70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Civilian Internment Camp, Stanley, Hong Kong.

I had intended to start this diary on 16th June 1939 when I set sail on the SS Canton from King George V Dock on my way to Hong Kong. So much has happened in my life during the last 2 ½ years, however, that I have never been able to find time enough to start a diary – or perhaps I have been too lazy. Now however, I am in the British Internment Camp in Hong Kong, a prisoner of the Japanese, and though there is at present much work to be done about the camp it appears that I shall have a considerable amount of leisure for writing a diary if we remain here for any length of time.

This is a propitious day for my first entry, for today Yvonne and I celebrate our first wedding anniversary – in a prison camp!  What celebrations we had planned! And how different are the circumstances in which we find ourselves! But we have greatly enjoyed our day. Miss Buckland called at our room and presented us with a 2 ounce block of chocolate as a present – a really generous gift in view of the fact that chocolate is almost unobtainable these days, especially for prisoners. We divided the packet into eight little squares and shared it amongst the eight occupants of the room.
 
Yvonne had the day off duty and after a morning’s shift of bricklaying I was allowed the afternoon off. Mrs Minhinnick came to our abode after lunch and after sitting and talking for an hour or two, we returned to her quarters in ‘Bartons Bungalow’. She really was a dear. She had carefully saved a box of Nestles Chocolates and a bottle of gin especially for the occasion, bringing both with her from the Kowloon Hotel where she had spent the first two weeks of internment. She mixed some gimlets in a bottle and with this, the chocolate and three cups we set off and found a secluded little spot overlooking Stanley (Chinese) Village and the sea. Y and I had contributed 10 of our precious remaining cigarettes and we really had a marvellous wedding anniversary treat. The spirit of a grand celebration was there alright. If only Capt. Min had been there, the party would have been complete. We talked of our families in all the varying parts of the globe, and wondered how they were faring and hoped they were not worrying unduly about us.

We talked of our brief war experiences and thanked God that so far all of us had survived, albeit with some narrow shaves. Round about us were the sad little mounds of soldiers’ graves with their names painted on the little wooden crosses, many alas, bearing the names of friends of ours in the HK Volunteers; some with the soldiers’ steel helmets  suspended from the cross. It is very sad to meet here the young widows of our friends who gave their lives: Ann Miner ((I can't find an Ann Miner in the lists - possibly Ann Muir?)); Peggy Van Leuven; Nora Potter; Sheila Mackinlay; and Miss Black and Alison; these being amongst the better known of our friends and acquaintancies.

The chow today was a great disappointment: firstly the bread ration did not arrive so we went without our one slice of bread per day; secondly, the meat delivered for the day was quite bad and unfit for human consumption, so the rations issued amounted to one ladle full of rice (boiled) and a small cup full of vegetable stew or soup. This twice a day, often amounts to our food supply and is quite inadequate, though there are signs of improvement in the food situation.

This evening, by way of celebration, and also to help fill our aching voids, we opened a tin of bully beef – 12 ounces amongst 11 people! But it tasted very good. Our scanty supply of tinned goods is very low and we only open a tin on special occasions.

It has been a happy day and it is good that Yvonne and I are together. Had I been in the HK Volunteers instead of Essential Services, Y and I would now be in separate camps. It was very sweet of Maudie Min to think of us as she did. She is saving the remaining half bottle of gin for the day she and Capt. Min are re-united. May that be soon.