John Charter's wartime journal: View pages

((More about the Americans' departure:)) One of the Star Ferry boats, accompanied by several launches had arrived during the morning, for the purpose of ferrying the passengers to the Asama. The sound of its siren, or hooter, was so familiar that it sent a pang through me. During the morning there arrived also some 50 Americans from town. They came in by bus and were made up of all the American bankers (all bank men have been kept in town, all British and Americans) and Chinese with American passports. They were the first to board the ferry.

The Stanley Americans (about 320 in number) had had their baggage inspected on the previous day. I watched the Japanese gendarmes going through some of the kit, and they were pretty thorough about it. No one was allowed to take any written matter and no photographs with Hong Kong scenery in them. One of the Maryknoll Fathers had spent a great deal of time writing out a series of sermons, and the poor beggar was forced to part with them. He left them in the care of one of the Americans remaining behind, in the hope that, one day, they will be returned to him. If ever we are evacuated or repatriated, it seems that I and this diary will be forced to part-company. I shall have to try and hide it somewhere on the off chance that one day I shall return and retrieve it. That goes for Yvonne’s recipe book as well.

The last of the Americans was ferried from the small pier to the Star Ferry launch and the launch itself weighed anchor and set off for the Asama at about 4.30. The hillside was quite crowded with British and the remaining Americans, waving farewell to the voyagers.

Every person had been allowed to take five suit cases, but no trunks or boxes were permitted. Yvonne and I have 3 suit cases and two wicker baskets between us! The rest of our goods have alas perished. Well, good luck to them and a happy landing. They proceed first to Lorenzo Marques in Portuguese East Africa, stopping for a day at Saigon to pick up a few more Americans there. At Lorenzo Marques they will re-embark upon an American ship and proceed to New York via the Cape of Good Hope - 3/4 of the way round the globe instead of simply crossing the Pacific. The Asama Maru will then return from Lorenzo Marques with the Japanese Nationals from America that have been exchanged for the Americans. We hear that the Conte Verde (the large Italian ship that Yvonne and I saw at anchor at Shanghai 18 months ago) is accompanying the Asama to L.M. with Americans from Shanghai. However, this is only hearsay. So also is the news that two or three Japanese are being exchanged for one American.

Somehow 50 Americans have elected to remain in Stanley. There are some Nuns and quite a few missionaries amongst them. Why they should choose to remain here I don’t know, because this is a completely unproductive existence. Perhaps they think the war will soon be over. Some of them may be business men with their own businesses, and they may have decided to stay here so as to be on the spot when trade and business starts again. This war here will have smashed many small businesses; probably some big business houses too.

Since the departure of the Americans there has been a great deal of re-billeting going on. The remaining Americans have moved right up to one end of the former American blocks and occupy three flats there. That now leaves 9 big flats and 3 smaller flats vacant; also the European Warders’ Club premises that had been occupied by the Americans.

The billeting committee is aiming at 6 people in the large room (living room) in each flat, 4 for the dining room, 5 in each of the two bedrooms and 2 in each of the two servants’ rooms. The small flats have one bedroom only, so the big flats should contain 24 people and the small ones 19. (There were 33 and 2 babies in our two bedroomed flat to begin with!). The aged and infirm and mothers with babies (whose husbands are not in camp) are amongst the first to be moved in, then people from overcrowded rooms, and so on. The rooms in the Indian Quarters are much smaller and have been occupied by 3 and 4 people, 7 per flat. It is hoped to reduce these too. For some reason the Japanese authorities have instructed all single policemen to move from St Stephens to the Indian Quarters, and single men in the Indian Quarters are to take their places at St Stephens. This has caused a lot of upset and confusion. In fact there is such confusion at the moment that no people are being allowed in or out of the hospital till it is all over, as such movements only add to the confusion. Thanks goodness Yvonne and I are staying put. The Bidwells, Isa and Mr Lammert are hoping they will be able to secure a room for four in this block. It will be nice for them if they can, as they will be able to live together as a family.

The first parcel that Yvonne Ho and Herbert sent us contained 5 different 12 oz tins of jam, 4 Indian corns on the cob (fresh), and two tooth brushes! We gave one corn to Maudie Min., one to the chaps in the room and the other two we took over to Kitty and Billy Hacket and shared them with them. We made a little cheese sauce and they were delicious! The tooth brushes were a real brainwave, for we had been making do with some ancient pre-war brushes and were badly in need of new ones. And jam - well! The more the better. The second parcel contained: one whole 5 lb tin of Apricot jam! 3 tins of soya beans in soy sauce, which made a lovely sauce to eat with our monotonous rice, and two cakes of lovely lifebuoy soap - so clean and refreshing in this sweltering weather.

And now, bless them, they have sent us a third parcel. They must have remembered my birthday, for in the parcel was a coffee tin containing a beautiful home-made cake. Yvonne must have baked it in the tin, which was a very bright idea. It was a sweet thought too. Actually, it smelt so good that we couldn’t wait the 5 days to my birthday on the 22nd, so everyone in the room had a slice and we took up a piece to Maudie. In the parcel also were two 12 oz tins of plum jam and an enormous tin of tomato catsup - simply delicious. It was almost a 7 lb tin! (I hate to think what it cost). We gave the Bidwells, the Fortescues, and Isa and her father a bottle for each pair and we took one to Minnie and even then we had three bottles left for ourselves. These sauces make all the difference to our rice meals, and I believe tomatoes have a lot of vitamins and food value. We managed to get in a message by Bob Kendall, (before the Americans left) thanking Y for her first parcel. I don’t know if the message ever got through, I hope so.

My birthday has come and gone and I have now joined the ranks of the S.O.B.’s (Silly Old Buffers). A most enjoyable day it was too. The weather cleared up and we had quite a fine day for a change. Y told me I was not to get up until she told me to. When she had prepared breakfast she called me and I popped up, on the table I found sliced banana on cornflakes, which we ate with milk and sugar! Bread and marmalade and coffee. It was really luscious! My usual peacetime weekday breakfast, except that Y could not conjur butter out of air nor fresh milk out of a packet of powder!

On the table too I found a packet from Marjorie, Tim and Adrian and on opening it I found three packets of cigarettes! We smoked one after breakfast as it was a special occasion. At lunch time, the 11 a.m. meal, a community tin of corned beef was opened in honour of the occasion and I found Y had made two lovely bowls of chocolate cornflower mould which we had for second course - quite an unheard of luxury.

We had invited, for my tea party, the members of our room, including Mr Lammert who always has his meals with us now, Maudie Min, Buckie and Winnie. We had some tomato juice spread on bread and Y’s greatest culinary triumph, a birthday cake complete with ‘Happy Birthday John’ and a candle. The candle was somewhat short and stumpy, but it had the virtue of not burning down too quickly! The cake really was delicious: made of twice sifted flour (to get the weavils and worms out of it!) currants, margarine, sugar and milk powder (all of which had been obtained from the canteen) and some baking powder that Minnie had provided. So the day was a great success. Y had given an awful lot of thought to it. Minnie gave me $10 for a present which was most kind of her: the Armstrongs sent me a banana! And dear old Buckie gave me ten packets of cigarettes. She must have been saving her cigarette ration for ages to collect them all.

Everyone has been entitled to buy a cigarette ration of 4 packets (40 cigarettes) about every three weeks. This has happened fairly regularly for about four times now, though no statement has been made that these issues will become regular. The tobacco is pretty inferior stuff, but the cigarettes are very welcome. It is not difficult to dispose of them on the following day to the heavy smokers at twice the price i.e. 60 cents (cost being 30 cents per packet). Minnie’s present of $10 to us has enabled us to buy our ration and we each enjoy a cigarette after lunch and supper. We often go out in the evening between 6.30 and 8.00 p.m. and sit on the rocks, smoke our cigarettes and read or talk. It is very pleasant to get away by ourselves sometimes. We generally visit Maudie Min at this time of day as it is pleasant and cool (or cooler).

We sat on the rocks on my birthday evening looking across Tytam Bay, the prettiest of the Stanley views and the one I hope to paint for Y’s 21st birthday. I am getting a bit worried about this picture as, for two or three weeks the weather has been so wet that it has quite prohibited any landscape painting. I have now only about 10 days left. Yesterday was pretty fine but the clouds were down on the hills I want to paint and so I could not get a true idea of the composition. I hope I shall be lucky enough to get one fine day at least. Christine Corra has kindly given me a piece of somewhat flimsey cartridge paper and has offered me her paints which, though old, are Windsor and Newton and should be quite good. Vera Armstrong has unearthed a picture frame measuring 9” x 7” which I have gladly borrowed. I shall have to cut the picture down to that size and have no mount, hoping that one day, if the picture ever survives, to have it mounted and framed in a larger frame.

I have also been enquiring about the possibilities for Y’s 21st birthday cake. Mrs Greenwood, I think, will come to the rescue and make and cook that for me. She says she can get hold of some flour for me too which is a load off my mind. Y used the last of our flour for my cake and Y’s cake will have to be considerably larger than mine as she will have to invite at least 22 guests. I am trying to think of a method of making 21 small candles for the cake. I propose to ice the cake with a coating of chocolate icing made of corn starch, cocoa and sugar! And decorate the cake and make the lettering with silver paper. I must also cut out ‘The key of the door’ for her!

I expect our families have been and will be thinking of us especially on these birthday occasions. We saw in the paper that the American repatriates had reached Lorenzo Marques on or about July 20th or 21st. I do hope Col Doughty managed to send off the cables we asked him to on that date. In that event it is just possible that Mother and Father and Chère will have received the news of our safety on my birthday. I do hope it reached them by now at anyrate. Chère will cable to Pop.

We have just returned from visiting Marjorie in hospital.  She is much better and hopes to be out tomorrow. In the meantime Elsie has retired to bed with an ache in her throat and buzzing in her ears. But Billy Hackett who has just been to see her thinks it is nothing serious.

So far, Yvonne and I have been very lucky as far as health is concerned. We both suffered during about March, from an attack of a mild form of dysentery, or gastric flu which was pretty prevalent throughout the camp at that time. The chief snag was that we had, as part of the cure, to eat no solids for 24 hours: we were allowed rice water and tea. In those days our diet was very inadequate and a course of treatment that involved fasting was apt to pull a person down quite a lot. It was a little while after this that I weighed myself and found I was down to 138 lbs (= 134 lbs stripped). Now I am 148 lbs (144 stripped) which is practically my pre-war weight, though I am still about 10 lb less than when I arrived in Hong Kong. Yvonne, when she last weighed, has gained about 7 lbs and is now 122 lbs. Her pre-war weight was 135 lbs. Maudie Min has continued to lose and is now only 123 lbs which is too little. Her pre-war weight was 154 lbs. She is making an effort now to get hold of chocolate and tinned milk and fatten herself up. She really looks extremely fit, though she could do with more weight and finds she hasn’t as much energy as she normally has.

Our meat ration has been dwindling during the past few days and we have had so little meat that our mid-day meals recently have been meatless except for a spoonful of gravy: just rice, spinach or Chinese cabbage and a drop of gravy. Apparently the Japanese are finding the food situation here increasingly difficult to cope with. The rice we have had lately has been appallingly poor stuff. According to Harold, the shipping expert, and other people who know something about rice, it is inferior to cargo rice. ‘Cargo’ rice is the very lowest grade of rice (all broken grains, sweepings from the warehouses etc. that is loaded on cargo ships when there is absolutely no other cargo to be taken and which is loaded on chiefly as ballast. The rice we have had must be sweepings from godowns here that have already been emptied of most of the sacks of rice. It is simply filthy when it arrives. The cooks who normally wash fairly good quality rice in 3 or 4 changes of water before boiling it, have had to wash this 20 times, and still it has been dirty and smelt badly when served up. The grains are broken so small that it is impossible to prevent it being mushy when served; it is simply full of cockroach droppings and eggs, worms and grit in large quantities. The grit, being heavy, is impossible to wash out of the rice and just has to be endured. I have chipped two of my teeth by crunching small stones. One lot was so bad that everyone was given enough raw rice for three meals and we had to go through our own portion with a tea spoon, picking out the ‘roach’ droppings, worms etc. and then return it for cooking. It took over an hour to do but the appearance of the rice for the next three meals certainly made it worthwhile. However, lately there have been signs of improvement following vigorous protests from our Communal Council.

Incidentally, there has been growing criticism of the British Communal Council. It started when the committee of our blocks (2 to 5) strongly criticised the Council for making public (a month after it had been prepared) a balance sheet of the Canteen accounts, drawn up by Hampton Ross (Chartered Accountant) and bearing only his signature and not ratified by any member of the Council.

In this balance sheet there were two items about which no word of explanation was given: one stated ‘$500 cash stolen’ and the other ‘loss in goods due to theft and through breaking down goods $1,100.’ Normally in grocery shops, a loss of 1 to 1 ½ % is allowed when large quantities of cheese, butter, margarine etc. are broken down for re-selling in small quantities. But this in no way explained the huge discrepancy on the balance sheet. 

It was common knowledge that, in spite of canteen guards, the store had twice been broken into and goods stolen and the till had once been robbed of $500 in small notes (such, I regret to say is the state of morality amongst some members of this British (or American or Dutch) Community, but apart from this bold and belated statement of facts, no word of explanation was offered by the Communal Council. Our committee, under the vigorous leadership of Mason, strongly criticised the B.C.C., pointing out that they had been trusted with public money and that in the absence of any critical press they were morally bound to be specially careful and explicit; that no business firm would ever dare circulate such a balance sheet to its shareholders with no explanation; and finally demanding that a committee be immediately formed to conduct a thorough investigation. Furthermore, our committee deemed it necessary, in view of public concern, to make this letter public, and place a copy of it on the notice board.

Almost half way through another month, thank God!  

The unfortunate British Communal Council, some 10 days ago, published a letter which had been sent to the C.S. in which they reported that they had resigned en bloc, before, even, the above mentioned resolution had been put to the public for signatures. They did the noble thing by offering to remain in office until Mr Gimson could take over office and until the new Council was elected. The C.S. thanked them and requested them to remain in office until 15th August. 

Since then he has come into the open (if that does not convey a wrong impression) at a speech he made to those now accommodated in the former American blocks. In it he stated that on his arrival at the camp (he came to Stanley some weeks or months after the main body of internees arrived) he found that the British community had elected it’s own representative Council, in no ways attempting to make it represent, or have anything to do with His Majesty’s Colonial Government of Hong Kong; that the Council pursued it’s own policy and conducted communications with the enemy Japanese authorities and that their power was limited only by their own ideas and wishes. He added that, fortunately, these wishes and the conduct of the B.C.C. had been moderate and in the interests of HK’s people and possessions and that he had had no occasion to object to them. He assumed now that the general wish of British internees in Stanley, to elect him as Chairman was purely out of loyalty to the Crown, in that they felt that H.M. should be represented even in these circumstances by the properly appointed officer administering the Colony, who had been sworn in to office before hostilities commenced. He further added that he was that officer, with the power of the Governor of Hong Kong, and that the members of the new Council (to be appointed) would be considered by him purely as an advisory body, but in no way as members of the Government here.

Well he has stated this case pretty plainly and, I think, he has made most people think quite a lot. I don’t think that anyone here, at the time of internment, meant any disloyalty whatsoever in keeping Government officers out of the Council. There was general anti-Government feeling because of the awful debacle the war out here proved to be, and people were determined not to put themselves again (during internment) into the hands of these inefficient Government servants! However, having had a whack at it themselves it seems significant that they now want the C.S. back!

Perhaps that is poking fun unfairly, for I believe that this pro C.F. Gimson feeling has been engendered solely because of his growing popularity and general trust in his ability as a capable administrator. He has had the advantage of being able quietly to take stock of the situation during the past months and, being a newcomer to the Colony, he has no old prejudices to fight down; but on the other hand it is greatly to his credit that here, where everyone is more or less shorn of his or her official dignity and standing and people are judged far more by their real ability than by positions they have acquired and held, he should have gained so much confidence and goodwill. I must also add that the general public is still anxious to exclude from power all the senior cadets and officials who seem to have fallen into such disrepute.

The new Council is to be elected at the end of this month. It is to consist of two members from the Married Quarters; two from the Indian Quarters; two from the St Stephens group; one from the bungalows and one from the British now in the former American blocks.

Well, Yvonne’s 21st birthday has come and gone and she has now reached her majority. One of the first things she did on the day following the 6th was to sign a paper with two nominees from this block for the Council! Swank!

The weather was really foul right to Aug 3rd. There had been several afternoons when the sun had shone and the skies cleared, but never a morning. I had to have a clear morning as the shadows on the hills and the view I wanted to paint were in the best position in the morning. Well, on Aug 3rd the sun shone in the morning and the tops of my particular hills were clear of clouds for once. There was a strong wind blowing but I was getting desperate and had to take this chance. I crept forth once more and started my second effort. I managed to get the main tones on in spite of the way the paper flapped about in the strong wind. Then I put on a few of the shadows and then I saw a shower of rain fast approaching. I tried to visualise the other shadows and colours and then had to make a dash for it.

I finished off the painting in doors, after lunch that day, when Yvonne was resting. It was a pretty poor effort and I didn’t even sign my name on it! My colours became overworked and muddy. And then, on the very next day, the skies cleared and the weather was simply beautiful! Fate really had been most unkind; having waited all July for a few fine days, the weather eventually cleared and changed just before the 6th. However, I had neither the material, time, nor inclination to try another. 

I had cut out a large latch key in thin wood and surprising to relate, I found a man who possessed some silver paint and I was able to paint it silver. Mrs Greenwood had come to my rescue by promising to make a birthday cake. I think really she was glad to do it because she is very fond of Yvonne. She certainly did it beautifully. She procured the flour and actually put in some of her own margarine, which was most kind of her. I provided currants, margarine, sugar, two eggs (ducks eggs, which I had managed to buy at the phenomenal price of 2 shillings each! (pdv £4.50 each), and Maudie Min gave me some baking powder, augmented with some bicarbonate of soda. The cake was square and low (about 12” x 12”). Mrs Greenwood made the cake on Wednesday morning, the 5th, and I took it to the Armstrong’s room in the afternoon to ice it. The icing consisted of sugar, cocoa and cornstarch mixed in water and boiled to a stiff paste. I had hoped to be able to add milk powder to the mixture, but I had rashly given Mrs Greenwood all our precious store of full cream milk powder, expecting her to make about ½ pint or pint of milk for mixing the cake; but she in her enthusiasm for the cake, tipped the whole lot into the mixture! Ruinous!  However, the cake tasted very good. I made the chocolate blancmange icing and spread it on hot. I had inverted the square cake tin and placed the cake upon it, covering the edge of the tin with silver paper (from cigarette packets). Then I put round the edges the 21 small pink candles I had made. I had taken a red coated candle that we had and melted it down and made 21 small pink candles for it. I rolled up thin paper tubes or spills for this; threaded through a thin piece of string for the wick, attached at one end to a lump of wax pushed into the tube; then poured in the hot wax, cooled it under a tap and unrolled the paper from the candle. I cut these into small lengths, mounted them in small cups of silver paper and stuck them round the cake. Inside I placed lettering, a naval crown and the date cut out in silver paper. This was a terribly ticklish job and had to be done with a razor blade. It took me a couple of evenings. On each of the four vertical sides of the cake I stuck a silver paper 21. When completed it looked quite pretty with its chocolate brown, pink and silver colour scheme. 
                                      
Unfortunately the chocolate blancmange icing was rather too stiff and when it set and cooled it cracked all over, which was rather a pity.  Maudie undertook to make some scones, which she split and filled with jam. They were delicious. Elsie and Isa, in addition, took it upon themselves to cut bread squares and spread them with three different kinds of jam - very kind of them indeed. In the morning I had made two big jugs of tea (one with mint) and these Mrs Greenwood let me ice in the refrigerator. Well, it may all sound pretty meager for a 21st birthday party, but by Stanley standards, it was pretty good!

The 6th August dawned bright and hot. I arose early to prepare Yvonne’s birthday breakfast. The previous evening I had been round to the various blocks begging what flowers they had that had survived the heavy weather. I managed to get quite a good collection of yellow and purple flowers which I put in a big glass jar on the table. These I gave her from her Mummy and Daddy. I gave a second small bunch to his “0ooo” from David. From Mother, Father and Betty I gave her ½ lb of toffees that I had managed to purchase at the canteen. From myself the blighted picture (with which she seemed very pleased)! Maudie gave her a lovely box of Russian chocolate that she had managed to get from town, and a $10 note. Also a very nice suede belt which she gave her from Chère, saying that when she met Chère she would get her to pay for it so that it really did come from her. Harold and Elsie gave her some toffees and some cigarettes; Isa, cigarettes and matches; Tim and Marjorie a tin of asparagus shoots; Mrs Greaves a pat of toilet soap; Francis Dodds, a packet of cigarettes: all these on the breakfast table. For breakfast we had cornflakes and milk (milk donated by Isa!), baked beans on toast, toast and marmalade and coffee.

((More about Yvonne's birthday party on the 6th ...)) The candles all lit, I’m glad to say, but Yvonne failed decidedly in her effort to blow them all out in one blow. Maudie presented her with the key - as her mother by proxy - and thereafter she asked everyone to sign their name on it as she apparently intends to keep it. Of course, we all sang, “She’s twenty one today……” after the key had been presented. Altogether it was a most successful party.

We went for a short stroll in the evening and ended our party meals that day by frying the remainder of the baked beans with some rice, tomato sauce and garlic and eating it on toast. This was accompanied by a mixture of lacovo-malt and cocoa.

After tea, Yvonne had spent some time taking round pieces of her cake to friends whom we had not been able to invite to the party (through lack of space). We had reached the Corra’s room and were standing talking to them, when someone knocked at their door and in walked Yamashita. He enquired if Mrs Charter were there, which surprised us quite a lot. Later Harold told us that he had come seeking her in our room, but hearing she was with the Corra’s he declined Harold’s offer to go and call her and said he would go himself as he knew where they lived. It was quite difficult to understand what he said as his English is limited (actually I believe it is far less limited than he cares to make out). He mentioned the words, “Letter from Miss Ho,” and, “Birthday,” and, “Telephone,” and presented Yvonne with a letter and a small package and asked her to sign the receipt.

These both came from Yvonne Ho with good wishes to Y and saying that she and Herbert would toast Y at 9 p.m. that evening. The package contained a small bottle of curry powder, though a much bigger parcel arrived next day. It really was sweet of Yvonne Ho; she and Herbert have been kindness itself; Y was very pleased. Yamashita allowed Y to scribble a short note in reply, which he undertook to deliver to Yvonne H., which was most kind of him. We concluded that Yvonne (who, we have found out, works in the parcels and letter department of the Japanese Internees Section, censoring them, we assume, before they are sent here) knew that the parcels would arrive in camp on August 6th but would not be delivered until the next day. We guess that she must have sent a small package and the note and telephoned Mr Yamashita to ask if they could be delivered that day. (I daresay she and Yam. have met at the HK Bank, where she works). At all events, Yam came in person, which was most flattering.

As a matter of fact, Yamashita really does seem to be doing his best for the internees here, and most people realise that. I think that before the war he must have worked in the HK Hotel hairdressing saloon for political reasons. All the staff there were Japanese - where most European men went for a haircut, including Army and Naval officers - and there they remained till the outbreak of war. Good old British! Still, I suppose they could not just have been turned out of the Colony before war was declared.

Next morning we went up the hill to collect the other parcel from ‘Yvonne and Mac’. It had on it ‘Many Happy Returns of the Day’.  It really was a lovely parcel. It contained: a Chinese dress for Y, which really suits her awfully well and which, she says is very cool to wear; (she has only worn it inside the building so far but with a little persuasion I think she will venture out in it), another delicious cake in a tin - like mine ; a tin of sugar (most welcome); a tin of ‘Jacobs Malt’ (which is something like Ovaltine); a tin of ‘white bean cheese’; a Chinese product which we have not yet sampled; a bag of soya beans and a big chunk of washing soap. Really a most well thought out and most generous parcel, especially in view of the depreciation of the HK dollar.

The Japanese suddenly announced, about a fortnight ago that the rate of exchange between the HK dollar and the Japanese Military yen was to be changed from 2:1 to 4:1. The Military yen (or ‘Black Yen’) is the currency introduced by the Japanese into conquered territory and is the currency in which their troops are paid. It has a purely ficticious value and is worth nothing at all in the world market (it will be worth nothing when the Japanese withdraw from here), but it is circulated in conquered territory at a fixed rate of exchange with the existing currency. Initially, the Japanese fixed this rate at 1 yen = 2 dollars. Now they have suddenly changed it to 1 yen = 4 dollars. Unfortunately Y and I have $30 left, all in HK currency, so its value was promptly reduced to $15! In some ways we were luckier than some people who had one or two hundred dollars. This has meant that although the high prices of goods in town have remained the same in yen, they have doubled themselves in dollars. 

The reason for this change is one for conjecture. If the Japanese hoped to lower the price of goods in yen to make their own living cheaper, they must be disappointed. Some suggest they are doing it to collect as many of the old HK notes as possible (which will be valid after the war) before retiring from HK so they can change them after the war!

Anyway, the price of things is now fabulous. A 2 lb tin of syrup costs 10/6 (pdv £23) for example. But I expect Yvonne and Herbert are being paid in yen, so they should not be so badly off. Quite a few people here have exchanged all their remaining dollars for yen in case the exchange jumps to 1:6 or 1:8; others who believe the Nips will be leaving HK soon are getting rid of all their yen notes which will be valueless when the Nips go. Y and I have so little money anyway that we don’t worry much! Money has really quite lost its value to us. If you really want a thing and have enough notes to buy it, well you do (more or less).

I have traced out this sketch plan of our Internment Camp ((the journal included a copy of the map)) from a plan that Dicky Richardson and Ray Hughes produced. It is very approximate and has no scale as they paced out the distances between buildings (where possible) and lined through two points onto some feature to get approximate positions. It really is quite an achievement. A rough scale could easily be calculated. This was the last of a series of 10 plans they prepared, indicating the positions of all the war graves in the internment camp (for future reference) and marking the position and identity of the dead. These include HK Volunteers; men from the Middlesex Regiment; the Royal Rifles of Canada; Indian and Chinese Volunteers and (I think) two Portuguese: civilians killed here during the fighting; V.A.D. nurses and medical staff (ruthlessly killed by Japanese soldiers); and some of the first internees to die in camp.

There are also three Japanese Regimental memorials. People who were here during the fighting say that attacking Japanese lost very heavily here indeed. They estimate their losses at something like 3,000 which would about equal the total British losses during the war here. Still, their losses generally are not nearly as heavy as they should have been - due, almost solely, to the incompetence of the Army HQ staff. There will have to be an enquiry into the conduct of this war here when all is over.

The other nine maps are to a larger scale and show the position of the graves and the names of the dead. The numbers of these maps are marked on this site plan, but I have omitted them here.

I was asked by Neilson ((maybe L R Nielson)) to make four copies of each map - which I did with a steel knitting needle and four sheets of carbon paper.

On July 29th Maudie Min went to town! In an ambulance!! It isn’t as bad as it sounds. She has had some tummy trouble and the doctor attending wanted an X-ray of her. The only way in which X-rays can be obtained is for the patients to go into town to the French Hospital (which is still being run by the Sisters).

Dr Selwyn-Clarke (Director of Medical Services) comes into camp generally two or three times per week, on either Mondays, Wednesdays, or Fridays (incidentally we hear the Japs have stopped these visits of his; I hope this is incorrect as he is doing splendid work for the internees).

Well, about Maudie and her visit to town. She met Sophie O’Dell at the hospital, also Mr Phillips of the HK Bank, and they had a grand old chin wag. She had been allowed to take some money out with her and with it Sophie was able to buy various things. (Maudie, of course, was not allowed to leave the hospital). She says people in town are having a somewhat difficult time as everything is so terribly expensive. In fact I wonder how some of them manage to exist at all.

A number of people came to see Maudie at the hospital and amongst them were Yvonne Ho and her sister. I wish we could have seen them. Yvonne said Herbert had managed to get the job of inspecting water metres - trust Herbert to land a plodding job like that! However, he is keeping himself on it which is something in these days.

Maudie arrived back at camp two days later. We almost forgot to ask her about the X-ray in the excitement of meeting her and listening to local news. However, the X-ray had shown quite a satisfactory state of affairs, so she need not worry. She came back like Santa Clause with a sack of good things. She gave Y and me two lovely new laid leghorn eggs, a bunch of bananas and a fresh pineapple! Pineapples were only 80 cents (pdv £2.25) each in town at that time - true they are normally about 10 cents or 15 cents but 80 cents is ridiculously cheap these days. If only the Japanese would send in some fresh fruit with our daily rations.

Actually bananas arrive every day. Mrs Kerr managed to obtain Yamashita’s permission to have them brought in and Helen Canaval redistributes them to a select few. I don’t know the daily number but I imagine it is in the nature of 100 to 150. Fortunately we were asked if we should like any and we said, “Yes please”. They varied in price from 10 to 15 cents each before the devaluation of the dollar; now, alas, they are 30 cents each (pdv 85p). Y and I share one between us each day and the others get one each or one between two according to the number Helen can let us have. She reserves quite a few for invalids or those that need extra food. The hospital gets a daily quota of bananas and all patients can have one - if they can pay for it!

Well, Maudie has had quite a break from the monotony of camp life, though she said that two days out was quite enough, meaning that if she had stayed any longer it would have unsettled her. What she wants more than anything else, of course, is a sight of Capt. Min. Still, Sophie, who manages to get a sight of him at the Argyle Street Camp in Kowloon, says he looks slim and very fit indeed.

Early in August ninety V.A.D. nurses and a few A.N.S nurses came into camp from St Theresa’s Hospital (opposite Argyll Street Camp) and Bowen Road Military Hospital. They were brought in lorries and all their luggage was assembled with them on the bowling green in front of the Warders Club and the ‘Dutch Block’. No one was allowed to meet them until all their baggage had been inspected. Yvonne, however, managed to get into the enclosure and greet Anne Muir and other of her friends. It was a sight in Stanley Camp to see all these white uniformed figures, and it really was quite an event. The gossiping that ensued!! When the baggage had been checked it was carted up to Block B10 in the St Stephens group by the police and the nurses were shown to their allocated quarters. What a difference to our early arrival in Stanley when we all struggled with our own baggage and scrambled to find accommodation for ourselves or our party!

However, these V.A.D.’s deserved a better fate than that, for they had been working in the hospitals from December to August and after the surrender they had had to work hard on very little food. They had to wash out baths and bathrooms, scrub floors, wash stained and dirty linen with no soap at all; in fact they had to do everything themselves including cooking, for there was no coolie labour or wash amahs to relieve the heavy drudgery - and this in the heat of a tropical summer.

I went along with Yvonne that evening and visited Anne Muir. Poor Anne; I felt so terribly sad when I saw her. She was very brave and kept amazingly cheerful, though you could see it was an ordeal for her to meet old friends whom she had last seen with Gordon. And she has now come to the scene of Gordon’s death; a sandy grave and a rough board with his name and three others, already half obliterated by the weather. And then, Mrs Black, Alison and Mrs Lyons. The ghastly part about it is that many of these men lost their lives after the surrender, when the loss of further life was sheer waste and furthered our cause not one iota: for Stanley Peninsula had been attacked by the Japanese from the land side, not from the sea, and our garrison there had been completely cut off and all lines of communication with GHQ were cut, so it was impossible to let them know of the surrender until the Japanese let a British dispatch rider through their lines with a white flag.

Pam ((Pritchard)) told me that later, after the surrender they were suddenly given notice to clear out of the hospital. I am not sure what happened to the patients; I suppose they were sent to Bowen Road Military Hospital. At all events, they were whisked off in open lorries which were driven down Magazine Gap Road and around the tortuous corners at such a pace that several of them were nearly flung over the side. They were taken to one of the piers and put on an open barge where they waited for some time. Finally they were towed across the harbour and landed near the vehicular ferry pier where they were guarded by sentries. They stood there for ages and were then told (to their great relief) that they were going to hospital No. 4. They had no idea of what was to happen to them, and not unnaturally were more than slightly worried. They did not know where hospital 4 was, but finally lorries arrived and conveyed them to St Theresa’s. The entrance gates were thrown open and in they trooped, some 60 of them, and the gates clanged shut behind them! And there they remained for the next six months with nothing more than a courtyard about the size of half a tennis court in which to take exercise. But they all kept pretty well, and having the officers from the Argyle Street Camp to nurse, and occasionally regulars and volunteers from the Sham Shui Po Camp to nurse, they felt they were doing a useful bit of work - which indeed they were.

They were just able to see the officers (Naval and Military) from the hospital and surreptitiously to wave to them. St Theresa’s is a new hospital run by the nuns of some convent, so they had, at least, a nice and well equipped place in which to work. Anne said that the hospital for the rankers at Sham Shui Po was staffed by military and naval orderlies. The troops and officers, being prisoners of war, were being paid a certain amount by the Japanese (according to international law) but apparently these orderlies were excluded from this as the Japanese said they were not fighting men. This evidently caused some bitterness amongst the orderlies (not unnaturally) but as a result the care they took of their patients was noticeable only by its absence - which doesn’t say much for the orderlies.

Anne said that when occasionally serious cases came in to St Theresa’s from Sham Shui Po, the men were simply filthy with neglect (it generally took three soakings in a bath before they were really clean) and their moral was very low. She said it was amazing how they improved and cheered up when they were nursed and taken care of by the European nurses. Now the V.A.D.’s have gone, all the hospitals for prisoners of war will be staffed by orderlies. I hope the officers will not fare badly as a result.

Surgeon Lt Comdr Jackson, who was the doctor on HMS Lama, (the Commodore’s headquarters and winter residence) was RNVR and junior to Surgeon Lt Comdr Page. However, the Japanese elected to put him in charge of St Theresa’s over Page. Surgeon Comdr Cleeve, who was in charge of the Naval Hospital (at Wanchai), went to Argyle Street Camp with the other officers. So now these two naval doctors will be left with a staff of orderlies - the usual arrangement in Naval or Military Hospitals except that there is usually a matron and some sisters.

Marjorie went into hospital again, about one week ago, with a temperature and suspected flu.

Yvonne was looking after Adrian and Kevin as she does for one afternoon in each week, and I was playing in my second game of ‘softball’, a game that has become quite popular here in camp. Adrian seemed rather quiet and a little off colour and during the game I noticed Yvonne had disappeared indoors with the two babies. Later she called me to say Adrian had been sick and would I help clear up the mess! Poor Y, he had been sick all over her and she had an awful time. I hastily cleared up the mess between innings. We took Adrian’s temperature and found it to be 101 degrees, so Tim, who had just returned from visiting Marjorie in hospital, went across for Talbot, their doctor, to come and have a look at Adrian! Well, Adrian was packed off to hospital for about 3 days and has since returned. He still looks a bit pale and has not quite fully recovered but there is nothing much the matter with him I think.

Marjorie still has a temperature. Talbot thinks it may be malaria, but Isa, who saw her today, thinks Marjorie may have jaundice: she is feeling rather depressed and worried about things in general.

How easy it is to be wise after the event; but how really foolish it was of Tim and Marjorie to have a baby in Hong Kong when things were so unsettled. That is so of most people who have babies here within the last two years. (The Hacketts have two now! And I must say that though it is hard luck on them to struggle with two babies in a tropical climate, with no servants and not even the ordinary domestic amenities, there seems a certain amount of poetic justice in the present situation!)  

It is not as though things were normal in HK, for many women with children and many young couples were separated against their wishes by the evacuation and it does not seem right that the women who remained behind, because they were doing an essential job, should choose this time to raise families; especially those whose husbands were not in the fighting forces. So I am afraid my sympathies for the Fortescues are not as strong as they would be in other circumstances. I might add too, that the occupants of our room suffer a good deal from the perpetual turmoil and chaos (to phrase it politely!) in which the Fortescue family lives. In fact if it were not for the fact that apart from the habits of living they are a very generous and likeable couple, our small community here would have broken up long ago. It would be ideal if they could find an amah’s room for themselves somewhere. I think they would prefer this too. Unfortunately amah’s rooms are very hard to come by.

When the Shanghai residents left here, Harold ((Bidwell)) asked a Capt. Reid (who knew Harold’s family) to go and see his mother and tell her what conditions here were like. He asked Reid to tell his mother that he and Elsie were quite prepared to stay here, but that if she was able to support them and would like them to come, would she write the necessary guarantee that the Japanese require.

Well, about a fortnight or three weeks ago, a telegram arrived from Shanghai for Harold saying, “Come home immediately, guarantee support for yourself and wife”, or words to that effect. Were they delighted! This was followed a few days later by a letter in which Mrs Bidwell had sent 150 yen ((pdv £1690)) for the passage to Shanghai. This cost her $1,500 Shanghai, the exchange there being 10:1. In pre war days it would have cost them about $150 for a first class passage; now they will have to pay $1500 for 2nd class if lucky - 3rd if not so lucky! Now they are just possessing their souls with what patience they can muster and hoping and praying a ship will shortly be leaving for Shanghai.

Apparently ships for Shanghai these days are very few and far between and when they do go the accommodation is quite inadequate for those who wish to get away. Apparently many Japanese families who came here from Canton are now getting away to the north (which is a good sign I think!) There are seven people in this camp who have been given guarantees from Shanghai and will be going with the first available ship. Lucky things!  Or they seem lucky. No one can forsee what the future holds in store for us.

It says in the paper today that 4,000 prisoners of war are to be engaged in enlarging Kai Tak aerodrome. Well, it will give them something to do and will be a change for them. Perhaps they will have it completed just in time for the British or American re-occupation! That would be a joke.

Another item is that the Japanese are erecting a shrine in HK and plan to open it on 25th December, the first anniversary of the fall of Hong Kong. Well, let’s hope their calculations will miss-carry again.

We note, with great satisfaction, that the newspaper has been silent for some time on the much written subject of anti-British feeling and demonstrations in India. I think that this Indian unrest must be dying down again, to the chagrin of the Japs.

For some days now, Chinese coolies under the surveillance of Japanese gendarmes have been moving sacks of rice from the ex British godowns in Stanley village, loading them onto trollies, pushing them to the pier or small jetty at the Prep School beach (where we first landed from our launch and where the American repatriatees embarked) and there loading them onto junks and barges which were towed off, presumably to the main harbour. These must be some of the few remaining old stocks of rice left. During these operations, all internees were forbidden to look down onto the beach from the cemetery and ‘C’ or ‘B’  bungalows - because the Japanese objected to being looked down upon!