Paragraph 11.
This paragraph should be amended to read:-
"The food situation has been desperate ever since the occupation. From the occupation to April 1942, the ration was 1lb. of rice per house per day. This meant wide-spread starvation as many of the houses are crowded, sometimes with 50 inhabitants, The ration was increased in April to 6.4 ozs. per head per day.
"Before the occupation, the price of rice was from 10 to 20 cents per lb. From January 1942, the price was 40 cents per lb.
"The effect of the devaluation of Hong Kong currency in July 1942 (see below) was to increase the price to 80 cents and it rose to the equivalent of $1.20 in September 1942 and to $1.46 in August 1943. All other food, including milk, is on the Black Market and is prohibitively scarce and expensive."
Paragraph 12.
People abandoned their dead because they could not pay the sums demanded by the Japanese for burial.
Owing to the compulsory innoculations decreed by the Japanese typhoid and cholera were not, in fact, more common than before the occupation.
The price of quinine before the occupation was 10 cents for 8 grammes, This rose to 50 cents for 8 grammes after the occupation and in September 1943, quinine was only obtainable at the price of $1.00 per gramme.
Paragraph 14.
Velasco's story of the currency problem is as follows:-
At the time of the occupation, two Hong Kong dollars equalled 1 Japanese military yen. People hoarded small change in Hong Kong currency and there was a serious shortage of it. In July 1942, the rate of exchange was changed to 4 Hong Kong dollars for one yen and in June 1943, Hong Kong currency was completely banned, its compulsory exchange for yen at the rate of 4 to 1 being decreed, There was, however, after this a Black Market in Hong Kong ourrency, on which 1 Hong Kong dollar fetched 2 yen. There was also speculation in gold, and for the greater part of the period December 1941, to September 1943, the Velasco family lived by disposing of small gold ornaments.
Velasco spoke of the Indian community in Hong Kong which he believes numbers from 20,000. The Indians were better treated than the Chinese and many of them were employed as watchmen and guards. A man named Khan of the Indian Independence League was the principal Indian Collaborator with the Japanese. appeared to be much affected by Japanese propaganda.
The community
Velasco tells me that immediately before the occupation, he weighed 110 lbs., in August 1943 he weighed 70 lbs., and his present weight is 120 lbs.
(Signed) E.L. N. Sturt.
29.3.44.