We drew our rice rations for first time, half a catty per head per day as expected.
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9am all Internees to open ground NW of Prison & searched, rain & cold made things more miserable especially for women & children. Quarters searched too. Food late, 2.30 & 7.30PM & not so good either. Hurry up relief & food say we. (Vth column, Sallis, Blumenthal, Hodge?)
Dearest, - it is now Saturday 14/2/42 and we hear from the Jap paper that Singapore has been captured. I do so hope you are away some place.
To 10.00am church, then to work. Tiffin wonderful because there was suet roly-poly with apple afterwards.
To concert in P.O. Club in evening - good fun. Community singing. Some good cracks - 'Who is the owner of this pair of shorts marked 'Windle'?' and 'the Americans are certainly good swipers'. Both jokes refer to the likelihood of people appropriating some one else's property.
Today Jean Gittins enters Stanley.
Gittins, the daughter of Sir Robert and Lady Clara Ho Tung, is Eurasian and in a position to claim either British or Chinese nationality. So far she's stayed out of Camp, living alongside Gordon King and Arthur Bentley, in Hong Kong University.
Steiner / Rose
((Following text not dated:))
Household garbage again in streets, and fly nuisance increasingly hard to bear. Authorities becoming concerned, and newspaper published long list of areas set apart as rubbish dumps. These included Southorn Playground, Chinese Recreation Club, and in our district a vacant lot on Blue Pool Road.
But middle of February sweetest music was tinkle of rubbish cart bell, inviting us for first time in weeks to bring out our garbage.
Yesterday we spent a most unpleasant morning. I had just had my turn in the bathroom and was recovering from a cold wash when Nielson, our chairman, hurried in to say that everyone had been ordered to parade on the open space beside the prison. It was a dismally cold and rainy morning and everyone felt rather miserable, no one knowing the reason for the order. People turned up in all sorts of queer apparel; some wrapped up in bits of canvas or blankets, a few well equipped people with umbrellas.
Cold. Layed in till 9.30AM & talked of food & what we would do if we had plenty. Wrote to Tommy Edgar.
Now 15/2/42 - China New Years Day. We have just finished the box of Ryvita you left for me - it has been delicious - now we have no biscuits or anything like that but maskee.
For almost a week I've been well fed, and if that stops, I shall have at least have had this little building-up.
Dr. Talbot gives cholera and typhoid injections to the Americans.
The fall of Singapore is announced in Hong Kong, accompanied by much rejoicing among the victors.
Sources:
Talbot: Maryknoll Diary, February 16, 1942
Singapore: John Luff, The Hidden Years, 1967, 171.
Asst. Electrician today & taking lamps from Ind. Qtrs for use in flats with none were reported to the Japs. Were taken inside and led to believe we were to be beheaded. Sure a frightening twenty minutes.
Released after Marvin repaired a radio in the Prison. I don’t want an experienced ((sic)) like that again.
Concert at St Stephens. Wasn't much. First we had to have a picture show by our hosts Singapore has apparently surrendered. ((Film show was supposed to be in celebration, mainly a kind of Jap documentary. A few shots of bottles of beer going along the assembly line - there were nostalgic cheers from the men in the audience at the sight.))
Mum got peas in the canteen.
Back on Trench. Cold & drizzly. Porridge $4.50 Toffee $4.50 Canteen started to run.
Ash Wednesday, but we were too late waking up to go to the church service.
Lovely pork.
Walk in evening with Mum who gave me verbal cooking lessons - we both enjoyed these meals in our imagination.
((An explanation of the canteen in Stanley:- Limited supplies of prized food were sent into camp, and sold usually twice weekly - if you had money, which was very limited as people hadn't been paid since fighting ended. Each person was only allowed to buy so much of a particular item.
Elections for a British Communal Council (to replace the Temporary Committee) are held. The elections are organised according to a division of the Camp into eight districts or 'blocks'. This time more government officials are elected.
A week later six people are elected to represent the Camp as a whole, including L. R. Nielsen and B. Wylie.
Note: see also entry for March 2, 1942
Sources:
Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, 2008, 10
HK celebrated fall of Singapore now known as Bhosan Port.
Prof. Gordon King supposed to have escaped & told the world of our ill-treatment. If true I hope it does some good.
Now that Jap has Singapore & everything seems favourable for an AXIS victory I don’t suppose anything anyone does will help us any. Food not so good today. Our only hope now is that Germany gets a beating, & very soon.
Pork and crackling again. Depressing news. We ate our tin of pineapple.
The Temporary Commitee had planned to end its activities today, but three extraordinary meetings were necessitated by the attempt of the Chinese Camp Supervisor, Mr. Cheng, apparently in collusion with some elements of the Japanese authorities, to force the internees to pay for their fish and vegetables and for the accommodation in the brothel-hotels during January.