20 people (14 Fathers) left the camp
Request programme concert (M.C. Brown). ((I'm not sure which Brown this was))
Pages tagged:
Zingall, of I.R.C. ((Zindel from the International Red Cross)) had nothing of importance to impart.
News nil.
Concert P.M.
Dr Y.E. has ordered Mabel to have 2 bottles of milk a day. ((A small number of little bottles of fresh milk were sent in from town daily to the camp hospital for patients specially in need, also for young children.))
We've got our post cards ((to write and send away via Japs)).
Bonnie Macklin had on a sweet little tussore dress & lovely red hair.
X'
Mills/Blackmore ((I'm not sure who these refer to. Usually MacNider notes the people leading the church services on a Sunday, but though there were several people named Mills and Blackmore in camp, neither look to have a missionary or church background.))
(Short - "message to Xtians in Stanley")
Issue of 1 pkt. Royal Leaf 60 cents
That bay and beach has been the scene of several beastial atrocities. ((Charter calls it 'Prep School beach'. Modern maps call it 'St Stephen's beach', with Stanley Bay beyond.)) One, I did not witness, but have had it described to me by people who live in ‘C’ bungalow. About March there was a Japanese patrol boat that was stationed just off the Prep School beach, and it used to patrol the coast here presumably to stop any escapes from the camp by junks. They would not let junks approach anywhere near these beaches.
A usual boring Sunday.
Swim A.M.
No news.
Sent our postcards today. Mabel to Sid but didn't say anything about being in hospital.
J. H. Middlecoat, a Canadian repatriated with the Americans in June, tells the Winnipeg Tribune (page 13) that lack of food was the main difficulty in Stanley, that he saw no internee being mistreated and had no first hand knowledge of Japanese atrocities. He also says that he'd learnt from the doctors who visited the camp that the POWs in Kowloon were getting roughly the same treatment as the civilians.
Note:
At present I am working with the construction gang (of which I am a member) cutting a pathway down a steep bank to a new refuse dump. The existing one is nearly full. Prior to that I had been helping to build division walls in the garage block to form compartments for an auxiliary bakery and wood store, a blacksmiths shop, a rice and flour store, a shoemakers store, a store room for the Americans and a sewing (or machining) room.
Ramedan commenced.
More Jap wounded arrived?
Cloudy & cooler.
French lesson alone with Sister Mary, the Salmons didn't turn up.
Mabel is liking the hospital food, I'm afraid she'll find it a rotten change when she comes back on these.
Olive and I went to see Billie Gill and Brian ((aged 2)). Also there, Hugh Goldie ((Police, the first man who saw our tiger)) and Mr Matches whom Brian calls the Chinese version 'Foh Chi'.
((Following text not dated:))
Garden plot yields over catty of peanuts.
Letter from Wylie. Any sort of paper welcome in camp. Meat gifts go bad ten days en route.
Fish very dear about $9 per pound. Moon cakes 70 sen each. Sign of the times: you can buy half one. Price of gold fallen from $1,400 to $1,200. Pre-war $270.
Home news good.
Martial law declared in town?) (It has never been repealed yet).
Rained.
Cholera and typhoid injections - in one from Dr Selby.
Got 1 lb sugar (Yen 1) for Mum, and one for Mabel from Medical Canteen.
Dug up some of our own sweet potatoes - enormous, but not really sweet. Fried them tonight - we had pork fat for tiffin luckily.
Finished writing Chapter 4.
Played bridge in evening. Mrs Franklin kindly gave me a piece of pastry crust.
No news again.
Rained.
A wall & barbed wire to be erected across front of Club.
124 Chinese, Malay & Annamite HKVDC men released from P.O.W. camp by Japs.