Fine. Cold.
More firewood arrived, good stuff too. Rations by junk.
Sang in Nativity Play.
R. E. Jones Wartime diary: View pages
Fine, Cold.
More firewood arrived.
R.Cs Nat. play at St Stephens.
Choir practice 5pm. Played crib with Steve after.
Rain & cold am, improved pm.
Nothing eventful today. With Steve pm.
New moon.
“Scharnhorst” sunk.
((The German battleship Scharnhorst was sunk at the Battle of North Cape on 26 December 1943.))
Dull & drizzly.
Everyone happy & optimistic re our chances of being happier this year.
Change of administration to be made.
With Steve pm.
Plenty congee today.
Some news to come re repatriation & new Camp conditions?
Better day. Cloudy. Nothing doing.
With Steve pm.
(10 Formosans to take over Camp duties, live in Prep. school)
Fine but cloudy.
Good news in Jap paper, 2,000 ton bomb raid on Berlin, Japs admit being on defensive, & Germans evacuate to point about 55 mls from Polish border.
Walk with Steve pm.
Lovely day.
No news.
Choir practice with orchestra 5pm.
With Steve pm.
(Peace delegation left Germany).
Fine. Bit of sunbathing on roof.
No news.
Walk with Steve pm.
Fine, colder.
Nothing doing eventful.
Wrote music nearly all day.
Kiddies Concert.
Fine, cold wind.
Wrote music, Choir practice 5.30.
With Steve after.
Par.[?] wood.
Canteen lists 126.
Have run out of cigs, matches, food, treacle etc all at once so life is a bit lousy.
Fine, cold.
Canteen buyer 126.
With Steve pm.
Fine, cold.
Quiet, uneventful.
Hopelessness creeping in, thinking of how old M & I are getting with no hopes of meeting again for sometime to come. Marrying seems to have been a mistake.
With Steve pm.
Black-out.
Sat in Brown’s room till 9.30pm. ((There were several men named Brown in camp, so I'm not sure which one Jones means. Maybe Donny Brown, a Policeman?))
Fine, cold.
Kids started school again.
Cigs arrived. 4Pkts.
Choir practice for “Elijah” at St Stephens.
With Steve after.
Getting more fed up as time goes on, thinking & thinking.
(Landing made at Dunkirk?)
Black-out. Full moon.
Fine, cold.
Started German lessons with Crutwell.
Choir practice at 5pm.
With Steve after.
Black-out.
Lights went off in Stanley area at 9.30 but came on again 9.50pm.
Fine, cold wind.
Meijima in Camp.
With Steve pm.
Black-out.
Final assault on Hall floor. ((Barbara Anslow explains: The flooring in the Married quarters and American quarters, a few others, and the prewar Prison Officers' club, had parquet wooden floors. When internees prised them up they burned merrily, being used to cook rice flour concoctions etc in their rooms. Alas for those living in the Indian Quarters, for they had stone floors. We Redwoods burned all the parquet in our room, but the tarry base beneath the parquet was very uncomfortable to bare feet.
One night the entire parquet on the large communal hall disappeared. From Mr Jones' diary today, he was obviously part of group who removed the flooring.))
Fine, & little warmer.
German lesson pm.
Air raid N.Ts 6pm?
With Steve pm.
Black-out.
Fine, moderate.
Appointment made with Dr. Hargreaves.
Choir practice 5.30pm.
With Steve after.
War news good for us.
Black-out orders more strictly enforced.
Wrote music am.
Fine, mild.
Cleaned rm, bthrm & kitchen.
4Pkts Cigs.
Jap Dr. around the Camp.
With Steve pm.
Black-out.
(5 more Es ex. in town. Gingles, Chester-Woods, Pascoe, Da Silva & Soares?)
((I guess he's noting a rumour that a further five people had been executed. Who is he referring to?
- Gingles: E F Gingle. He had been interned at Stanley Camp initially, but had later been allowed to live in the city.
- Chester-Woods: John Black's list shows a W R Chester-Woods interned in Stanley, but from Jones' comments it looks as though he had moved out of camp as well.
- Pascoe: Possibly Boris Pasco, who has been arrested by the Japanese at one point.
- Da Silva: Probably Marcus da Silva, who had smuggled money into Stanley.
- Soares: I'm not sure who this could be. Brian suggests "Soares might have been F. X. Soares, a banker who was certainly involved in some resistance activity but managed to escape to Macao before being caught." See http://brianedgar.wordpress.com/2012/05/22/edward-gingle-at-war/))