70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Her husband was a Naval Dockyard Officer and is at present in Argyle Street Camp. Mrs Evans had a very cheerful nature and was well known and quite a favourite in the ‘Optimists’ shows, the variety concerts arranged by Cyril Brown – a pierrot and pierrette troupe. Dr Smalley had advised her to undergo an operation, though it was by no means urgent; but this camp seemed to be a good place in which to get it over. So one morning she walked along to the hospital carrying her own kit; and that evening we heard she had died under the anaesthetic – chloroform – the operation itself having proceeded quite satifactorily.  Death could easily have been averted if a cylinder of oxygen had been available, but there was none in the hospital at all. This is the second death that has occurred through lack of oxygen, and on each occasion Dr Smalley was the unfortunate surgeon. A public enquiry was held afterwards – at Dr Smalleys request – and he was cleared of all blame.

The Japanese have been repeatedly asked for oxygen and more suitable anaesthetics. Apparently the anaesthetics that remain are of the type of chloroform which, I gather, are dangerous for people with heart weakness. The real tragedy in the case of Mrs Evans was that the operation was not essential at that time, and it really is awful to think of her cheerfully walking along to hospital that morning, a hale and hearty person, to die that afternoon; a life literally thrown away. Death during war is often equally, if not more sudden and unnecessary, but it is not so unexpected and not so easily avoided. Very strong protests and representations were made to the Japanese after this tragedy and I hope they will have the desired effect.

As a workman in this camp I have just been transferred from the wood chopping to the trench digging gang.These trenches are dug on the hillside or other suitable (or possible) plots of ground in camp for the purpose of burying rubbish. To pick and shovel at this time of year in the sun, when the temperature in the shade is up in the eighties and later will be in the nineties, is quite a tax on one’s strength, especially on our lowered diet. So trench diggers are given a double helping of fish or meat and vegetables for the evening meal on the days on which they dig.

There are supposed to be four in our gang (though only three have turned up so far) and we dig for two hours on alternate days – Sundays excepted. Tim had been doing this and has spent the last month in hospital on his bed because he strained his heart. Some have been stopped doing this on medical advice, so it behoves me to go slowly. I have lost 10 lbs since my peak last year when I rose from 138 lbs (during the starvation days) to 151 lbs. Now I am 141 lbs which is too low. The trouble in our Married Blocks is that the percentage of young and able bodied men is small to begin with, and, in addition, the majority of men who work in the workshop and do jobs for all the camp are resident in the Married Blocks. I had been in the construction gang till the middle of March, when I was asked to join the woodcutters. The amount of construction work had dwindled and was chiefly a matter of repair or patching up, and in any case I had given most of my time to camp entertainment since the beginning of the year so my transfer from the construction squad cannot have been felt.

All this time Yvonne has been teaching in the school. In addition, all available women in their blocks take it in turn to serve out food, each block has it’s own servers which speeds things up, so Y has to serve once a day for a week every fourth week.

As for entertainment, we have both contributed to this. Before last Christmas I had been approached by a man named Bush who lived in ‘C’ bungalow who asked me if I would help him with the production of a play or plays – either a full length play or some one act plays. In the early days of camp we had a couple of play readings which John Robertson has called, but owing to lack of adequate food, the lack of stage facilities and the approach of the hot weather, we gave up the idea of putting on an ADC ((Amateur Dramatics Club)) show.