3 Apr 1942, Barbara Anslow's diary

Feeling rotten, and Mum still staying in bed.

Over the past weeks food has got much better. Rumour that we would be sent to Shanghai, but the latest is that consuls and journalists are to go, and that is apparently true.  A strong feeling in the camp that the troops have been sent to Formosa.  If so, we think the actual implication is good i.e., that the Japs don't expect to hold here.

Feel so tired and weary, keep sighing.  Dr Kirk said it is only the diet effects and recommends I take a week's rest.  Just now I don't care if I never work at the hospital again.  Olive has joined the staff as an extra steno, so that Dorothy and I can have more time off. ((There was of course no pay for any hospital or other work, except that heavy workers got extra rations, and some workers also got some extra food.  For Olive and I, it was enough that we were on hospital rations which at that time were so much more varied and interesting than in Married Quarters and other blocks.))