70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Wrote my monthly 25 word postcard to you today. Wish we were allowed to write a proper letter and say exactly what we would like to say but of course as 'dogs bodies' we must conform to the Jap Military regulations. 

The weather this month has been horribly wet and damp and last night there must have been a cloudburst, the rain falling in buckets.

Bobby Taylor (Green Island Cement) came to see me last Thursday afternoon to show me a letter he had received from his wife. The letter was dated November 1942, and tho' he had strict instructions from Mrs Taylor not to tell me of its contents he felt that no harm would be done at this late date. He had received the letter that day and come to see me post haste. In it Mrs Taylor speaks of the rough time you had in the Atlantic on the freighter you came across in and of you having sustained several broken and cracked ribs and being bound up with plaster etc. but that nevertheless tho' still feeling seedy after your experience you were full of spunk and had taken on this job with the Red Cross and she and Mrs Lyle saw you there and on another day you were going to have tea together in Jeans'. My dear you are a marvel, you have guts and full of spirit.

Also J.F. read out from a letter that C.C.R. had received from W.H. back --- gone west poor chap and in it he speaks of you having left Canada for home and how you had been such a comfort and of cheery disposition to everyone.

There is not much local news in the camp, but we seem to be progressing well with the war. It would be worth something to get a Glasgow Herald to read the actual truths of the war with a special reference to what is going on in Burma and the Japan held places.

I have received my first pay from the Japs for work done in March at 15 seen per day amounting to 4.50 Yen. Neff said.