Today sees the first case of wet beri beri (caused by Vitamin B1 deficiency) in Camp. There are to be many cases over the next four months until a weekly dose of thiamin is added to the internees' soup.
Sources:
Beri Beri: Geoffrey Emerson, Hong Kong Internment, 1973, 150 (See also entry for May 5, 1942)
On March 18, the Tweed Bay Hospital had on its rolls 90 staff members and 60 patients of whom 19 were due to discharge. 50 percent of the patients were dysentery cases. Fortunately, however, the dysentery prevalent in the camp is not of a severe type and the average time of such patients in hospital is a week.
Bowls finals. England beat Wales.
Fine day.
Weekly meeting, nothing worthy of note.
Then on the 18th afternoon Mr. Epstein informed me that he had heard on the quiet that there were two planning an escape that night which meant that we had to move and move first, so we decided to get away that night and be ready at around 9p.m. having got some of the gear over the hill and hidden the previous night.
The night of March 19 is one of the most dramatic in the history of Stanley: seven people in two separate groups begin their successful escapes from a Camp in which security is still relatively lax.
Krupps & Renaults bombed to hell. We are 5 to 1 up on Axis with planes.
Japs landed in Aust.?
Particulars taken for C.S.
We carried on and at daybreak we were not far off Cheung Chow Island. We did try to make for Cheung Chow but just as before, the wind and tide would not let us, so we tried for another island nearby and the same thing happened; by this time the sea had quieted down, so we got out the bamboo pole which was to act as a mast, and the sail which was one of our blankets. Having no place to fix this pole, O’Neil held it between his knees.
Now 19/3/42 - no more news. We had a joint meeting of XC and L.C. yesterday and passed some resolutions.
We are hopeful now that food may come to us from America. I hope Anthony Eden's speech on atrocities in H.K. did not worry you too much - there have been many and useless senseless destructions but that is all to be expected. We'll soon repair all the damage etc once we get going. Well this is just a scrap to show I was thinking of you - I do every day - every hour I am sure. A.I.A.W. B
Some people have escaped from camp.
After a night of intense effort, Priestwood and Thompson are disappointed to find they've only covered a couple of miles and are on the upper slopes of Stanley Mound. Through binoculars they pick out their old home, Bungalow 'C'. Priestwood spends the hours of daylight hiding her list of internee names, while Thompson mends his shoes.
9 escaped from Stanley (Wright, Priestwood, Fairfax-Cholmondeley, Epstein, Thompson, Vaness, O’Neill).
Roll call 8 a.m. and 10 p.m.
NO meetings.
((Following text not dated:))
One day mid-March we walked to town via Tin Lok Lane. Raining and failed to see sheltering sentry until his harsh "kurrah!" awakened us, whereafter had to stay where we were until released to go home.
7 escaped from Camp. 3 USA. 2 Police. 3 for Ind. Qtrs.
Roll calls introduced.
Cholera inoc.
Fried bread in peanut oil in a sardine tin - delicious. Staff in Hospital Office to be increased. ((A daily report of patients in camp hospital, and of births and deaths, required by Japanese.))
Egg ration today - Mum and I boiled ours.
Gwen Priestwood and Walter Thompson leave behind Stanley Mound as soon as it gets dark on March 20. They find the taps are working in a deserted bungalow and this solves the water problem for the moment. They proceed cautiously northwards up the Tai Tam Road.
Torches, typewriters to be handed in within 3 days.
New labour reorganisation posted.
Roll call 8.30 p.m.
Russia has all Ukraine. Total war declared on Germany & occupied France. Counter-attack by Allies in Burma. Three Jap big ships sunk?
All this news makes us very optimistic.
Begley, - “social service” / Rankin