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incomparably better than in the Chinese boarding houses.
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within the first six months of interment over 600 cases of Bl deficiency were recognised in the group of rather less than 3,000 in stanley Civilia. Internment Camn. Theiluation might well
have been disastrous but for the fact that the Japanese Foreign Office allowed my Red Cross ambulance and trucks to take into the camp additional food, bread, milk, vitamin concentrates, medical supplies, clothes, shoes, bedding and a hundred and one other itams. These were distributed by an International Welfare Committee to which reference has been made earlier.
Most welcome and valuable Red Cross parcels and bulk supplies were received in the camps from the United Kingdom, Canada and the united states at the rate of one each year. other supplies sent into the camps by the International Red Cross
These with in dong Kong in 1943 and 1944, helped the situation considerably.
in point of fact, although the physical efficiency of the inmates of Stanley Camp deteriorated very markedly in adults, the death rate was remarkably low. Moreover, the condition of the younger children, although far from satisfactory, was very fair considering the lean basic ration and the general ciromst nees prev iling. uch praise is due to my colleagues in the medical, nursing and welfare services for unis excellent result.
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Suring the earlier part of the Japanese occupation, I was permitted to retain a certain degree of control over the staff of the Medical and dealth Departmenta. The object in view was to try to meet the needs of the prisoners of war and civilian internees and their non-interned families and to ensure some sort of service for the benefit of the community as a whole.
It might be well to point out that our Japanese captors were interested in nothing except their own wor effort and looting. Consequently, they were, with rare exceptions, unwilling to concern themselves with the well-being of enemy nationela on the population at large. hence, it was somewhat of an uphill battle to try to retain certain hospitals and to intein adequate labour to deal with town cleansing, burial of dead, anti-malarial measures, and the like. Some activitie. could n iu exercise an influence over the health of those cooped up behind barbed wire.
Following the escane of one of the doctors, all but a small handful of European doet rs 10 nesith personnel were interned in Stanley Camp in February, 1942. The remainder, eight in number, were interned fifteen months later after my arrest by the Japanese Gendarmerie.
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As an example of Japanese 'legal' methods in occunied territory, it might be of intert to ention a few personal details. The indictment comprised some forty odd charge: Firstly, I was accused of espionage, carrying indum tion from prisoner of war and internment camps to the British army and consular officials in Free China and Macau. y gaolers appeared to have satisfied themselves that I sent messages concerning the disposition and movements of Japanese troops and shipping to the interior. Originally, they charged me with operating a wireless transmitter in the hospital where I slept. Later, they discovered a wireless transmiter used by one of my staff in the Wanchai quarter of ong Kong, about a mile from the hospital. I never learnt what tales he had told under torture for he was executed. Prior .to his imprisonment with me, I had not known that he had been
engagea on that particular activity.
The second method which I was alleged to use for sending messages into China was by means of certificates of service. The Komɔe-tai regarded thee a... a pre-a, ranged code. The certificates were no more than what they purported to be.
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