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DONALD C. BOWIE
THE PERIOD OF SLOW DECLINE
The year 1943 began with 341 patients in hospital and there were 30 deaths during the year. A number of our own staff had to be admitted for treatment of early deficiencies. Of the 234 patients remaining on 31 December 1943, deficiency diseases accounted for 120, dysentery for 13, pulmonary tuberculosis for 8 and war wounds for 25.
The year 1944 followed much the same pattern as 1943. The hospital admitted 229 patients, discharged 304 and at the end of the year retained 145 patients. Fourteen deaths occurred during the year and the staff admission rate continued to rise.
The hospital closed in Bowen Road on 23 March 1945 and re-opened in the Central British School, Kowloon, on 10 April. Earlier we had been required by the Japanese to reduce the total of patients and staff in the hospital to two hundred. When the hospital moved, therefore, it had only 119 patients and 3 deaths had occurred in 1945 up to 23 March. Sections describing the years 1943 and 1944 will be added later to this account and a short section will cover the last months from April to September 1945. This last few months was what I have called the Period of Relative Stability. It will be convenient to deal with the rationing problem as a whole and a separate section follows devoted to this subject.
FOOD
Of all subjects of general conversation and general interest, the most common was food. The receipt of stocks was carefully watched by patients and staff, and storage issue, preparation, cooking and distribution were always subjected to close scrutiny. This interest with its undertone of slight suspicion was particularly developed in some men and was not at first understood by those who had any responsibilities for food and was the cause of some resentment by the latter. The common interest of all in making the best use of food and in its even distribution led to methods which brought about a diminution of suspicion though opinions were never lacking in all aspects of food economy. Men with special knowledge used to tell of succulent dishes characteristic of different countries and regions and many vowed that they would pay greater attention to such delicacies as pigs' trotters when they were free again.