20 Nov 1942, Barbara Anslow's diary | Gwulo: Old Hong Kong

20 Nov 1942, Barbara Anslow's diary

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Submitted by Barbara Anslow on Thu, 2012-03-08 21:09
Book / Document: 
Barbara Anslow's diary
Date(s) of events described: 
Fri, 20 Nov 1942

We tried to work out how much back pay we'll get when we're let out ((of camp)) by end of this year.  I would get $3200 (£200), Olive £380, Mabel £63 - Grand if we DO get back pay!  ((We did))

Rumour that some more letters are in town being censored.

Lots of folk at choir practice in evening.  Fr Murphy conducted it.

The Woods' twins are going to give me a Roget's Thesaurus.

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Comments

Submitted by David on Tue, 2012-11-27 17:12.

Martin Heyes has written in to give an idea what that back pay was worth:

According to my research, the cost of an average semi-detached house in a typical British suburb in 1942, rather like the one in which I was brought up & which was built in 1928, was about £600.

Which meant that some internees were well on their way to getting a roof over their heads when eventually got out of the camp.

Although I venture to suggest that buying a property back in Blighty was the last thing on the minds of most Brit internees in 1942.

Just surviving internment was far more important...

Submitted by Admin on Thu, 2012-11-29 17:36.

Barbara Anslow replies:

The writer who thought £600 would buy a modest house in 1945 was probably about right.   We did get our back pay, much to our astonishment and relief... remember we had lost all our possessions, and had to depend on kindly relatives to take us in when we first arrived back in UK.