This diary cannot keep to dates. I must go back and write an account of the brief war here; and then later, a year old account of our wedding; and later still a somewhat hazy account of the two delightful weeks I spent in Ceylon with Mother and Father. At present my manual labour (supervising and bricklaying for our new communal kitchen) keeps me very busy during the day, and as we are blacked out and it gets dark at about 7:30, there is at present little time left for writing a diary.
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Got power on today. Cold & damp. Nothing worthy of note. Japs told firmly re Convention & Int. Camp rules.
Started working at hospital. Day seemed long. 4 slices thin bread and mincemeat at mid-day. Bitterly cold. ((Non-resident staff like me have meals there.))
Letter from Charles Pike (RAMC in Shamshuipo Camp) and one from Mabel. ((Now I wonder how those letters got into camp, there was no postal service!))
Morris 'Two-Gun' Cohen is taken to an interrogation room. Already there are an officer, an interpreter and 'two ugly-looking customers'.
Cohen realises that, although they seem to have a lot of information about him, much of it is jumbled and inaccurate, so when they ask him for details of his wartime activities with the Chinese and British, he denies everything. The two 'ugly-looking customers' start to mistreat him:
((Following text not dated:))
Increasingly subjected to retailers' tricks. We bought bottle of kerosene for small makeshift stove, to find it so loaded with waste oil it would not burn. Neighbours reported purchasing flour partly rice flour, corn flour, and even lime. One shocked to find sugar purchase weighted with crushed glass.
Fuel shortage another difficulty. Saddening to see looted blackwood furniture chopped up. Authorities threaten punishment for selling broken furniture as firewood. Also send police into hills to stop forest raiders.
What a thrill! As I was working today I heard the sound of an electric bell, and running into the building I found the electric current had been switched on! For the last week the Japanese have ordered a practice blackout and we hope that will officially end tomorrow; then we shall be able to have electric light – for the first time since the power station was put out of order in mid December.
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.
Enjoyed bread ((on hospital meals now)) again. We ate half a tin of our sausages tonight - fried in the tin on wood fire in our room.
Escape of French national Mr. Petro, who is to report to the Red Cross on the conditions of the American Consular officials:
Yes; we can use the electric light tonight! What joy! Today we have had a good day – in spite of the cold! For our evening meal we had rice, a little piece of stewed steak, any amount of stewed cabbage with a little tomato and to crown all a small pasty each of minced meat fried in pastry. It is the first time I have felt really comfortably full since I have been here. Let’s hope this is the beginning of better things.
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?
44 degrees ((7 degrees celsius)). Not allowed to leave rooms till 4.30pm. Apple & custard - lovely, but it's so cold. Row with Mrs G.
Death of Henry 'Kid' Marriott of the Dockyard Police.
Source and more information:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/stanley_camp/conversations/topics/2…
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.
Mincemeat and beans and a large quantity of badly cooked rice today. Am at last getting better at eating rice among other stuff.
American internee Norman Briggs describes today's main event:
(T)he order came at 7.45 AM that the entire camp should assemble on the vacant lot by the side of the prison. Everyone had to go....Going down to the field, someone made the bright suggestion that it was going to be a massacre...I don't think he was serious, but in our frame of mind, it sounded entirely within the realm of possibility.
Parade in rain while blocks searched.