Curiously enough, after receiving these letters, I passed through a period of most frightful depression. No doubt there were numerous contributory causes, many of them more or less subconscious – such as living all this time in such unbelievably overcrowded conditions; perpetual queueing for everything – meals, hot water, bath rooms etc.
Pages tagged:
In January 1943 the Senate of Hong Kong University had decided to hold matriculation examinations in approved subjects. These exams begin today.
Source:
Lindsay Ride, in Clifford Matthews and Oswald Cheung (eds.), Hong Kong University During The War Years: Dispersal and Renewal, 1998, 18.
Fine day.
Cookhouse. Fish.
((G))
Boxing pm. Very good too. Saw Steve after.
Dutch notified that allowance has been stopped by Tokyo.
Rumour that 6 ships on way for our repatriation.
Hosp people (18) to come in & occupy “D” bungalow. ((These were people coming in to camp from St. Pauls / "The French Hospital". See 7th May for details.))
Japs lost 13 from 21 planes over Canton.
St George's concert
Dorothy Lee is re-arrested and questioned about Selwyn-Clarke.
This time she is not mistreated, and is released on May 14.
Source:
China Mail, January 7, 1947, page 2.
Note: see also the entry for February 11, 1943
Note: for more information see
https://jonmarkgreville2.wordpress.com/2011/12/10/the-reign-of-terror-3…
EURASIANS:
Om 26 April J. L. QUIE and F. A. OZORIO arrived at A.H.Q. from HONGKONG. A joint statement is attached to this Sub-division at Appendix 'A': this contains much information about prisoners, internees, Third Nationals, etc.
OZORIO brought a letter from EMILY HAHN, an American journalist who is free in HONGKONG. The letter is addressed to:
MITCHELL DAWSON,
First National Bank Building,
CHICAGO Ill.
The following extract may be of interest:-
Dutch allowences stopped for present
18 arr. fr. French Hospital (Dr J.B.Mackie & Mrs. (Molly Churn), Dr Court, Dr Nicolson, Mrs Selwyn-Clarke, Warburton, Kerrison, F.D.Angus, Macey, Dr Graham-Cumming came to camp)
18 people (and one child and one baby), the main body of those living at the French Hospital, are sent into Stanley today, arriving at 2 p. m. They are assigned to Bungalow D. ((R. E. Jones records 5 more arriving on May 19.)).
Fine.
People from French Hosp arrived 2 PM.
Drs Selwyn-Clark & Burgie/Bungie [?] detained in town in connection with money swindle?
((G))
Boxing pm.
((G))
Late last Saturday night the Chinese Supervisor came and handed me 50 Yen from Hoo Cheong Wo of which I gave 5 Yen to N.D.M., H.S., C.W.C. and T.M ((probably George William Craig and Thomas MacIntyre)) and 15 Yen to D.B.B. This gift of H.C.W.
Death of Elizabeth Agnes, wife of A D Humphreys.
St. G. concert
Wedding - Ronald Charles Fitzgerald - Irene Elizabeth Hicks (Upsdell)
Bl.-out
Vegetables (including the unfailing small supply of sweet potatoes) amount to just over 6 oz per day; meat and fish amount to about 2.5 oz per day, but from this the weight of the bones, heads, tails etc. have to be subtracted. The supply of salt and sugar is still the same i.e. 3 oz of each per week. Dr Deane-Smith, the dietetic expert, submitted to the Japanese charts showing the graph of necessary and normal food for Europeans against that of food supplied by the Japs.
OBJECTIVE: Bomb Tien Ho airfield in Canton. This is the first raid on a target in the Pearl River delta by the China-based 14th Air Force, the successor unit to the China Air Task Force (a unit of the India-based 10th Air Force). This is also the first raid on a Pearl River delta target by the 308th Heavy Bomb Group, and only the unit’s second combat mission.
TIME OVER TARGET: ~1:30 p.m.
AMERICAN UNITS AND AIRCRAFT:
Death of Elizabeth Agnes Humphreys, aged 54.
Before the war she'd lived in Chatham Path (May Road). Her husband was Alfred David Humphreys.
Ronald Charles Fitzgerald, a Prison Officer, marries Irene Elizabeth Hicks, a stenographer.
Sources:
Humphreys: http://www.roll-of-honour.org.uk/civilians/html/h_database_64.htm
Sandbach / Myhill
6.30pm Sacred Music
Many happy returns of the day, Betty. How lovely England will be looking at this time of the year. May and June are usually wet and humid months in Hong Kong; in fact the weather generally breaks up halfway through February and really heavy rain falls during May and June, and from thence gradually slackens off, very little falling between September or October and February – this, from my memory of things. July and August and September are the chief typhoon months.
Issue of 1/2 lb flour