Diary of George Gerrard in Stanley Internment Camp Hong Kong: View pages

We are now on a new scale of rations and this has been giving us a headache in the working out the manner in which to deal with it. There are five different categories, 2 for children, no 3 for ordinary, no 4 for light workers and no 5 for heavy workers. In my capacity as quartermaster I come into category 4 and get extra rations which are very welcome. Also we are now getting beans, tea and curry in small quantities, never the less it is an extra which greatly helps especially the tea. Also the quantity of oil (peanut) enables us to make an individual issue, there are also rice, sugar and salt the latter two being very small, but we get an individual issue of sugar. The whole issue is for a ten day period.

It is a good sign and shows that there must have been a considerable agitation at home in connection with our lot here and it is now bearing fruit all of which we are very grateful for. It is not quite sufficient as we still require meat of some kind tho' the authorities are giving us good quantities of vegetables but small quantities of fish. 

Generally a lot of us have improved in weight and I have gained several pounds already. We have had a double inoculation typhoid and some people were laid up with it, none of us were affected.

I have been attending Dr Yasoogi Yasoski at the nutrition clinic for a chronic soreness in my nose and herpes at the side and inside of my mouth and on my tongue and he has put me on a course of yeast daily. I have to see him again next week. 

The weather is still cold and raw and we shall all be glad when the warmer weather comes as in our present condition we feel the cold due to the shortage of fats in our bodies.

However the news is good and the Russians are advancing rapidly. Lets hope it continues and that our day of release may not be so very far distant. I wrote my 25 word postcard to you on Thursday and on it I said I had received your two Red Cross messages dated 8th March 1942 and 22nd March 1942 both of which have taken over two years in delivery. I received them on 23/3/44. The first one came from Parry Sound, Ontario in which you mention you had received my Christmas mail for 1941 and in the other that two of your letters such as they are and so relieved your mind. We live in hope dear.

Wrote my monthly 25 word postcard to you today. Wish we were allowed to write a proper letter and say exactly what we would like to say but of course as 'dogs bodies' we must conform to the Jap Military regulations. 

The weather this month has been horribly wet and damp and last night there must have been a cloudburst, the rain falling in buckets.

Bobby Taylor (Green Island Cement) came to see me last Thursday afternoon to show me a letter he had received from his wife. The letter was dated November 1942, and tho' he had strict instructions from Mrs Taylor not to tell me of its contents he felt that no harm would be done at this late date. He had received the letter that day and come to see me post haste. In it Mrs Taylor speaks of the rough time you had in the Atlantic on the freighter you came across in and of you having sustained several broken and cracked ribs and being bound up with plaster etc. but that nevertheless tho' still feeling seedy after your experience you were full of spunk and had taken on this job with the Red Cross and she and Mrs Lyle saw you there and on another day you were going to have tea together in Jeans'. My dear you are a marvel, you have guts and full of spirit.

Also J.F. read out from a letter that C.C.R. had received from W.H. back --- gone west poor chap and in it he speaks of you having left Canada for home and how you had been such a comfort and of cheery disposition to everyone.

There is not much local news in the camp, but we seem to be progressing well with the war. It would be worth something to get a Glasgow Herald to read the actual truths of the war with a special reference to what is going on in Burma and the Japan held places.

I have received my first pay from the Japs for work done in March at 15 seen per day amounting to 4.50 Yen. Neff said.

I wrote my monthly 25 word postcard to you on Friday and I do hope you are receiving these postcards from me. I am looking forward to receiving a recent date letter from you just to let me know how you are getting on, I keep hoping.

Well Hattori has spoken and parcels or supplies of meat etc. are not very far distant if they are not actually in the colony. Also the allowance is expected very soon, there 40 must have been a hold up somewhere probably due to exchange for one cannot see the Yen being worth very much elsewhere. Repatriation difficulties are due to one of the Dominions being sticky probably Australia. It is said that the wives there are kicking up a row about their men folk not being repatriated and giving every able bodied Japanese a lot of old women and decrepit who should never have been here in the first place and one can hardly blame them either.

There is a spot of bother in the camp just now with the Formosan guards who have been doing a lot of trading in gold and watches and in exchange for Yen and big wads of Yen and cheques are changing hands. One man in exchange for his Rolex watch was given 500 Yen and a cheque for £100, the cheque having been given by someone else in the camp for 500 Yen. and so it has gone on. I haven't a watch to exchange mine having been taken off me by a Jap soldier at North Point Camp. Although in a roundabout way I was offered 1000 Yen for my gold ring but nothing doing. I am not selling that in any case dirty Jap Yen wont buy my ring at any price. The upshot to this is that eight of the guards have been arrested and had up --- by the Gendarmerie who are I suppose jealous of the seems that have been going on. It is freely said that there may be further complications.

I saw Dr Yaroogski Eroogi on Friday who ordered me to lay off work for a fortnight owing to me having wet beri beri and a dicky heart and very low blood pressure. My heart pounds at a terrific rate and with the beri beri I have been putting on weight which is not natural and due to excess water. I see him again next Thursday so at present I'm taking things easy and lying back as much as possible. I am also having thiamine injections everyday from Mrs Cooper a sister at Block 10 which is just across the road from here.

The weather has been terrible, wet and miserable and difficult to get clothes washed and dried and of course everything else smells with the dampness. The news continues to be good and it should not be long now before the European War is ended and then Mr Nippon had better look out when Nimitz, MacArthur and Mountbatten get going.

I have spent most of the week in bed and in the lavatory with continuous diarrhoea, terrific pains in the tummy and my haemorrhoids lousy. However I am feeling much better now and on my feet again. I had to have the Block doctor Dr Rhys Jones and he fixed me up all right. I am to see Dr Yaroosky on Tuesday and in the meantime I am having thiamine injections from Mrs Godfrey who has been giving me them here everyday while I was seedy.

On Friday I received your lovely postcard dated 6/10/43 which is the most recent news from you and I am so bucked that you were well and still in Inverness. I wish tho' that you were receiving my cards but I have heard that news and dear postcards have been received at home. Then yesterday I received your lovely letter dated 15/11/42 which was just as glorious but you'll note the wide differences in the dates of letters received. I consider myself lucky in receiving so many letters from you for many others have only got very few. We live in hope that happy days will come our way soon again. I'm longing for you Nell.

We have received 10Yen allowance this week, but with the price of things so high it goes no distance at all and is just enough to buy our usual lot of weekly cigarettes that is 4 packets. Last week I got 25Yen sent to me from Gordon Dewar who is over in Argyle Street Camp, N.Finnie also got the same amount. A tin of corned mutton amongst 4 was also distributed and we are to get a 1/4 gill wong tong each free from the canteen out of their profits.

Thank you Dearest for your dear and glorious loving letters of 20th June '43, 16th June and 14th June '43 received on 21st June. I am so glad that you are well and still liking your job in Inverness and not finding it too heavy for you, you are very plucky Nell.

I'm terribly sorry that you are not receiving word from me but hope that you'll receive some of my postcards one day just to let you know that I'm still in the land of the living. It must be a very great strain on you.

I must say that I have been very fortunate compared with others both in the room and in the camp at the number of letters I have received from you. Some have only received one or two letters from their loved ones during the whole time here.

The news is better and better in every way and Nimitz and his Navy are drawing closer to Japan with his huge Armada, Saipen has fallen and the Marianna Islands are now in our hands. Oh Boy! Oh Boy!

Chinese newspapers are now allowed into the camp and they give a lot of more startling news than the Hong Kong News gives. 

On Thursday 13th July I received two Red Cross 25 word letters from you dated 8th December '43 and 23rd December '43, so that brings us much closer in the matter of time than we have ever been. Then on Thursday 18th July I received your letter 8th June '43 and for all these glorious and loving letters Dear I am most grateful. Tho' the receiving of these letters has been most irregular. I feel so bucked to know that you have written to me faithfully every week, what I feel tho' is most unfair that I have received so many from you and you have received none from me, but I still hope that someday I will have news from you of receipt of some of mine, tho' latterly we have only been allowed to send one 25 word postcard per month. I wrote this months one to you on the 12th inst.

Things are stirring up all over in fact the post is nearly boiling with all the good news and the latest one of the resignation of the Tojo Cabinet is just great and shows a how state of affairs in Japan is. The military and navy are at last being found out, they must have taken a terrific knock at Saipan, Not arf. We are now all full of hope and conjecture as to what is going to happen next. Is Nimitz coming to Hong Kong next or going to make a landing somewhere in China or is Japan going to cave in and try and save something from the wreck. The Russians are moving so fast that the European affair should be all over this year as promised by Churchill. 

We had a typhoon in the early hours of yesterday Saturday morning and tho' quite severe we managed to weather the storm quite well in our poor conditions. I mean living conditions.

Then on Thursday and Friday we have been in quarantine that is in our blocks 8 and 9 due to the death of H.C. MacNamara whom the Japs say died of typhoid and we all therefore had to have T.A.B. injections which fortunately didn't upset me at all. We have had a lot of deaths lately from typhus, typhoid, cerebro-malaria etc. All due on the whole to malnutrition, the death of some people being very low due to the want of beef and other fats. There is no use in flogging a dead horse, but really the rations are deplorable.

I managed to get 40 Yen a few days ago from C.C.Roberts in lieu of a share in a cheque, the amount I took being £10. It is still marvellous how money can be got, of course there are still people in this camp who have plenty of Yen in their possession due to selling and trading with the guards, that is selling watches, gold and jewellery so that a good solid cheque is worth more than Yen to them who have too much. Also these people with plenty do well and don't suffer from the want of things like others, plenty of money can work wonders. I don't grumble tho' as I keep very fit and on the whole haven't done badly.

The new regime is a washout and we are kept hanging around for all hours waiting on the arrival of the van with rations, they often arrive so late as to be impossible to cook for that evenings meal so that these sometimes have been gey thin and what's more these people are far from being helpful of course. They are the people who wield the big stick and can therefore call the tune, but their day is coming and it appears by all the good news we are getting to be not very far off in fact very close, however it can't come too soon let us back to freedom again. The Formosan guards who are on duty here at night time go around with fixed bayonets when there is an air raid on and are far from being pleasant.

We have each received a cake of soap, as there are three different kinds, Palmolive, carbolic and plain, when distributing I made a draw so that there would be as fair a distribution and at the same time no reflection on my distribution. I drew carbolic myself with which I was quite pleased. Palmolive was the wish of most so as to do for shaving soap. Anything does me for shaving with, I'm lucky in having a razor and blades to last a long long time. D.B.B. gives my old blades a swish up now and again. I have no shaving brush.

Well, Well, Boy oh Boy this has been a week and no mistake, Not ‘arf. The news is great all over and the Allies appear to be on a Cooks tour in France and just going where and as they like. Romania has packed in and from Germany's position generally east and west she is on the 'spot' and it would appear that the end is in sight and the last chapter about to be written. Well we are ready and full of hope.

Things locally have become brighter for us and the period is known as the week of P's, Pheasants, Partridges, Parcels, Paris and Perhaps Peace. On Monday instead of the eternal fish that is sprats, we've been getting for the last six months we got pheasant and again on Wednesday. This is of course due to the electric current being completely shut off all over and as these birds have legs in cold storage at the Dairy Farm's place at East Point since 1941 the Authorities must have thought there was a danger of them going off. Then on Friday we got Partridges what a delicious table the most delectable chow we've had for years. It is difficult to describe how our palates reacted to meat again, but by jove it was good and has done the people in camp a power of good already.

Then on Saturday we received the news that our parcels had either arrived or been found and I understand the allocation is to be 2 parcels to grown ups and 1 parcel to children under 10 years. There are also some other foods such as cream, powdered milk , orange juice also shoe material and clothing or material for nurses uniforms. The total parcels number 617 bales of 8 parcels each amounting to 4936 parcels. 

Also last evening we heard that a large quantity of mail had arrived. What does all this portend. Is it a voile face on the part of the Jap Authorities. Do they see the writing on the wall and are they endeavouring to strengthen their position locally by trying to improve our conditions in Stanley. We understand conditions in town are deplorable and the Authorities freely admit that Hong Kong is tightly blockaded. No coal arriving, no electricity, small quantities of vegetables from up country, no transport in town, in other words the place is at a standstill.

Thankful to say that the weather is trying to keep fine at last, but it really has been a dreadful time of rain, with everything soaking and small prospects of getting anything washed and dried. Also the water was off for several days and this made conditions very bad, the water is now on but only intermittent.

Our Block Committee election was held last Wednesday and I was again second top with 161 votes, J.Cooper 1st with 176, Price 145, Kidd, DeVille and a new man Collins, so I've now been a committee member for about 21/2years. I have again been appointed Q.M. for the blocks and when the parcels arrive I'll have the job of distributing.

The big news for this period is that the Canadian Red Cross parcels have actually arrived and are now in our hands and some of the contents in our tummies and Boy Oh Boy are they good. I'll say they are. We had cheery news of these parcels and then we were in the dumps when they didn't actually arrive, but we quickly forget all the dull things when the --- ferry arrived at the pier with the parcels, large quantities of rice, salt, sugar, beans etc. everything was discharged by our men who worked all night and part of the next day on the job.

Well the ferry arrived on Wednesday 13th Sept. and distribution to the blocks took place the next day. I had arranged with the ration party and woodcutters to do the cartage and haulage of the cases up to the block where I had a party to commence opening the cases and stacking the parcels. Everything went well and by 3 o'clock on Thursday afternoon 14th I was able to commence distribution to the residents of the blocks. 

Children under 2 years no parcel, children up to under ten years one parcel and the rest two parcels. The parcels are splendid and tho' we had given up hope completely of ever seeing these Canadian parcels, still it is great now that they are here, but of course owing to the long time since they left Canada and arrived out somewhere east at least nearly a year ago, some of the parcels are in very poor condition. It was of course a great mistake to put salt in a paper package. The prunes and raisins were very mouldy, also the chocolate but the tin stuff in great condition. Each parcel contained viz; 1 tin powdered Domo milk, 1 tin butter, 1 tin Zest jam, 1 tin Fray Bentos corned beef, 1 tin Salmon, 1 tin sardines, 1 tin meat roll, 1 packet tea (or coffee), 1 packet Lowneys chocolate, 1 packet McCormick biscuits, 1 packet prunes, 1 packet raisins, 1 packet sugar, 1 packet pepper and salt mixed, 1 cake soap, 1 packet cheese. The powdered milk does grand for congee in the morning, the biscuits with jam are top hole, the chocolate is just rapidly disappearing and so on. All should greatly benefit and help to --- for the time being at least, beri-beri and pellagra.