70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries
15 Feb 1944, Chronology of Events Related to Stanley Civilian Internment Camp
Submitted by brian edgar on Fri, 2013-12-13 17:38Book / Document:Date(s) of events described:Tue, 15 Feb 1944Thomas Edgar sends a card to his parents in Windsor:
Dear Mother and All
We are still keeping very fit. Also getting enough food.
Weather has been ideal.
Best regards
Lena and Tom
'Stanley' is crossed out on the front of the card before 'Internment Camp' and 'Military' substituted.
This is the first of Edgar's letters and cards home to be written in pencil; the first was typed, those that followed written in ink. As time goes on, the objects that help the internees with their daily tasks are wearing out, although the Red Cross is doing its best to help with supplies.
'Also getting enough food' is obviously not true - in previous cards Edgar has tried to get his parents to stop sending parcels through the Red Cross as they were never delivered, and this is part of that campaign. He probably suspected, with some reason, that the food was going to the Japanese authorities, so his concern is understandable.
'Weather has been ideal' is also probably not true. We know from the Jones diary that the weather today is 'fine, colder, cloudy' and that it has been cold recently. Either Thomas likes colder weather or he's using up his 25 words with cheerful chit-chat certain to get past the censor - he wouldn't have been the only one to find it surprisingly hard to use his full quota, small as it was. To give any hint of the real conditions in Stanley would have dismayed relatives - even if such a card could somehow have got past the censor.
Source:
For a scan of this card and all the other cards Thomas Edgar sent from Stanley, see
15 Feb 1944, R. E. Jones Wartime diary
Submitted by Admin on Thu, 2014-02-06 18:05Book / Document:Date(s) of events described:Tue, 15 Feb 1944Fine, colder, cloudy.
German lesson aft.
Jap paper news poor.
Choir practice 5pm. Carried harmonion [sic – harmonium?] down from A3 but it was found to be useless to us due to pitch A.
With Steve pm.
Black-out cancelled.
15 - 16 Feb 1944, Journal of Lt. Donald W. Kerr
Submitted by Admin on Sat, 2014-02-15 12:06Book / Document:Date(s) of events described:Tue, 15 Feb 1944 to Wed, 16 Feb 1944((Lt Kerr has spent the night in a “charcoal cave” where local villagers had hidden him. Lt Kerr’s journal is not clear whether the events described here occurred on February 15 or 16, or spanned over the two days.))
When I awoke the next day, [the boy] had gone…Peeking out through the branches I could see the opposite hillside about 50 feet away with its path curving around it at my level. A steep bushy ravine lay between. Around the corner of the path I could see almost the same view as from my previous night’s locality – the concrete pill-box arrangement high towards the upper end of the valley and the lower edge of the rice fields..;.
By late morning, the sun shone in through the opening…Later, I took my gun apart and worked on cleaning it. Got hungry and thirsty, but then . . . certainly had no intention of going out…
During the day, several coolies carrying loads passed along the path and I was reassured that they didn’t notice my cave…
Evening finally came. I watched through the opening as the sky darkened and the usual scattered, low clouds blew in from the sea. A little after seven, a dark line of figures came from the path and through the underbrush toward my cave. …seven or eight men and boys squeezed in – one bearing a cloth wrapped bundle of small cakes, hard boiled eggs, one with a thermos bottle of hot water, Y.T. had a well wrapped bowl of rice and fried eggs. After we covered the doorway, they produced a tiny oil lamp which we placed in the little niche and all gathered around to watch me eat. It sure was good.
… I learned from Y.T. that the Japs were looking hard for me and that they were watching this valley…Later in the evening, a spirited discussion started between Y.T. and the younger boys whom I had met first. There was considerable fast Chinese talk, and finally it turned into a hot argument. I was indeed curious over what the subject was, but couldn’t catch much of the talk except that it was about me, as they used fiejii-yuen and looked my way often. I asked Y.T. during a momentary lull in the vehemence, and he explained that they weren’t sure this was a good place for me to hide.
They kept it up until past ten o’clock...everyone left but Y.T. …After again cautioning me to keep always inside, he left.
