05 Jun 1943, John Charter's wartime journal

I should be digging in the rubbish pit this morning, but as it is pouring with rain I have elected to make an entry in my diary.

I sought advice at the C.S.O. with regard to our silver and they advised us to write saying that the third nationals had been asked to report if they were looking after estate, commercial stocks or stores etc. of enemy nationals, not so much small personal property. He (Ginger Angus) said that 3 or 4 people had already written to Devaux about similar property of theirs. We are still dubious, but in the end I wrote a card saying: Do you know if any of our property survived the looting of our flat? If so will you please send it to us for the impending repatriation. We understand the Japanese Civil Authorities will make arrangements for transporting it here, etc. Put in this way it will enable Devaux to deny all knowledge of our property if necessary. Now we must wait and see if anything turns up. We are allowed to send to HK one 50 word post card per month. (Married couples count as one person). The wording has to be written in block letters and the nationality of the sender and addressee has to be stated. Apart from Yvonne Ho and Devaux there is no one else really for us to write to.

Yvonne Ho sent us a lovely parcel at Easter; four enormous eggs and ¼ lb of cheese. The cheese was of the cooking cheddar variety with a very good and strong taste; where it has come from we cannot think.

One or two people have been getting personal property in. Anne Muir had a big suitcase sent in yesterday containing her fur coat and table linen amongst other things. We helped her carry it to her block. A Mrs Hall, who was in charge of ‘The Caravan’, a shop in the Peninsula Hotel where they dealt in Chinese silk lingerie etc., has had a large amount of her stock sent into camp. She had packed it up and left it at the Peninsula and lately she asked for it to be sent in. She is now selling it at the pre-war prices in exchange for sterling cheques at the pre-war rate of $16 = One pound Sterling. This is very fair of her, as no doubt she could have stuck on the price and people would still have bought, though maybe she would not have sold out. She is expecting another consignment soon. I have my Westminster Bank cheque book with me and I think it would be a good idea if Y bought some of these things for herself and her mother, as it will be years before this quality stuff can again be bought at these prices, and as Y has lost all her clothing she will have to buy and make more; so this seems to be an opportunity not to be missed. Also, we can purchase it without parting with any of our precious local money. Mrs Hall will take the Sterling cheques out with her when she is repatriated and will then pay them into her own account. As she is accepting cheques, the purchasers, whom she does not know, have to be recommended, this Maudie can do for us, as she has already bought a lot of stuff herself.

We met Mr Gimson the other evening at Maudie’s wedding anniversary (25th May) and I asked him about my Government pay for Yvonne. He said that half my salary would be made available for her and she has to get in touch with Mr Maugham, the HK Government official who accompanied the first batch of evacuees to Australia. So that eases my mind. She will now be able to get in touch with my bank in England and see how matters are standing.

This repatriation rather knocks on the head the scheme for a boys’ hostel, so it does not look as though Y and I will get our room to ourselves after all. To think that this room has been our most permanent home so far – shared with sundry other people! We lived for 9 months at 18 Peak Road and so far have spent over 16 months here.