31 Aug 1944, John Charter's wartime journal

Maudie has been causing us some anxiety of late. She has lost weight slowly but steadily since she has been in camp. She told me once in England she weighed 204 lbs! When she arrived in Hong Kong she weighed 188 lbs and by taking a course of slimming exercises with Knedgie, the Russian, she reduced her weight (just before the blitz here) to 156 lbs. At that she felt very fit. But now she weighs only 104 lbs and that is much too little for a woman of her build and boundless energy.

She had kidney trouble before the war and has had one or two recurrences of stones in her kidney whilst in camp which have been excruciatingly painful and very exhausting for that reason alone. Lately, her heart has not been behaving too well and Dr Deane-Smith, who has been attending her, has ordered her a complete rest for two weeks. She must not leave her room or do any work. Poor Maudie, she was never any good at sitting still even when surrounded with all home comforts; but here, couped up in a small room it has really depressed her a good deal and she cannot help worrying a good bit. It would be awful if she was taken seriously ill now; her heart is in no condition to make a major operation advisable. 

If only this British repatriation scheme had materialised and she and others in a similar condition had been able to get away and receive proper treatment! I don’t think it will ever come now. Maudie simply hates being ill and now she is most impatient with herself. She needs more than just proper food; she needs medical treatment too which she cannot be given here. I hope for all our sakes, but especially for the sakes of people like her, that our internment will soon be ended. I am told that many of the people who have gone practically blind here have received almost irreparable damage to their eyesight. This is simply a matter of food deficiencies, but it has lasted too long now to permit of more than partial recovery.

George Merriman, Hong Kong’s leading radio expert is an example of this. He comes and talks radio and gives instruction to Mr Lammert on most afternoons and it really is pathetic to hear him asking Mr Lammert to describe to him the various diagrams in a radio text book which they are using and with which George is very familiar but which he can now no longer see.

I think Maudie’s two weeks rest will do her a lot of good, but she will have to go very carefully while she remains in here. Thank goodness she has had a regular supply of parcels from Sophie O’Dell. If she had needed to subsist on ordinary camp rations I hate to think what her condition would be like now. Thank goodness Capt. Minhinnick, now a POW in Formosa, does not know about it or he would be perpetually worrying about her. So too would Peg (her daughter). Well, I hope soon to report improvement.

During the beginning of or middle of July, the Billeting Committee told Maudie and Vera that they wished to billet a Miss Sherry in their room, as the room they occupy in Block 10 is registered for 3 people and they have been lucky enough to get on marvellously well together (though they met for the first time in this camp) and were as happy as it was possible to be in these circumstances. The news that a third person had to share their room was an awful blow, but they could raise no objections, as they had always known it was a room for three people and had always admitted their luck in having it to themselves. However, neither of them knew this Miss Sherry (a most tantalising name to live with here!) and they asked if Elma Kelly could move in instead, for she was not happy with the person with whom she shared a room. Elma was pleased with the invitation and Maudie and Vera were pleased when the committee ratified the arrangement. Phil and I and one or two more of Elma’s friends helped her to move house. When we saw all the junk she had accumulated we wondered how on earth she would stow it in her new abode. However, she managed to pack it away like any Jack Tar and now, there they are, rather like 3 sardines in a small tin, but still with enough room to allow the oil to circulate! Maudie and Vera have, of course, felt the change a good deal; they feel crowded and where, before, when one was out the other had the room to herself, this seldom happens now. Maudie says she is suffering from claustrophobia! But she is bearing it philosophically.