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DONALD C. BOWIE
remains though as time went on the permitted hours of use had to be restricted. The most alarming and dangerous devices were connected to live sockets by our men who wanted to heat water for some form of food. I prohibited the use of these dangerous bits of wire on the advice of the engineers to try to avoid a fatal accident. Though my order was I knew widely ignored, no one was electrocuted.
After the first air raids in October 1942 we had to black-out the hospital, first on the harbour side and soon all over. Electricity was frequently switched off at the central stations in Hong Kong without notice during air alerts, and this caused many difficulties for our night staff who had to care for very sick men especially in the diphtheria and dysentery wards. We were not allowed to use our generator at this time and we only had six candles (a curious shortage this) when lighting problems first arose. I ordered many more candles through the compradore, our dispenser made some good candles himself and we learned that medicinal oil of paraffin burned well in hurricane lamps. Pieces of string soaked in peanut oil gave some light and our ingenious sappers constructed a few battery-operated lamps for special use. Imposed black-outs lasted at first from midnight till dawn, but later from dusk till dawn.
Up to December 1943 the main consideration so far as the use of electricity was concerned was to enforce black-outs; thereafter economy in the use of current was urged upon us. In 1944 all electric heaters were confiscated by Seino and we were allowed to use our ward sterilizers only for a few stated hours each day. In February some Japanese officers inspected our larger generator which they removed in August. As the imposed economies did not show a sufficient saving, in June we were ordered to lower our consumption of light by 33% and our power by 57%, so that we had to reduce the ward services further. In July we were told exactly the number of light bulbs we could use, and all 60-watt bulbs were replaced by 40 watts. By August no gas or electricity was being supplied in Hong Kong and so we had to do without light and power. Batteries used by night duty staff were charged, using the exercise bicycle in the physiotherapy department. Water for injection purposes was prepared from filtered water which was then passed through a Seitz filter and raised to 80 degrees C. for one hour on each of three successive days. The emergency batteries