23 Aug 1944, John Charter's wartime journal

Hurray! The first fine day for weeks – and the water has come on again. Incidentally, there never need be a water shortage in Stanley during the wet season, for the upper Tytam Reservoir is always full and, being situated higher that this peninsula, by opening certain valves and closing others, the pumping system can be dispensed with and the supply can be affected by gravity flow. I hear that Woodward of the Water Works went up the hill to Nemuri and explained this; so perhaps that will ensure a constant supply of water. We sincerely hope so. The hospital would have tremendous difficulties with a water restriction.

No electric current has come on yet. A short announcement appeared in the paper yesterday to the effect that the Colony’s coal stores were exhausted ( I told you so!) and that no new shipments had arrived owing to the recent typhoons but that they hoped new supplies would arrive soon (perhaps!). This throws us back onto cooking all our vegetables on the chatty, which is a blow because we are at our wits end to find fuel.

Harold (Bidwell) roused my ire considerably the other day when I discovered he had chopped up and burned two decent sized planks that I had lent him months ago. Y and I had been reserving them for making shelves if we ever obtained an amah’s room to ourselves, but Harold was under the impression (in a hazy way) that he had swapped the planks for something! Anyway, it is no use crying over spilt milk, or burnt wood; but in these conditions such normally trifling incidents are apt to loom larage and we felt agrieved, for, if the planks were to be burnt, we thought we were entitled to part, at least, of the wood! Such is life in Stanley.

Now we are casting round for other sources of supply. We have our eye on a step ladder that resides on our verandah and that is seldom used. The Lammert family have now managed to obtain a small table for their use and Y and I use the table I made some time ago from the top of our ice chest. So we are also eyeing (with destructive designs) the larger teak wood dining table that we could dispense with! We admit it would be a crime but, que faire? Then there are the blocks of our wood block floor!! But we hope something will have happened ere that – best of all - we shall, perhaps, be out of this place.

But it is an ill wind etc. and to pass from the sublime to the ridiculous (or vice versa) the Japanese sent us in pheasants on Monday evening!! These birds must have been part of the Xmas stock that the Dairy Farm had laid in and put in cold storage and that the Japanese have left in cold storage all this time. Now that the electric current is off it must mean that the cold storage is no longer functioning and that they have to dispose of the food. So now, instead of sending us the usual miserable supply of sprats every other day that we have been having, they sent us in pheasants on Monday and pheasants again today. On Monday we had 42 birds which, on Tuesday, with sweet potatoes, the cooks made into game balls fried in oil and giblet and vegetable stew this morning. Today 40 birds came in (for our blocks) and we shall have, I hear, two game and vegetable stews this time. These 42 and 40 birds have to feed some 560 people in these blocks so we don’t get much more than a taste, but is that taste good! I hear that, as a nation, the Japanese are not fond of game which, if true, is fortunate for us! Earlier on they supplied us with frozen carcases of sheep and also liver; but that was in the good old days of meat and I presume they have already exhausted those stocks.

The Dairy Farm people in camp say that, at the time of the capitulation, there were 12 tonnes of cheese in cold storage! But I fear we shall never see any of that. The last time we ate pheasant was in Jimmy’s Kitchen!

The news from France is marvellous and the paper admits American air raids on Japan proper. As usual, wild rumours are flying around: that Germany has advised Japan she is about to ask for an armistice; that a military mission of 36 delegates has left Tokyo for Berlin to discuss the military situation (I don’t know by what route they would proceed!); that Amoy (Xiamen) has fallen to American officered Chinese troops and that we may expect to be incarcerated in the gaol anytime now (presumably for our protection and to keep us out of mischief)! At any rate, if this fine weather lasts at all, I think we can expect more air raids here. They never fail to cheer us up, though we feel sorry for the Chinese in town.

We hear, by the way, that there have been more food riots in town. When our last consignment of rice came in the other day, in an ex HK bus, the Japanese sergeant and the private, who were it’s armed escort, were very excited and in ‘quite a state’, as the rations squad said, and explained that the bus had been rushed by a mob of Chinese as it left the godown and that they had had to use their bayonets on them. The ration party said that the sergeant’s bayonet sheath was quite badly dented. They are said to have lost a couple of bags of rice, but I fancy this is by way of embroidery. Poor devils, the Chinese must be in a bad way if they go to the extreme of rushing Japanese rations. The remainder of the rice is said to be under guard by a Japanese regiment at present.

A few days ago volunteers were called for from this camp to go into town and load lorries with rice (presumably for this and the other camps). The list was completed and then the scheme was cancelled – as happened once before, some months ago. This certainly seems to point to trouble in town.

Now there is no electricity, the block Chairmen have asked the Japanese for additional wood to cook with. Colonel Tanaka said, when the request was made known to him, that plenty of wood was being sent in for communal purposes and that people were taking it for use in their private cooking and that therefore all chatty cooking must stop! The Chairmen protested most vigorously and Lt Hara has said it may continue for the present, pending further enquiries. A strict watch is being kept on all communal fuel, for we are already finding difficulty in cooking the two meals per day and boiling the water (there are three water boils per day in our blocks and in some blocks only two). It will be miserable if we cannot use our chatties; what will be the use of our vegetable gardens? From time to time we have heard rumours that only enough fuel will be sent in for us to cook one meal per day. They certainly are in a bad way in town.