02 Mar 1945, John Charter's wartime journal

Yesterday Y and I each received a POW card from England; Y’s from Chère and mine from Betty. They are dated 23rd Aug. ’44 and 11th Sept.’44 respectively – only about 6 months old. They are 25 word messages written on official POW air mail cards bearing a 3d printed stamp (nice to see how old George still looks the same!). They bear some Jap characters as well as the printed English instructions.  Chère’s card says they are all well (as does Betty’s) and that they have had letters from the Charters.  Also: “Reunion soon our dearest wish”.

Hear, hear! Betty says she has opened my trunk and everything inside was alright (my goods which I left behind in England). Then she says: “Off to McCrea’s next week, hope to visit Crowley’s while there”.

So by now, it is probable that they have met. We still don’t know if our respective parents have met. I think these letters must have come on the ‘Awa’. It is marvellous to know our families were well 6 months ago; we have never had such recent news as that as far as I can remember. Maybe we shall get some more.

There is still no official statement about the parcels; by that I mean an official statement from the Japs. Gimson, however, has circularised all blocks with a notice to the effect that he has appointed a committee to consider the best way to distribute the I.R.C. stores which are expected shortly in camp. That, I think, is good enough! The committee is composed of: Wickerson (Chairman), Sandbach, Pritchard, Russle, B. Wylie and Dean-Smith with Bickford as secretary. Anyone who has ideas or suggestions to make about the method of distribution is invited to do so in writing and are assured that the committee will consider all such proposals. The general opinion seems to be that most of the stores are bulk supplies with only a small percentage of parcels – perhaps one parcel each. This is all to the good, for though it is great fun having individual parcels, bulk supplies of corned beef, cocoa, sugar etc. seems to indicate a much larger quantity of food – like the first supplies that arrived from England via Lorenco Marques on the Kamacura.

I hear that the opinion of the medical board is that everyone should be issued and encouraged to eat one tin of bully beef per day for the first month as we are so totally deficient in proteins. What a marvellous idea! One whole tin each per day! I daren’t believe it. I shall want to know what sort of a balance that will leave before embarking upon such a menu! I must say I could do with some meat now. In spite of my wood sawing and wood chopping which normally would develop one’s muscles, my arms and legs are so thin and skinny with the veins sticking out like cords because there is no fat to cover them, and my chest is just a bony structure with skin stretched over it! It really will be pleasant to fatten up again so that on warm days I can take my shirt off without feeling self-conscious. Really, in this camp we seem to alternate between the crest of a wave and the trough – the crests, which are regrettably few and far between, being the arrival of food supplies. On the strength of this news Y and I think it is fairly safe to eat up our remaining tins of food a little more quickly, though even so we are not being exactly rash about it.

Someone in camp whose husband is in Formosa has received a letter from him in which he says they are receiving their fortnightly issue of I.R.C. parcels regularly. Lucky devils! We really do seem to be the ugly ducklings here. This man further added that he heard food was on the way to Hong Kong and that if his wife had a chance to choose which kind of parcel she could have he advised her to choose the American ones as they were best! They would be of course! However, we shan’t feel forgotten anymore when all this food arrives. We simply do nothing but talk about it or discuss the various ways of cooking it up etc. that we will shall try.