09 Sep 1944, John Charter's wartime journal

Yesterday we had news that a few hours after Russia declared war on Bulgaria, that country sued for peace with the anti-axis powers! Also liver was just sent in from the Dairy Farm cold storage!  It had completely thawed out by the time it arrived in camp and had to be cooked straight away. Hitherto these Dairy Farm goods have arrived still frozen, so it seems to indicate that the refrigeration is giving out. Today, no rations have come in at all and Gimson was told that an ‘accident’ had befallen the ship that was bringing vegetables from Canton. We wonder what the accident was.

For the past week or ten days there have been night raids on HK almost every night. They have been on a much smaller scale than hitherto, with probably not more than one or two planes participating. The night before last, however, at 4 a.m. we were wakened by some really heavy detonations and someone said they counted 18 crumps which must have meant 4 planes or more, unless they were very big bombers. Perhaps the Canton ship was bombed. Lately, a few ships have crept in and out of these waters, generally escorted by a destroyer. Nowadays they use the inside channel and come in between Beaufort Island and our peninsula – only  a few hundred yards off this headland – instead of using the much bigger outer channel between Po Toi Island and the Lemas (Jiapeng Liedao and Dan’gan Liedao islands ). I don’t know why this should be unless, perhaps, our planes have sown mines in the outer channel.

We have had two more unpleasant jolts today. The first is that no more cigarettes are going to be supplied to us. The second is really disgusting: the Japanese want us to use human manure (night soil as it is termed here) on these communal gardens. It is undoubtably true that this is the manure par excellence, but its use renders the garden areas absolutely obnoxious. It is used extensively throughout the Far East, the method being to put the sewage in tanks for a few days and then to water the plants with it – it is not even dug into the ground. That is when you must never eat raw veg in China. This football field is directly outside our block and if the Japanese have their way the stench will be absolutely unbearable.

Dr Macleod and the Chairman are, at present, vehemenently objecting and protesting. They are heavily stressing the danger to our health from flies etc. This camp has always taken all precautions possible to prevent any epidemics, for once a bad cholera or dysentery or typhoid epidemic starts amongst people in these crowded conditions, people would simply die like flies. Nimurii, the Japanese interpreter, was talking to Macleod and other camp officials on this plot yesterday. He said, “Why wait for three months for your vegetables to grow, when if by using this manure, you can raise them in six weeks? We are trying to do everything we can to help you people and you do nothing but obstruct. In six weeks time there may be no more vegetables available in Hong Kong and then you people may die of starvation”. “Well,” said Macleod very promptly, “We shall die of disease in less time than that if you do use it.” “Nonsense,” said Nimurii, “On the prison parade ground they have had a manure tank for months now and nothing has happened”. “That is why we keep having dysentery cases here and can never quite clear them up,” said Macleod. The Japs have told Macleod that they don’t want to see him anymore! He by the way, was Director of the HK Health Services before the war.

In the meantime the Japanese have produced the tanks – old bitumen and oil drums – and have instructed the gardeners to get on with the job of sinking them in the ground. No official bulletin has yet been posted concerning either the cigarettes or this night soil project and we do not know for certain how the Japanese propose that this soilage shall be collected. There are rumours of two methods: a) that communal earth closets shall be built outside the blocks and b) each lavatory in the block shall be provided with a soil bucket and sand box which will be emptied three times a day (presumably by the gardening squad). I can see the personnel of the gardening squads dwindling rapidly!

I hear that the cigarette machines in the local factories were electrically driven and that they are now unable to operate as there is still no current. The available stocks are now running out. If this is the case they may still be able to let us have the tobacco and we can roll our own cigarettes. We should miss them very much as they are one of our very few luxuries here.

Every person in camp over the age of 17 is allowed 4 packets of ten per week and they cost 45 sen per packet. They are the cheapest kind of cigarettes obtainable in Hong Kong and before the war they sold at about 3 cents per packet (i.e. about ½ d per packet (pdv £0.10). Maybe our taste has degenerated a good deal, but they really taste quite nice now. There are many people who smoke more than 40 cigarettes per week and so there is a good market value for any packets that a person cares to sell. The present rate is Y4 (pdv £11.25) per packet and I have heard of Y5 being paid, i.e. more than 10 times the canteen price. So up till now, people with no money could always sell their cigarettes for Y12.40 per week profit. 

Maudie is a heavy smoker and, right from the start, Yvonne and I had let her have half our cigarettes, or more, as we could manage without the full ration. Recently, however, we let Maudie have three packets per week, kept 4 packets for ourselves and sold the remaining packet for Y4 which just about covered the cost of the 5 packets we bought for ourselves and meant we had our smokes practically free. It seems horribly like slick business methods, but some people have the money and are quite satisfied about the deal and it has been quite the recognised thing in camp these days.

Quite a number of private gardeners, particularly the police, offer garden produce in exchange for cigarettes – some, I regret to say, offer their rations of oil, sugar and canteen purchases for cigarettes, which is a bad thing as it means they are sacrificing valuable and necessary food to satisfy nervous craving. Poor Maudie has been worried about taking 3 packets a week from us as she says we could sell them for a good price. But we are glad we are able to do this for her. She has made us promise that if we run short of money we will ask her for some – which is typical of her. At present we are all right for cash.

After casting longing eyes at our tin of syrup that Yvonne Ho sent in, we advertised it for exchange for cash or food. We were surprised at the number of people who came after it. We were offered Y140 for it! (At the official rate of exchange of Y16 to the pound that is £8-15-0 for a 2 lb tin of syrup - pdv £394)!.  But we wanted to invest part of it in food because the value of cash depreciates daily, whereas the exchange rate between various foodstuffs remains about the same. In the end we accepted an offer from a Mr and Mrs Tanner of Y50 in cash and 6 lbs of dry rice. They wanted the syrup for their newly born baby and as their baby is allowed ½ lb of rice per day which it cannot possibly eat, the exchange suited both parties. At that time the black market price for rice was Y15 per lb which meant we sold our syrup for a cash value of Y140. Now one can get Y25 per lb of rice so already our syrup has brought us a potential Y200! As we are not yet out of cash we are still keeping the rice, either to sell when we want cash for canteen purchases or to keep as a reserve food ration. We do not regard it as part of our iron ration for last year we built up a reserve of 5 or 6 lbs of rice for this purpose. Some of this I saved from my double rations when I was on the temporary kitchen staff and some we exchanged for produce from our garden. 

This question of a food reserve is a sickening business and we long for the time again when we can feel we can go and buy what we need instead of hoarding food like squirrels hoarding acorns. The Bidwells and Lammerts have eaten all their iron rations, which we consider is most foolish and improvident. They however, argue that it is better to eat the food now while we need as much as we can get and they are sure that, even if this place is retaken and no food comes in at all for a few days, they could exist for those few days on whatever stocks happened to be in camp or on nothing at all, if necessary, for they are sure the hiatus would not last for more than a few days and that in any case there will be so many other people with no reserves at all that something will have to be done about it. Well, that is another point of view and it maybe they will prove right. Still, I think they would be wise to keep something in reserve. If such a situation did arise, we should feel morally bound to share some of our iron rations with them – which I am sure would make me very cross! Perhaps they will keep something from the Red Cross parcels when they arrive.

The Japs really are the limit; our parcels have not yet arrived in camp. A hope constantly deferred maketh the heart sick and by now the gilt has been quite worn off the gingerbread. It has always been the same here – promises about food, about letters, about repatriation and other things, are constantly being made and the reply to eager questions is always “manyana”. One feels like saying “Oh keep the damned things,” which no doubt, they would be only too pleased to do!

We have been told the parcels are all safely loaded in a lighter and are now only awaiting a launch or tug to bring them round the island. Apparently the Navy cannot, at present, spare a tug. Probably, in a few more days time they will say, “Very sorry; last night your aeroplanes dropped bombs on the harbour and one hit the lighter with your parcels and they are all sunk!”

Incidentally, I hope our airmen will be careful! At anyrate, we have heard (by post cards from the POW camps) that our Prisoners of War have received their parcels, which is something, 3 parcels each, I hear and a medical parcel each.

I have wondered if the food situation in town is becoming so difficult that they are deliberately holding back the parcels until more bulk supplies arrive in the Colony in case they have to use the parcels as an emergency ration for us. They have no business to do so, but unfortunately they have the last word. I expect the reason they give is the real one – there is, and apparently always has been, considerable jealousy and a singular lack of cooperation between the Japanese Army and Navy, from the lowest private to the most exalted officers. This was a well known fact before the war, when both the Army and the Navy were jockeying for the warmest place in the rays of the Emperor’s Rising Sun. Apparently the Army won in those days and could go to the Emperor either over the head of or behind the back of the Premier – in other words, the Army dictated the foreign policy. Now it seems as though the Navy is having a little more say in matters generally.

How I ramble along from one subject to another, just as thoughts come into my head. This diary will be a most annoying screed from which to collect facts – if ever I want to. However, these days I seem to be unable to collect my wits and keep my facts arranged in any clear sequence. I think many of us are going to experience considerable difficulty, at the start, in getting back to real brain work again!

While I remember it, we sold a small tin containing 6 oxo cubes for Y40 (pdv £112) There is little or no food value in oxo, and at the present canteen price we can buy 2 lbs of egg yolk powder with the money, which is a much better proposition for us.