70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Our jubilation over the electricity was, alas, shot lived. Yesterday the current was again cut off and the newspaper announced a further temporary suspension of the electricity supply. So now we revert once more to the long and tedious evenings. Well, thank goodness this camp is not situated in the Arctic Circle. Yesterday’s newspapers also reported Churchill’s warning against over optimism in which he is alleged to have said that the war in Europe may yet last for several more months and might well stretch into 1945. So it looks as if we have all been a little too optimistic of late – which is rather a blow. What I should like to know is, how long is Japan likely to go on fighting after peace is declared in Europe. Well, thank God our parcels have arrived! They certainly make a difference to life.

The community gardeners, on 1st Oct, took over the second group of private gardens for communal cultivation and we, who hold plots in the old Married Quarters gardens have been warned that ours will probably be taken over in the near future.  

Well, we have been fortunate to have them for this extra month; and they have not gone yet! During the sunny weather of Sept our pumpkin vines, which had suffered two set backs from typhoons, burst forth into a final effort and produced 7 more pumpkins. True, they are rather small pumpkins but they will provide us with vegetable for a month. This was a marvellous piece of luck. Pumpkins will keep for several months if stored in a dark place and so will sweet potatoes. Our sweet potatoes have done quite well too and these, with the pumpkins, we are setting aside for the time being, for the days when we no longer have a garden, and are at present eating the green stuff from the garden – chiefly Ceylon spinach, a few string beans and sweet potatoes. Another pumpkin vine (self planted) that started to sprout in a small bed of ours at the beginning of July, seems to be doing very well, and, with luck, (if they don’t take away our gardens too soon) it looks as though we may get one or two pumpkins from that vine, for there is a second pumpkin season at about this time of year and I had dug a lot of vegetable rubbish into the bed in which it is growing, so the soil is quite comparatively rich. We still have our potato beds near the cemetery and, owing to lack of a water supply, I think this area is never likely to be taken over by the community.  But the soil here is poor and I don’t expect much from our efforts there. I have planted quite a lot of carrots and turnips in our MQ garden, but I fear we shall never reap that harvest. Oh well, it can’t be helped. There are now 200 men working on the communal gardens and they are all drawing extra rations, so that in itself is a good thing.