17 Jun 1945, John Charter's wartime journal

Meat actually came in yesterday! Really, it is almost unbelievable. Today we have had two meals with meat stew, totalling about 5 ozs of meat each (including bone). This comes to 20 gm per day instead of the preliminary 30 gm the Japs promised; but I don’t believe many people thought we should get anything at all. The full quota is 50 gm per day, so our hopes are rising. It will make a tremendous difference if they can keep it up.

Lately, I have found woodcutting becoming somewhat of a strain. Johnny Purvis, in charge of the squad, has been stopped working because he has lost so much weight and his blood pressure is so low. But I am still fairly fit. I am down to 133 lbs, though, so a little meat will be welcome. Lately, the Japs have sent in practically nothing but water spinach and the same in the evening except that the daily 1¼ oz beans per head were added. It has been a very low diet and we miss the oil; so this meat is most important. I still fear the deliveries will be spasmodic and below quota.