27 Feb 1943, John Charter's wartime journal

I will add that through the kind offices of a friend of ours (who shall be, at present nameless) we have been able to obtain MY100 from town. I am still hardly able to believe our luck, and incidentally it shows the faith that many, at any rate, of the more wealthy Chinese have in the ultimate victory of our allies.

Apparently many Chinese are selling their property in town and converting it into cash. Unfortunately for them this cash is either Japanese Yen or the (by now) inflated and more or less valueless Hong Kong Dollars. Many are trying to invest this in gold or precious stones, for presumably both types of currency will be valueless after the war. Others, who know and trust the good faith of Europeans in camp are prepared to issue MY in exchange for an IOU to be made good at the cessation of hostilities. I may add that their rate of exchange is pretty exorbitant – 1 MY = 1 USD.  In other words, 1 MY = 4/6 sterling. So our MY100 will cost us about Sterling 22.10.0 (pdv £1000) unless we are very unlucky and the rate of the pound drops a lot. However, we hear that the pound has been pegged to the gold $ and in any case, however badly we are stung (within reason) it is worth it, for it is so important to keep healthy in this place.