17 Oct 1944, John Charter's wartime journal

Today is my deadline date for something to happen; and things have been happening, but I must first write down that canteen list:

Group A (One item per person)

• Powdered egg yolk ¼ lb (113 grams) = Y5.05 ((pdv £45));
• ¼ lb peanuts Y6.25 ((pdv £56));
• ½ lb (226 grams) wheat bran Y3.45 ((pdv £31));
• ½ lb salt Y1.30 ((pdv £11.70));
• ¼ lb (113 grams) tea Y1.80;
• ¼ lb (113 grams) coffee Y8.10.

Group B (One per person)

• ¼ lb lard Y10.10.

Group C (Two of each per person)

• Wong Tong ½ lb Y5.40. 

Group D (One alternative item per person)

• Soya bean flour ½ lb (226 grams) packet Y10.55 ((pdv £90));
• ½ lb dried beans Y9.15;
• ¼ lb Cornstarch Y3.45.

Group E (alternatives)

• 2 oz pepper Y7.55;
• ¼ lb (113 grams) curry powder Y10.00 ((pdv £90));
• ¼ lb garlic Y3.95; 4 oz soy sauce Y2.40 ((pdv £21.60)).  

Group F (3 persons per item)

• 7 oz (200 grams) tin condensed milk Y25.20 ((pdv £227)). 

Group G (one of each item per person)

• Cigarette papers (3 pkts) per packet Y0.15;
• Box matches Y2.40;
• Tooth brush Y5.60 ((pdv £50));
• Tooth powder Y1.25;
• Talcum Powder Y2.85;
• shoe laces Y2.06;
• Thermos cork Y0.52;
• ¼ oz bar washing soap Y6.10 ((pdv £55));
• Toilet paper 100 sheets Y1.00 ((pdv £9));
• Razor blades each Y1.55 ((pdv £14)).

All internees in camp are divided into four groups – A, B, C or D – and one group is served each canteen day. The canteen is open on Wednesdays and Saturdays, so that means a person can buy goods at the canteen once a fortnight if it opens regularly. Sometimes the canteen does not open because insufficient goods have come in from town. Each person is allowed to buy up to Y20 ((pdv £180)) worth of goods per canteen. It used to be Y15, but when prices rose so high it meant one could purchase so little that they obtained permission from the Japs to raise the figure to Y20.

The method of purchasing is as follows: The people within each group are sub-divided into about 155 groups of 4 per group and each group is given a number (between 1 and 155); these numbers are arranged by ballot so that in the long run everyone gets an even share of high and low numbers. Purchasing is done in numerical order, the low numbers starting at 9 a.m. and the last purchases finishing at about 11 a.m. and you guess your time according to your tab number (if you miss your turn you go after the last person whose purchase list has been checked).

The purchasing is done by one person in each small group and this is arranged in rotation so that everyone has a turn. The other three people on each tab make out their list of goods and take them, together with their money and their containers to the purchaser. The latter then makes out the complete list for his or her group, does the purchasing and delivers the goods. The object of having one purchaser is a) to expedite the service in the canteen for it is quicker to supply and check one big order than 4 little ones; b) it quarters the number of people who have to queue each time.

The agonising thing about making canteen purchases is to so arrange our buys as to use up our full Y20. One’s goods often total say Y18.50 and you are left with an odd Y1.50 which won’t buy anything you want. You then rush around to someone on your tab and see if they have an odd amount left over and if so you try and share an item between you. Sometimes your total comes to Y20.20 and then you go to the purchasers and see if someone else is .20 short and if the purchaser will let you have this. It is usually considered that the purchaser has the first claim on any spare amounts of cash, for with 3 small amounts added together he might be able to buy another lot of say salt (if 4 lots of salt have not already been ordered on the tab). Owing to the extreme scarcity of paper and the cost of paper bags (a small ½ lb sugar bag costs about 20 sen now (pdv £1.80) we have to take suitable containers (usually tins) for most groceries. So canteen purchasing is quite a complicated business.

One can order the following items:

• China tea pot and basket Y27.25 ((pdv £245));
• enamel mugs Y6.80;
• China rice bowls (small) Y2.65 ((pdv £24));
• carbolic soap per cake Y8.75 (this is locally made stuff and is not very good);
• Cotton wool roll Y13.50.

This means the price of some of the goods in sterling is:

• powdered egg yolk £4 per lb ((pdv £180));
• Peanuts £5 per lb ((pdv £225));
• Coffee £6 ten shillings per lb ((pdv £292));
• Lard £8 per lb ((pdv £360));
• Wong tong (or sugar residue) is £2- 2 shillings per lb;
• dried beans £3-12-00 per lb;
• pepper £12 per lb ((pdv £540)) ;
• curry powder £8 per lb ((pdv £360));
• garlic £3 per lb;
• condensed milk £11-8-00 per lb ((pdv £513));
• box matches 9/6 ((pdv £ 21))!
• Tooth brush (poor quality) £1-1-00;
• washing soap per bar £5 ((pdv £225));
• one razor blade 6/- ((pdv £14)).

It really is ridiculous.

In town, I am told the HK dollar, although theoretically out of circulation officially worth only Y0.25 will actually purchase a good deal more than the Military Yen; but in camp, of course, all purchases have to be made in yen. No one in town has more yen than they need for immediate purchases, for the Chinese expect HK to be retaken at any time and they don’t want to be stuck with a lot of valueless yen. As a result, precious stones and gold will now fetch fabulous prices.

‘Trading’ through the Formosan guards is carried on here on a big scale – that is how all the money comes in. It is officially forbidden by the Japanese, but the Japanese in authority here know all about it and just wink at it. Some of these Formosans turn up with as much as Y20,000 ((pdv £180,000)) and more at a time and buy any gold and jewellery they can get hold of. I am told that many of them are financed by officers or by dealers in town and I suppose, work on a commission basis. It seems to be a system that suits everyone, for the people in town are glad to invest their money in gold and stones (so are the Jap army men) and we in camp are glad to have money, even if it is fictitious yen, for without money we could buy no canteen goods or anything. So the people who have jewellery sell a little for a fabulous sum; of this they can exchange some for sterling cheques from reliable people and will spend the rest in camp. This means there is always a lot of money circulating in camp, which finds its way eventually to the canteen. Some people with no money can sell their canteen tabs for as much as Y40 per time ((pdv £360)) (for Y20 worth of goods) and that provides them with money for the next two canteens. Cigarettes now fetch Y25 yen per packet of 10 (i.e. 10/- per cigarette ((pdv £22.50))! Yvonne and I sold our last four packets of cigarettes for Y65 ((pdv £585)) which will carry us on for some time. We have not yet had to sell any of the rice we got in exchange for our syrup, so we still have a nest egg of 6 lb of rice. I don’t know the current price of rice but it is over Y20 per lb ((pdv £180)).  Yvonne has also just swapped a ‘two way roll on’ for 2 lb of rice! Really, it is a game! We feel rather disreputable to trade in this way, but it is the accepted thing and now no one thinks twice about it.  

Yesterday we had a terrific air raid: probably the heaviest raid HK has ever had. I was in the communal workshops, making a small oil lamp, when I heard the drone of engines and paid no attention, thinking they were Japanese planes, but suddenly the thudding of A.A. guns started up and then the air raid whistle was blown up the hill, which meant that everyone had to take cover. Recently there have been several raids, but they have all been on a small scale and I thought this was going to be one of these; but then I heard the steady drone of many engines coming nearer and nearer and then suddenly there was a tremendous and sustained roar of detonations and everything, even at this distance away, seemed to shake and tremble. The roar seemed to last for about half a minute, but it cannot really have been as long as that. I dashed across the road and into the American blocks from where you can get a view of the ranges of hills that stand between us and the town, harbour and mainland.  I looked out of someone’s window and there, high, high up in the clear blue sky, out of range, I should think, of the AA shells that were bursting away, in perfect formation, twenty nine of them I counted, and on their flanks and in their rear I periodically caught the gleam of a tiny fighter as it zoomed and twisted about, on the watch for enemy planes. I should think there must have been about a dozen fighters, though I could not count them. They sailed right overhead and as they passed, the plane on the extreme right began to emit a long trail of white smoke. I thought for a moment that it must have been hit and that it was losing height, but it kept steadily on and after a while the smoke stopped so I guessed it was just exhaust fumes. After heading south for some way, they wheeled and sailed off in a westerly direction.

Now, we are waiting news of their targets. It looked like a small piece of ‘carpet bombing’ in which case it would probably have been the Kowloon Peninsula that was the target, as that stretches in a NS direction. Some people said they saw dive bombers too. These would probably be after ships in the harbour.

One morning (about Wed 11th, I think), just as we were getting up, we saw a destroyer coming in through the inner channel between our headland and Po Toi Island. After it, crept a convoy of 10 merchantmen and two small craft that looked like tugs or river boats, and the long line was brought up by another destroyer. It is the biggest convoy we have seen in these waters for months and it caused a great deal of speculation and excitement. They were all pretty heavily laden and some of the bigger ones were carrying a lot of deck cargo. Then, to our great surprise, on the morning of the 14th, another big convoy came in – this time 9 merchantmen, and a couple of destroyers. Probably in both cases the two escorting destroyers were the same two ships which are based at HK and take over from the bigger fleet of escort ships on the arrival of the convoy in HK waters; for with so many of our own ships and planes around and with serious shortage of Japanese merchant shipping it seems probable that they would have more than a couple of destroyers escorting a convoy of that size; unless their navy too is very short of ships.

The next day we read in the paper of the appearance off Formosa of a large American Task Force, and the subsequent bombing of many positions and institutions on that island by American carrier based planes. Another task force also bombed the Philippines and a lot of people seemed to think that these two convoys were ships that had made their escape from the Philippines or which had been turned back from their run to Japan by the American Task Force and which had taken refuge in HK. The only other reason for their presence seems to be troop movements – are they re-inforcing HK because they expect an attack soon? It is all most exciting. The presence of these ships in the harbour had led us to expect an air raid, but not on quite such a large scale. We have an idea that American planes have been busy laying mines in the channels between the islands and here, for on several occasions of late the air raid alarm had gone after dark and low flying planes have come zooming over the channels.  

We had one more surprise yesterday, and that was because the Japs chose that evening to turn on the electric current again – the evening of the big raid. So once more we have blessed light; now from 7.30 – 9.30 as the evenings are drawing in. It is too dark to read by 7.15, so we sit patiently for 15-20 mins till the lights come on and then proceed with whatever we are doing!