On the 15th January, the Japanese ordered all patients who could walk to parade. We were then herded together and transported across the harbour in lighters and marched to Sham Shui Po Barracks, which had been converted into a POW camp. It consisted of a married quarters called Jubilee Buildings and a large number of wooden huts.
The only thing that could be said in its favour was that it was spacious, and also possessed a parade ground. The food was worse than at North Point and consisted of a small bowl of rice twice a day, without meat or vegetables, or even salt.
The rice had been swept up from warehouse floors and first had to be soaked in water to allow matchsticks, paper, and other refuse to float up to the top. This was our diet for the first four months. At the end of this period, over 80% of the camp were suffering from malnutrition and deaths were occurring at the rate of four or five a day. The strength of the camp at this time was about 5,000. The Indian troops and most of the British officers had been placed in other camps in Kowloon.
During these four months, we were on starvation rations and some of the things done to alleviate hunger were quite incredible. Within a month there was hardly a blade of grass left in the camp, and all of the many pet dogs which had been brought into the camp had been eaten - and enjoyed. Ingenuity and necessity combined, brought forth many weird and peculiar inventions to catch birds around the camp. Even snakes were a delicacy. Fortunately, the camp still had electricity laid on, and many and varied were the gadgets devised and made out of odds and ends - water heaters, fires, lights, etc. One of our greatest hardships was lack of cigarettes, and for the first few months our only chance of getting a smoke was to exchange any valuables we possessed, such as wristwatches, rings, etc. with the' Japanese guards. Cigarettes were at such a high premium that it was possible at one stage to buy a gold watch for ten, a blanket for two-, or one-day ration of food for one, and it was a common sight to see the men drying tea leaves in the sun to smoke in their pipes.