70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Another month has come. September did not see the end of the war in Europe as most of us thought it might; but a great deal has happened during that month. The campaign in France developed at lightening speed and now our allied forces in the East and West fronts are practically on the German frontiers; in fact we are into NW German territory. Now the German armies seem to have finished retreating and they are evidently going to make their final stand. So it seems to me that they may yet hold out a month or so, or they may collapse within a week or two, for we seem to have complete air superiority and that is of great importance. Anyway, I am still hoping my date of Oct 17th will bring forth something.

I hear that our forces have now made a big landing on the Dalmation Coast. If this is true (I have not seen an official report of it) it looks as though Germany will shortly be attacked from the South, through the old Balkan routes; then she will truly be ringed round by foes. In our portion of the globe it seems that the Americans intend shortly to fall upon the Philippines; also that an American – Chinese thrust may develop from the region of Kweilin towards the coast. So Hong Kong may again come within the battle zone. Well, nothing can happen too fast for us here.

Today we were all given our first vitamin capsule. I cautiously bit mine and tasted a most terrible flavour of concentrated fishiness! So I hastily swallowed the rest. We are to have one capsule each, every other day, and this will supply us with the necessary amount of vitamins A, B1, B and C. A curious thing has happened since the parcels arrived (unexpected by most of us) and that is there has been an increase in the number of cases of beri-beri in camp. Dr Deane-Smith has explained this by saying that before the parcels arrive, most of us were receiving just sufficient of the vitamin B groups (the difficiency of which causes beri-beri) to balance our diet in that respect. The extra food, though rich in protein and carbo-hydrates, did not contain any vitamin B and, in respect to this group, our diet became more unbalanced than before! Who would have thought it could work that way!? Consequently, a lot of people began putting on weight rapidly – which pleased them very much at first – but it was the wrong kind of weight being chiefly fluid, and their legs and ankles swelled, etc. Fortunately a lot of thyamin was sent with the medical supplies and many people have been given thyamin injections. But these vitamin capsules should set most of us right. Taking them every other day they will last the camp for 15 weeks, till the end of January.

People have put on a lot of weight. Harold says he put on 5 lbs in the past 6 days! Yvonne has put on 6 lbs in the first two weeks and now, I am glad to say, weighs 111 lbs. I have not weighed myself recently. I feel I have put on some weight though I shall be satisfied if it is only 1 lb per week, for we are not just wading into our parcels. We aim at making a 1 lb tin of butter last us a fortnight (i.e. about 1/3 of the amount we normally ate in peacetime), also a 1 lb tin of milk and jam last 2 weeks. A 12 oz tin (340 grams) of bully-beef lasts for 4 days, the luncheon rolls for three days, the 8 oz salmon for two days and the 3½ oz sardines for one day. In this way these latter tins will last for about 60 days, so after we have finished a tin we wait a day or two before opening the next. In this way we plan to make our parcels last till the end of the year. If only we had a date to work to it would make it so much easier! It is a depressing thought to think of finishing our parcels and then going back to the old starvation diet! Surely something will have happened by then. It would be almost more annoying though to be suddenly retaken here and find we had eaten only half our food!! It is all very difficult!

The electricity came on again last Sunday, 24th! We had never really expected it, so its advent was hailed with great delight. Unfortunately it is available only for lighting purposes, and then only from 7.30 till 9.30 p.m. each evening. We cannot use it for cooking, so we still have no bread – we shall never see bread again in this camp I think – and they cannot make yeast again. The cessation of the camp yeast supply, when the electricity was cut off, is probably a contributory factor to the increase of beri-beri for yeast is rich in vitamin B. However, these 2 extra hours of daylight are a great boon and a blessing, for it grows dark at 7.30 now and it used to be terribly dreary just sitting and chatting after 7.30. The trouble is that there is simply nothing to sit and talk about in here! We have often noticed how trivial conversation has become. War news has always been the number one topic, except for occasional spates of repatriation or parcels etc. Just now it is: “My Dear! Isn’t the war news marvellous? How much of your parcels have you eaten? Wasn’t the play good last night?” and that’s about all! 

So now we all diligently strain our eyes from 7.30 till 9.30 under our 25 watt lights and then grope around in the dark and go to bed! This 7.30 till 9.30 applies to town as well. That is all the current they get too. So we are thankful for small mercies. 

The water supply is still very uncertain. Sometimes it flows all day and some times it comes on just for a short time in the mornings and then not again till the evenings. Now, if anyone wants a bath, we have first to go to the kitchen tap (which is off the rising main) and make sure that the main is still on. If it is off we have to wait for it to come on again before we can have a bath or a shower, for the bath is always kept half filled as a reserve supply for washing and flushing purposes and nowadays one fills the bath after one has bathed instead of before!