Warm, showery NW wind.
Carried bricks 988lbs. Chopped wood.
No lorry or news.
Steve came up tonight and we listened to Heasman play some Beethoven.
Cigs can be forgotten it seems. Some very inferior ones are coming in illegally still via Formosan guards and the camp traders are smacking up the price.
Saw Dr. Grooge ((maybe Dr Yaroogsky-Erooga?)) on Wednesday at the clinic and then Prof Digby on Thursday morning with the result that I am now in Tweed Bay Hospital expecting to go through an operation for my piles. I came in on Saturday evening and was put in ward 3 temporarily. This afternoon I transferred to ward 1, the surgical ward.
Wittenbach / Johnston
Warm, light N wind, veered to E and strengthened pm.
Cleared some rubble away am.
No lorry.
Poor meals.
With Steve pm. Mary had managed to get some tobacco so we had a couple of smokes, very pleasant.
Large convoy arrived am.
Guards more open in their trading. 1 catty tob. = Y200.
Warm, cloudy. E wind, gusty.
Carried bricks 1568lbs.
Ramp with cigs getting worse. 1 Pkt cigs = 1 tin Kam (Renny)[?] Perhaps I’ll be in a position to repay the “good turn” one day. (Page 190. Z. Grey’s “Call of the Canyon”)
Lorry in with wood, fish & some canteen stuff.
3 papers.
Russians in Belgrade 5th.
Oil 64 Yen in town.
With Steve pm.
M lent me Y30.
Tresise passed me a packet of cigs.
Warm, cloudy, E wind.
Putting up wall in new combined cookhse with Joyce. Drew full labour oil and sugar.
2 lorries in with firewood.
With Steve pm. Mary gave me pkt. cigs.
Paper has good news. Americans denting the Siegfried & the British 25 mls from Cologne 7th. Finns in action against the Germans, Russians push ahead in Lithuania.
Mrs. Cryan comes to see Franklin Gimson this morning. She complains that she left a pair of shorts to dry on a line, and on her return she found they'd been thrown into a corner with the zip fastener and the area around it cut out.
No-one has any idea who was the culprit, but Gimson feels that the crime is a symptom of the current 'extraordinarily low morale' of the camp. He has been warning about the deterioration of morale, and this is proof - albeit in an unexpected form - that he was right.
and 5 yrs married today. Wrote my card to Marj.
Cookhouse construction & wood chopping.
Lorry in 4.20 pm with veg. No paper.
With Steve pm.
Formosan guard tells of US invasion of the Phillipines.
Fine & warm E wind.
I hope that I can look back to this entry next year 11th Oct in the presence of my wife & little daughter.
Death from TB of Maurice Alfred Johnson, aged 60, manager of Otis Elevators.
Source:
Philip Cracknell at http://battleforhongkong.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/stanley-military-cemete…
Maurice Alfred 'Monty' Johnson, a superintendent in the Police Reserve, dies of T.B. A holder of the DSM, he'd lived with the rest of the police in the Luk Hoi Tung Hotel before being sent to Stanley. ((See also tomorrow's entry))
Sources:
George Wright-Nooth, Prisoner Of The Turnip Heads, 1994, 201;
http://www.hongkongwardiary.com/searchgarrison/uniformedcivilians.html#_ftnref18
Rained early am. Fine, cloudy, E wind, much cooler am & pm.
On cookhouse construction.
Oil, curry powder & sugar issued.
Posted card to Marj.
With Steve pm.
Had my foot dressed. Much sepsis about lately causing swollen glands.
Death of Maria Anne Duncan, aged 72.
Monty Johnson ((see yesterday's entry)) is buried today.
George Wright-Nooth and the fellow police officers in his mess act as pall-bearers. The coffin's covered by a sheet and on it are placed the deceased's medals, cap and cane. The Rev. Upsdell, Chaplain of the Forces, conducts the service, which is well attended.
Sources:
First daytime raid for long time.
Cooler, overcast, E wind.
Cookhouse construction & chopped wood.
Much movement of shipping by Japs.
With Steve pm.
Lorry arrived with wood, matches & salt fish.
