70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Today and yesterday have been sunny but, except for an occasional morning or day here and there, we have had nothing but rain during this first half of August and also during a good deal of July. Except for the greater heat and the occasional intensity of the rain we might have been having real English summer weather! 
It rained on Y’s birthday, but not so much as to prevent Maudie coming here for lunch or to prevent us attending the concert that evening (the theatre party!). In the morning Y and I had fried eggs on fried bread and coffee for breakfast. Then we opened a tin of corned mutton and gave the room and Maudie rice and curry for lunch, followed by coffee and scones. I had made a small banana cake which we had for tea and for supper. Y and I devoured our last IRC pudding. So her birthday celebrations (as had mine) amounted largely to extra things to eat – which, in our circumstances was by far the best birthday present to have!

There has been no more excitement in the nature of air raids, but the local paper leads us to expect increased Anglo-American-Chinese activity in the near future. There is still no further news about repatriation though the Dutch received a cable stating that there might be a few vacancies for Dutch nationals on board the repatriation ship and asking them to cable immediately to Tokyo their priority list of names - they could be women or men. Yesterday the chairman of the Australian contingent, Larry Nielson, was summoned up the hill with Mr Gimson to attend upon Mr Meijima. The result of their meeting has not yet been made known. A rumour has just come round which says the repatriation is to take place at the beginning of September; that no notice to the effect will be circulated but that it is to be passed round by word of mouth. That’s quite a good one! Another rumour has it that the Norwegians have been told they will not be repatriated till next spring! In other words, no one yet knows what is happening.

A fortnight ago ‘Full House’ was presented in camp. Sheila produced it and she made a very good job of it, especially as it was her first attempt at production and in addition she took quite a big part herself – that of Lola. We thoroughly enjoyed it. John Robertson was going to produce it at first but decided a suitable cast could not be found in camp so gave it up. Sheila, however, was more determined and carried it off creditably.
Concerts and plays have been going on every week in spite of the heat. Last night I took part in a mainly musical ‘Quizz’, though my turn amounted to reciting a couple of popular Shakespearean misquotations, which the floor, and gallery had to correct in turn and then reciting two poems, one from Browning and one from Rupert Brooke, the titles and authors of which they had to guess. There were songs, orchestral and piano-forte recitals etc., all of which had to be identified by the audience. The two sides ended up with 14 points each out of a possible 20. It seemed to go down quite well because Betty Drown, who arranged and produced it, has been asked to produce another in a fortnight’s time which is to be performed on three nights. Bill Colledge has asked Y to take the part of Dinah in ‘Mr Pim Passes By’ which he is hoping to present in the middle of October (repatriation permitting). I also have agreed to put on a one act play in a month’s time – probably ‘Villa for Sale’ – though it depends on being able to get together a cast. With deteriorating rations, people are losing weight and are not keen to indulge in theatricals (very wisely too). We have kept off them for a longish time for that reason. The blessing of acting and rehearsals is that it helps time not to drag and life to become a burden.

There is another rumour which says that of the eleven men recently arrested Mr Pennefather-Evans has been acquitted and is to be released. We also hear that Sir Vandyleur Grayburn, Streatfield, Dr Selwyn-Clarke and Dr Talbott have been convicted for attempting, illicitly, to send money into camp and have been sentenced to 6 months imprisonment, commencing last July 1st ; hardly any of the other eleven have yet been tried, apparently.