70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

There has been a considerable amount of commotion up the hill this afternoon. Mr Lammert said there was a tremendous amount of shouting amongst the Chinese and (presumably) the Japanese for about half an hour, which finished up with the sound of blows. Some time later, a European accompanied by about 5 Chinese with picks and shovels, and Mr Yamashita, went along to the end of the American blocks and started digging beside some rocks there, not far from the spot where I was digging this morning in the process of preparing a new rubbish dump. Evidently they think something is buried there. Y and I have just walked along to see if we could see anything, but the site, we hear, is at the end of block 18 and we could not see it from above. But we bumped into Patterson and he said that Waterton (Government Radio Officer) is digging at the end of block 18 with two plain clothes Japanese on guard. The guards are armed with revolvers. Patterson said he was walking past and was just on the point of hailing Waterton and saying, “What the Dickens are you digging at this time of the day,” when he noticed the two gentlemen in the shade and revolvers – so he just hummed a tune and tried to look unconcerned!

Patterson says that in addition to Waterton, J. Fraser (Defence Secretary for the Colony) and a Police sergeant, Roberts, have been called up the hill. Yamashita and Nakazawa are down there now, and another car has just gone along to the end of the American blocks, though I could not see who was in it. The general conjecture is that it is a wireless set they are after. There must be fifth columnists in this camp – several of them.  It is unfortunately possible that those under arrest have been made to talk.

When General Cohen (one time bodyguard to some important Chinese leader (Chiang Kai Shek) was taken to town for questioning in the early days of this camp, he came back with his legs bandaged up and in a state of exhaustion. He has never said a word about what happened to him, but ‘third degree’ is evidently in vogue amongst the gendarmerie.

Poor Waterton seems to be in a very bad way. It was apparently he who was being shouted at and hit, up the hill at mid-day, for when he was made to dig, his face was cut and bleeding on one side. During the digging he swooned and Dr Ballean was called to revive him. Then he was ordered to proceed with the digging. Finally he unearthed a tin box – about 2’ x 1’ x 1’, I was told by eye witnesses – which was put in Yamashita’s car and taken up the hill. Later, I hear, he was again brought down and produced a loud speaker, also buried. The poor chap fainted again and was douched with water. He must be in a bad state. It is all very depressing and one feels terribly sorry for him and any of his associates; sorry, not to say apprehensive.

One more man, another Anderson, has been arrested by the Japanese. We are making a collection in camp to buy and send in food to these ten men.The Japanese have expressed their willingness to let this be done. All bread must be in thin slices; all tinned foods will be opened etc. etc. – they are going to make certain no messages are sent to them.

The Japanese have informed Gimson that three orders must be rigidly observed: (1) the curfew regulations must be strictly observed, both morning and evening (we have to be within the vicinity of our blocks by 7.45 p.m. now, in our rooms by 9.30 p.m. and lights out at 10.00 p.m. and everyone must be in their rooms for roll-call between 8 and 8.15 a.m.). (2) No one must attempt to escape from camp, and (3) No one must attempt to send messages to town other than through the legal channels. If any of these rules are infringed the whole camp is to be punished. Strangely enough, no reference is made to wireless prohibition. Things are beginning to look unpleasant.

A notice came around today which said the instances of malnutrition in this camp during June of this year have been worse than at any time since June of last year. The C.S. had forwarded the medical report to the Japanese and asked if camp rations could be increased, if not permanently, then until such time as further IRC provisions were received. As far as I am concerned I am feeling better just now than I was a month ago.

Recently the Japs have been sending into camp, frozen mutton which the Dairy Farm had in cold storage before the war. Fortunately the Japanese and Chinese do not fancy mutton, they prefer beef and pork, and prices recently quoted in the paper showed pork at about MY6.40 per catty (1 1/3 lbs), beef at about MY5.60 and mutton at only MY3.60. The percentage of bone sent in with the beef has been found to be much greater than the percentage of bone in the mutton (by weight), so that with mutton we get more meat than with beef. We have not had pork for ages. This is lucky, because the mutton is far more palatable for us than the tough beef which is, I think, nothing more than those big Chinese water-buffalo. 

Incidentally, Anderson, the Quartermaster (now in prison) raised an objection some time ago because he observed the half carcass of beef sent were carefully cut so that the greater portion of the animals spine was included in the half carcass sent to camp. The Chinese contracting butcher was selling it at an all in price, flesh and bone, and was cunningly seeing to it that we got more than our fair share of the bone! The other half carcasses he presumably sold in smaller pieces at a higher price.

Recently we have had a still better deal. Four times now, frozen liver has been sent into camp. This also comes from the Dairy Farm I understand. This is a very good form of meat for us and we get as large a portion of it as we do with mutton. In addition, the workers’ rations have recently been supplemented. Those doing manual labour of the heavier variety (digging, fetching rations etc.) get double rations at the meat meal on days which they work. Lately, all workers have been given 8 ozs of liquid cocoa made with cocoa and soya bean milk and a biscuit made from rice husks and bean residue at the morning meal on the days on which they were working. This is because lately the physical state of the manual labourers has been declining more noticeably than in any other section of the community. This, I fancy, is where my lean type of frame comes off better than those of the more fleshy gentlemen.

Within the last two months I have actually put on one pound! I now weigh 139 ½ lbs instead of 138 ½  lbs. However, I am lower than this time last year, for after first reaching my record low level of 135 lbs I rose to 150 lbs when bread was issued regularly last year. One is warned not to overdo things, however, for fear of straining one’s heart.

The weather has been terribly oppressive just now. It feels as though there may be a heavy thunderstorm or a typhoon coming up.