CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG
255
The men of the working party were not in the least bit reassured and took special care, and fortunately all members of both working parties left on 17 July unharmed.
About now Saito, in response to further pressure by me authorised the issue of rice from stocks up to the daily amounts then authorised i.e. 660 grammes for staff and 510 for others and Mr. Campbell arranged this accordingly. Saito wanted me to spare ten men for work on a garden by the cemetery but I could only spare about three for seven of the staff were sick now, five being engineers.
The stock of multivite capsules ran out on 16 July and we resumed injections of 2 mgm of thiamin on two days out of every three. Some of the staff were pretty sick with fever at this time and we had one certain and one suspected case of amoebic dysentery. I was able to send a few mosquito nets, stretchers and mattresses to Sham Shui Po, and this was a notable advance.
On 24 July Saito handed over five cases of American Red Cross Relief Supplies. Each contained four quart tins of cresol saponated solution, one litre of 5% dextrose in normal saline, one litre of normal saline, one bottle of 100 capsules each containing concentrated vitamins A and D, 25 bottles of sterile distilled water and two packages of water purification sets.
At this time in the compradore's shop prices were as follows: — Brown sugar 254.50 yen per lb; syrup 528 yen per tin; tomatoes 20.50 yen per tin; tomato sauce 62.95 yen per bottle; rock salt 24.50 yen per lb; Chinese cigarette papers 3.36 yen per packet; matches 12.50 per box; tausi beans 50.50 per tin; white beans 215 yen per lb.
My diary for 28 July contains a remarkable entry to the effect that a Hong Kong Volunteer, a Hong Kong man, had received from a Hong Kong bank all his securities about ten days earlier. I have no idea now what the details were but this occurrence illustrates that lines of communication existed with the world outside of which I knew nothing.
About the end of July we had to reintroduce certain economies in our use of food. By then our stock of beans was very low and the amount of vegetables coming in was small and included a lot of peppers. We were down to three sacks of rice in hand when fortunately we received another forty each containing a nominal 60 kilos.