Japs de-valued HK$ from $2=M.Y.1 to $4=M.Y.1.
Went for swim. Many memories of previous years.
Bodies on Cemetery beach buried today.
(Canton fallen? Russians in bad way.)
Majority of shops in town closed through Jap. manipulation of $.
Pork.
R. E. Jones Wartime diary: View pages
Shanghailanders warned of for 8AM, 10AM & then delayed until tomorrow.
Concert on Bowling green.
Cloudy, cool & a little rain.
(Beef)
Marvin married.
Rain.
10 Jap bombers flew over W-E this forenoon.
Shanghailanders went at 1PM.
More fanatical rumours knocking about. (Jap. Premier commits Hare-Kare & the Japs intend to withdraw from some of their captured territory. Aleutian Isles evacuated & 10,000 Axis troops sunk en route to Lybia)
Musical evening in 31 St. Stevens. OK too.
Fine hot day.
Fine day.
(500,000 American troops landed OK in B. Isles. Drusseldorf bombed & we lost 12 planes. German convoy (10,000 troops) sunk on way to Lybia. Stalin asked for 2nd Front. Germans captured Rostov but are being driven back with heavy losses in the North. Heavy fighting around Shanghai & Canton. 7 unidentified planes flew over HK. C. Hall ((Barbara Anslow: This may refer to Cordell Hull, the American statesman.)) states that remnants of Jap will be hunted or sunk in the in the immediate future. 2 high-ranking Jap. M.O.s have committed hare-kari. All this from BBC Sunday pm)
Makings of a typhoon knocking about.
A Mrs. Greenland joined up with the German class today.
News is coming on in plenty now & we pray that it is true. (3,000,000 troops attack in South (Burma?) 6,000,000 troops in B. Isles. French people leave for England. (Why?) Allied fleets commenced sweeping up the Jap. navy. All Jap air-dromes in China recaptured & Japs lost 700 planes since 16th. C. Hull ((Cordell Hull again, see yesterday's diary entry)) stated that all China ports & HK would be back in Chinese hands in 2 months. Local hosps. told to be prepared to receive air-raid casualties.)
Med. exam today in connection with Welfare Committee. All OK. B.P. 124-86.
(People who left for Shanghai (26th) supposed to be still here due to lack of shipping. The vessel intended for their transport used to evacuate Japs from Canton. All Japs in out-lying districts called into HK & Kowloon. Kowloon bombed today (dock-area) Some Indians employed locally sent away somewhere else. Burmese turn against Japanese. Rommell pushed back. American troops take over Iraq from British)
More rain.
Good news confirmed but a rumour is knocking about re Russians being in a bad way. However they seem to know what they are doing.
Rained off & on all day.
Meeting at noon. Usual tripe. Mrs Kelly & her bridge etc. ((Possibly E M Kelly))
Rained.
Plenty of news which confirms that received last week.
Rained.
No news beyond a re-hash of that received last week.
Jap civilians preparing to leave HK?
Heard that two or three married women with husbands away are pregnant. Human nature being what it is, several of us debated on & wondered how lucky we shall be in that direction.
Rained but nice during the afternoon.
Went for swim.
Much local news. Chinese forces coming down from Canton. Kowloon partly evacuated & Jap troops at Castle Peak awaiting transport. Our Prisoners of War now in HK. Kowloon bombed. General outlook seems to be OK.
Fine day.
Went for swim.
No news. (Later. German advance in Russia stopped. Chemical bombs being dropped with devastating effect by us. A three pronged drive being made by us via Thailand, Burma & China)
Several people who have proved self-support left the Camp.
Some shipping arrived today (Are they being allowed to enter but not to leave?)
Fine.
Kein neues. (('No news'. Jones has been studying German, and starts writing diary entries in German. We'll use Google Translate to try and make sense of them.))
Schönes Tag. Amatuer Nacht Koncert. Es war sehr gut. Geswommt.
((Lovely day.
Amateur Night Concert. It was very good.
Can't translate 'Geswommt'. UPDATE 9 Aug 2012: Jill Fell writes -
R.E. JONES's German is not perfect at this stage. His 'geswommt' should be 'geschwommen'. He means 'swam'.
))
Schönes Tag. Geswommt. Kein neues.
((Lovely day.
Swam.
No news.))
Schwesten von HK angekommen aber sie kein neues brachten haben. Franks gedet.
((Probably "Schwestern ..."', so "Sisters arrived from HK but they brought no news."
Can't translate "Franks gedet."
Jill Fell: Not sure if I can help with 'Franks gedet'. Who is Franks? Could it be 'Franks geht' - 'Franks goes' ? but it seems to me that coming into camp is easier than going!))
Einige neues kam, aber ich noch nicht hörte.
Wir neu kũchen haben und sie heute mittag starten.
((Jill Fell's translation:
Some news came but I haven’t heard it yet.
We have new cooks and they start at noon today.))