dutch have been receiving MY80 (pdv £900) each per month for about the last 6 months and are able to buy all sorts of things from town. How we envied them! In addition, their quarters are not nearly so crowded as ours, seldom necessitating more than two people in one of the smaller rooms, which in our blocks hold 4, and never more than 4 in our 6 or 7 person rooms. They make an awful hullaballoo whenever a suggestion is made that they should squash up a bit. Perhaps if we were in their comparatively enviable position we should do the same. I must say that the British Community here does take these relative inequalities with the oft vaunted ‘stoicism in adversity’ that is attributed to our race. Also, true to type, we do like to have a hell of a grouse about it at the same time!