Prep. school orders to clear for Consular bodies. Indians left to make room for them.
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The weather has been quite pleasant of late, thank God. It has been warmer and quite sunny on some days. This means we are able to sit outside a little more and so avoid being herded together quite so much in our one room.
The unfortunate bachelors who were quartered in the St Stephens Prep School were informed that they had to vacate their premises and move to the ‘Indian Quarters’, another block which had previously housed the Indian warders and which has now been vacated by the Indians.
Had last of TAB inoculation, good for 18 months. Morning off. We cooked porridge in evening and had some cold in morning.
Captain A. H. Potts and his companions, who are living in St. Stephen's Preparatory School are ordered to move to the Indian Quarters to make way for the Consular staff of the USA, Holland and Belgium:
We did not enjoy the prospect of joining a community numbering over 500 in those cramped quarters.
Captain Potts was in Stanley because he'd lost his uniform - he explained this to the Japanese, who nevertheless treated him as a civilian.
Fine day, did some washing.
Paper news not so good.
Noh maai faan ((sticky rice)) served & very few liked it.
Days like this in despair of you ever coming back here darling. Walked around on the back path & past GII & let my mind wander back into the past.
(Martin) / Ream "7 faces of Christ".
Warmer.
Lots of hard work in office - census.
Soon our little stock of firewood (Marina Kingdon's doll's house) will be finished, and that will be the end of the porridge. ((We found that the Kingdon family had pre-war occupied the flat of which our room was part. Mr Kingdon was in camp but family evacuated to Australia.)) Meantime we are cooking 2 lots of porridge at night so as not to waste the fire once started, and eat some cold in morning.
I still haven't got my glasses back.
Just over six weeks after Stanley was set up, life is still grim, as the American community hears at its monthly meeting, where reports are made about conditions and prospects. Continual representations are being made by Bill Hunt and the British leaders to try to get the Japanese to provide milk for babies, medicines and other basic supplies. Many people are still sleeping on concrete floors.
D.E.Is. ((Dutch East Indies)) likely to surrender. Yarn re Argentina revived.
Phyllis Harrop arrives in Kweiyang at about 3 p.m. She takes a bath at her guest house and meets the notorious Mimi Lau while making her way back to her room.
Wall built round Prep. School.
((Following text not dated:))
The rice ration suspended off and on as supplies fail. By mid-March the ration reduced from eight taels per head daily to 6.4 taels. By then also box of matches costing 50 cents, salt $1.40 a pound, peanut oil for cooking $3 a catty.
We sank 240 Jap ships & lost 100 ourselves?
D.E.Is. surrendered. (("At 09:00 on March 8 the Commander-in-Chief of the Allied forces, Ter Poorten, announced the surrender of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army in Java." See http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Dutch_Empire/Japanese_Invasion#Dutch_Surrender))
1/2lb tob. $20
After an exhausting truck drive from Kweiyang {Guiyang} Phyllis Harrop finally reaches her goal, China's wartime capital:
We arrived at Chungking {Chongqqing} about seven o'clock...desperately tired and filthy with dust and grime.
She meets Colonel McHugh of the US Army and gives him news of his friends from Hong Kong. She sleeps like a log.
In London the papers lead on Eden's speech of yesterday:
The Daily Express launches the slogan 'Remember Hongkong', and then reports:
U.S.Consular Staff moved into Prep.School
Chang reported for ration swindle.
Cressell ((sic.)) caused trouble in kitchen & staff walked out.
Death of Essie Jean Greenburg at the age of 46.
Mrs. Greenburg was a hotelier who'd put her 44 room premises on the market about two years before the war, citing ill health as the reason for sale.
Death of Mrs Greenburg (K. Docks). (45)
Dorothy Deakin & some Colonial Secretary's staff arrived in camp (some already here).