70 years ago: Hong Kong's wartime diaries

Vegetables (including the unfailing small supply of sweet potatoes) amount to just over 6 oz per day; meat and fish amount to about 2.5 oz per day, but from this the weight of the bones, heads, tails etc. have to be subtracted. The supply of salt and sugar is still the same i.e. 3 oz of each per week. Dr Deane-Smith, the dietetic expert, submitted to the Japanese charts showing the graph of necessary and normal food for Europeans against that of food supplied by the Japs. In his report he stated that for normal restful living, a diet producing 2,400 calories per day was a minimum requisite and that for manual labourers 3,000 calories were necessary; he showed that at no time during internment had the Japanese supplies brought anything like this minimum requirement and that had it not been for the food sent by the British Red Cross there would undoubtably, by now, have been many deaths from malnutrition and slow starvation. Now, he said, the Red Cross supplies had come to an end and unless something else was forthcoming to take their place the situation would again become critical. As it is there is cause for concern, especially amongst the children and old people, bad teeth and eyes and puny development amongst children. There are 5 cases of blindness in camp due entirely to vitamin deficiency. George Merriman, and Hyatt of the bank, are two cases that I know of personally. They are not completely blind; they can see people and objects at the edge of their field of vision, but the centre is a blank and they cannot therefore see anything they look at directly.

Mr Hatori was asked if we could be supplied with Soya beans, but he replied that these came from the north of China and there was no available transport for the purpose. He was then presented by Mr Gimson with a petition, bearing nearly 2,000 signatures, stating that although internees here realised the difficulties of supplying this Colony with food in war time and were sure the Japanese had no intention of deliberately starving the internees here, yet the food situation was becoming acute and if they (the Japs) were unable to improve the situation, would they make it possible for the British Govt to send food and relief as it was known they were in a position to do so and were awaiting the opportunity. (It is known that further British Red Cross supplies are ready and waiting at Lourenco Marques). This petition was very well worded and was aimed at a Japanese weakness, (typical throughout all nations of the Far East) that of ‘losing face’. They are far more likely to do or not do a thing for the sake of gaining or fear of losing face than because they have been cajoled, threatened, entreated or reasoned with. Whether this petition will bear fruit we do not know.

Mr Hatori has let Mr Zindel, the Swiss Red Cross representative here, have Dr Deane–Smith’s charts. These were forwarded to Geneva and Zindel has reported that they have been received and that Geneva has asked for further particulars. Poor Mr Hatori; his is a hard nut to crack. He has stated that the internees in Stanley are already better off than third nationals in town (Chinese and neutrals). It makes one feel very sorry for the poor Chinese coolie class who must be finding mere existence an extremely difficult affair.