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equipping of this camp then started, and although from the beginning to the very end he was continually meeting difficulties of unknown magnitude, he never failed at all times to forward whatever equipment he could find that might be of some possible use. He was also able to take some of the Japanese Medical Authorities to the camp and obtain their approval for the despatch of certain medical supplies, bedding, cooking utensils, etc. He could never get sufficient of these essential items, but all that was available was sent to the camp.
In the months immediately following the internment of civilians at Stanley, he was fortunate in having the services of the American and British truck drivers and these he used for the transfer of all available supplies to Stanley. In addition to the daily visits of these men, he also made almost daily visits in the first few months and had he not done so, conditions in the camp might have been unbearable, to say the least.
Under the guise of supplying the hospitals with bread, he obtained from the Japanese Medical Authorities a sufficient supply of flour for the purpose of making a little bread for the Stanley hospital and civilian internees. It was months before flour was supplied in bulk to the internees or that they were able to bake their own bread, and the small quantity furnished by Dr. Selwyn-Clarke was therefore of such great importance. In addition, the food being supplied to the camp at that time was both grossly insufficient and of very poor quality. When it was no longer possible to recover general supplies for transfer to Stanley, the American Red Cross came to our aid with funds, and supplies were purchased on his advice.
In the early days he tried without success to arrange for the opening of a local branch of the I.R.C. When this failed, he obtained permission for the opening of the so called Informal Hong Kong Welfare Committee. This Committee consisted of himself, Mr. Gibson (until he was repatriated with the Americans), and Mrs. Selwyn-Clarke and was really only a name under which he could carry on without too much interference. It appeared to satisfy the Japanese until the end of 1942 when they eventually ordered it to be closed.
In
There were a number of permanently sick persons who were either too ill or too old for transfer to Stanley and these he managed to keep at the French Hospital. In addition he arranged for some 20 other elderly patients, who were taking up valuable space in the small and badly equipped hospital at Stanley, to be transferred to the French Hospital. There was always the danger that the Japanese would at any time insist on the transfer of these patients to Stanley, and for that reason he was against inviting too much attention to this hospital by asking for funds for its maintenance. the early days the American Red Cross generously allowed funds for this purpose, and later the expenses were paid from our own funds. The staff required for the patients at this hospital was 1 British doctor, 1 Irish, 1 Swiss, 1 Eurasian and 5 Chinese nurses, 4 boys, 4 amahs 3 store coolies, 1 radiographer 2 clerks, 1 watchman, 2 telephone operators, 1 cook and 2 assistant cooks. Food to the extent of rice, flour, oil and sometimes sugar or salt was supplied by the Japanese, but it was necessary to supplement this small diet by purchases from the markets. Medicines were also purchased from funds available.
A great deal of trouble was caused when arrangements had to be made for the temporary transfer to the French Hospital of Stanley patients requiring X-ray examination. These transfers, which were mainly of two or three patients at one time, required approval of both the Japanese Medical and
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