Nothing to do but wander around & see fresh faces. Looked at G2 all seems to be clean & tidy. Food poor & scanty. Had we known that we were to be interned here we could have buried & hidden quite a lot of useful stuff from the Prison.
R. E. Jones Wartime diary: View pages
Fish soup high & pork soup fatty & no bread so I’m hungry tonight. Wandered around the hillsides where Marj, Blackie and I used to go.
Settling down slowly again. Place being cleared up & kitchens being built. Wrote cards to Marj & home.
Commenced organized working parties today. Got bread for two days and it is as much as we had for one day yesterday. Cards left the camp. Outside news very good if true.
We are to have a general store & an allowance of 200Yen ($400) per month. Fresh milk will be available too. Things no doubt will buck up with time. Our Camp Comm. (Sir Atholl Macgregor) could not tell us the home news tonight because of Japs knocking about but he says it is 100%.
Nothing doing much today. A few more arrived from the Nethersole.
Barber’s shop opened & the same Chinese started to run a Canteen but it is a flop. Our own will be ready next week sometime & it seems that it will be a good one, $20,000 subscribed already.
Some people arrived from the University.
No home news today.
No work today. General meeting at 1.30pm & talked over things in general.
A normal day, no authentic news. Canteen not going yet due to women supporting the Chinese one. Are we to be repatriated?
Canteen project temporarily shelved due to Cheng’s desire to run his own Canteen at an enormous profit.
Singapore in danger?
Trench digging.
Boiler going at last.
Saw “Tiny” Baker. It was the other Baker who committed suicide. Fridge No.624088. No home news. Trench digging. Own kitchen in Garage. Food much better.
Trench digging. Black-outs to come for one week. Does this mean Japs expect trouble? We hope so. News re Singapore, Lybia & Russia, plus Wavell’s message is much more encouraging.
Demolishing ex air-raid shelter No4. Poor tiffin. Lovely sunburny weather. Evening meal not so good. Sir Atholl sold stock bought from Cheng. Many thoughts & visions of good food. When are we to get a decent meal? Gendarmerie apparently leaving, being relieved by civil administration. No news.
Sir Atholl disposed of the remainder of Cheng’s gear. Much colder today & it emphasises the hunger factor. (Players 10st ($1.20) (Facetowels 75cts) (Cocoa Malt $5) (Klim $15 per tin) Compradores ought to be shot or all their stock confiscated after this Jap trouble is over. Rations worst so far, the whole day’s did not fill a pint mug.
Not much doing today. No home news. Ex Indian old broken furniture auctioned off at ridiculous high prices. (Cane chairs $1 new going for $5) Cold & damp. Latrine trench.
Got power on today. Cold & damp. Nothing worthy of note. Japs told firmly re Convention & Int. Camp rules.
Jap paper looks bad for us if its report is true. Food rather scarce today. Our Canteen would appear to be a myth. Americans bought Cheng’s stuff & sold it today despite their assurance that they would boycott him.
Started the day off with some thin porridge 2ozs for $1. Cold.
Jap paper reports fighting in Singapore City but we are all inclined not to believe it.
Electrician.
Civil Adm. took over HK but the Gendarmerie (Military Police) refuse to recognize their authority. So, what now?
Cold. Butter ration. Trench digging. Jap big noise came out. Begged some flour and made chuppattees. M. brought us some Chinese toffee, damned good too.