70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Mr Kiley, the Chairman of the few remaining Americans in camp, paid a visit yesterday to Lt Hara and asked him when the American parcels were arriving in camp. Kiley spoke to us this morning while we were wood cutting and he said that Hara received him very cordially and said he was glad he had come. In reply to his question Hara said there were no more parcels in town. He said that he was equally surprised that the parcels were an old stock of British goods when the reports had promised American and Canadian supplies and he ended by saying, “Perhaps some more will come later on”.  Precisely what he meant by the last remark we are left to guess. Well, it seems useless to hope for any more after that. If Hara was thinking of the arrival of another ship I myself feel that is an unlikely event in view of the Pacific war situation.

There is a theory in camp that these parcels have been kept in HK all this time as an iron ration for us and that they have now been replaced by the later stock of American goods. This too, I think, is unlikely. In fact, I now believe we must be thankful for what we have received and not hope for anything further.

Today and yesterday, the remainder of the goods were distributed. It was quite fun. After everyone had received their parcel, and missing and damaged tins had been replaced, there was a small balance left over, enough for about one tin per person. These were distributed evenly amongst the blocks and then members of all the block drew for the goods. In our block (B4) each tin was numbered; 155 tabs were put in a tin, numbered from 1 to 155, and everyone drew a tab and according to their tab, so they were allocated a tin. I drew for Y and myself and my luck was in as I drew a tin of margarine and a tin of bacon. The worst packets, in my opinion, were a tin of tomatoes and small packet of tea, and a 3 oz tin of meat paste and cake of soap; but I managed to miss both of these. That draw finished all the food.

This morning the men had to go down and collect the clothing they had drawn. Each of the 37 cases of mens’ clothes contained a complete outfit for five men, making a total of 185 sets. The quality of the stuff was really extremely good. It is apparently, regular US army stuff. I don’t know what a full set consisted of but it included: pyjamas, thin pants and vests, long cotton and wool pants and vests, shirts, cotton and wool socks and a few very nice silk and wool socks, long trousers of a very nice quality, short and long sleeved cardigans, jackets of the windbreaker type, long legged and sleeved overalls, peaked woollen caps and caps of the balaclava type and handkerchiefs. These had been divided into lots and all males of 16 and over participated in the distribution. Goods were again allocated by drawing from a hat. I forgot to mention towels which were also included. Y and I had been hoping against hope that I would draw a towel, as the so called towels we have been using are completely in shreds – just big holes held together by a little material.

I was as pleased as a dog with two tails when I found I had drawn a towel – some were khaki and some were white, mine was white. Inside it I found a pair of summer pants and a balaclava type helmet. The pants I was badly in need of too, but the helmet was of no use to me. However, I happened to meet Mr Raymond who enquired what I had drawn; showed him and asked if he would like to swap the helmet for another pair of pants. To my surprise he said he would if he drew pants and not a helmet. What can he possibly want with a warm helmet now that the weather is about to get warm, I really do not know, however, that is his concern.  He did not draw pants but he brought me a nice pair of socks instead. Y is going to cut the towel in half (it is a normal sized bath towel) and we shall have one each. It is so white that it makes the rest of our linen (so called) look decidedly grey! However, this is not surprising after three years of washing in cold water with inferior soap.

In the afternoon we completed the draws. The relief goods were divided into four groups one of which was for women only and one for men and the two others were for both sexes. In these groups there were about 48 prizes in each, to be drawn for by 150 people so you had a 30% chance to draw something. The first group was toilet paper and soap – Y and I drew nothing. The second was shoe polish, shoe laces, toothpowder, tooth-brushes – between us we drew a tin of shoe polish. In the women’s group there were little sewing compacts (‘housewifes’ for the troops) and combs. Elsie drew for Y and drew a blank. On the men’s group were shaving soap and a few razors – I drew a tube of shaving soap. Each man was given one safety razor blade of the Gillette type. So now I have two new blades left. A few blade sharpening machines were included – only two amongst these four blocks. These I think should have been made available for everyone to use, but they were drawn for too. So Y and I got 2 out of a possible 6 – just the average. Some lucky people drew three things and some unfortunates drew nothing. We shall try and swap the shoe polish and shaving soap for food if we hear of any offers.

The boots and shoes were drawn for separately; I was not lucky. So that ends all the excitement. I feel rather sorry for the women and children who received nothing in the way of clothing. I think this camp will be practically a nudist colony if we are here this summer! We really are becoming rapidly reduced to rags.