70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Oh horrors! The electricity in town has failed and we are without ‘juice’ of any description. It went off early yesterday morning and has not come on since. The Japanese have said it will be off for 3 or 4 days whilst repairs are executed at the Power Station, but we have a feeling that it is off for good. I sincerely hope we are wrong in this more pessimistic view, but some acquaintance with Japanese methods and promises makes us very sceptical these days. I think they have just run out of coal and they have no ships in which to bring more – all good signs, but in the meantime it is damnably inconvenient! Not only do we have permanent blackouts, but we now have no electric water boilers working; no food clinics for invalids and babies and, worst of all, no more bread, for there isn’t sufficient wood sent in to bake bread in the auxillary wood stoves.

On top of all this, many of the water pumps at the reservoirs in HK are electrically driven, with steam auxiliaries. Now, again due to lack of fuel, our water supply has been almost cut off – water in the mains is turned on between 6 and 8 a.m. and 4 to 6 p.m. and that is all!  And that with all this pouring rain outside!!

It has been agreed in these blocks, that no one shall have a bath or shower during this period of water restriction. This is a beastly inconvenience in this hot weather, but it is very necessary to conserve the water in the tanks on the roof; also, we fill the bath when the water is turned on and use this water for flushing the w.c. We wash in an enamel bowl, instead of the wash basin, so that we can flush the w.c. with waste water.

In these flats there is a lavatory off the hall, a servants ‘native type’ w.c., with one large and one small sink, and the bathroom with bath, basin and w.c.; but for toilet purposes the bathroom is the only suitable place to be used except when the water is on, and there are 27 people living in this flat! Consequently we are not supposed to occupy the bathroom for more than 6 minutes at a time! The six unfortunate males in this flat never get a look into the bathroom in the morning and we have to wash in pots of water where we can. It has been too wet of late for clothes washing, but goodness knows what will happen when the first fine day comes along.

The rainfall must be at least 24” above the average by now, for over 12” must have fallen in the last 3 or 4 days. It has not been absolutely torrential, but has been heavy and persistent; the gardens are in a sorry plight. We have just lost 5 more little pumkins which is a great blow.

It is an awful strain for 6 people to be herded into one room in this wet weather; one room where we sleep, eat, cook and try and live. Tempers are apt to get frayed. Visiting is both a blessing and a curse: a blessing for the visitors and a curse for the other occupants of the room! I can understand the slum dwellers point of view now, by Jove. One good thing about this particular summer is that the temperature, generally, has remained exceptionally cool for HK and this has been a great blessing. It has not tired us out so much and it seems to have kept down the bed–bug menace quite considerably!