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during the summer months. Ordinary crockery and cutlery were scarce and those internees who failed to bring supplies into camp displayed wonderful ingenuity in the conversion of tins for various purposes.
The scarcity of soap was acute throughout the whole period of internment. In €
early days supplies were available at the camp canteen but money was difficult and later on prices became prohibitive. It was only during the last year that the authorities yielded to persistert demands for a free issue and supplied amounts which averaged about 4 oz. per month.
In spite of this, and the absence of hot water for washing purposes, a high standard of personal cleanliness was maintained. There were exceptions but they were few and inevitable in such a mixed community as that at Stanley. The shortage, amounting to almost complete absence, of toilet paper was distressing to many and particularly so to those responsible for the maintenance of the drainage system which suffered from the use of unsuitable substitutes. It must, however, be placed on record that on 15th August, 1945 (VJ Day) each person in camp was presented by the Japanese with a high quality toilet roll, immediately known as Victory rolls "'. Such an inappropriate gift on such an occasion must be without precedent.
Supplies of clothing, footwear and bedding from an organisation in town and through the International Red Cross delegate helped to alleviate the situation in respect of these requirements but at no time was there sufficiency. Footwear was a very difficult problem, particularly in the case of children, many of whom shivered unshod through the cold winter months.
In summer clothing presented little difficulty as not much was worn. Some ladies wore little more than natural sun-tan. while shorts were the common garb for men. But in winter most internees suffered from lack of sufficient warm clothing. No clothing was provided by the Japanese but they did present to the camp 500 mintois (padded blankets) and 150 ordinary blankets as a contribution towards the bedding shortage. The Inter- national Red Cross delegate sent some wooden beds into camp their previous history was unknown but they did much to add to the discomfort due to bug infestation.
IO. SCHOOL HYGIENE
About 150 children attended school in camp. The premises used were two halls which were in constant use from early morning until evening for religious services, lectures, education and entertainments. A limited number of school desks were provided by the International Red Cross delegate at the end of 1942. These were used in the senior and junior sections but kindergarten classes had to be content with floor mats during their school hours. With no heating arrangements and blasted windows and doors, repaired only as far as circumstances permitted, the halls were uncomfortable in cold weather, but the children stood up to these hardships extremely well.
The health of the children was constantly under supervision. Frequent medical examinations were made and treatment where necessary was given whenever possible. Manifestations of vitamin deficiency were common, particularly so in the case of vitamin A, and weights and heights were, with few exceptions, below normal. Children between the ages of 12 and 16 years were more seriously affected than those in the younger groups, Nevertheless, it may be said that, generally speaking, and contrary to expectations, children stood up to camp hardships better than adults, and that their condition at time of release was such as to make ore hope that they will have suffered little or no serious permanent damage as a result of their long period of internment. This view is supported by the observation of the rapid improvement and return to normal health of several children who returned from Stanley Camp a few months ago.
All children were immunised against diphtheria in 1945, following receipt of medical supplies through the International Red Cross early in the year. They were also protected against smallpox, cholera and typhoid in common with the rest of the camp.
11. MATERNAL AND CHILD WELFARE
A very efficient and successful service was carried on in the camp. Extra food was given to expectant and nursing mothers and such help as limited supplies allowed was given in the feeding of babies and children under five. Conditions became very difficult towards the end but a survey in 1945 showed that the health of these small children was good. The excellent work done by Dr. Annie Sydenham in this connection deserves to be placed on record.
12. GENERAL SANITATION
Conditions in camp at the time of occupation were very unsatisfactory. Heavy fighting had taken place in the camp area and some buildings had been occupied by Japanese troops who missed no opportunity of fouling premises and their vicinity. Several dead
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bodies had been left unburied and fly breeding in the filth in camp was extensive. Such bodies as werc inside were immediately buried but requests for permission to bury bodies outside the boundary were refused. As some of them were close to the camp, and clearly ble from it, the situation was distressing to many internees. It was only after many months that the anti-malarial gang was able to bury on the foreshore, but not in the camp cemetery, the bones of several fallen soldiers.
Inside the camp_conditions gradually improved as people settled down and organisation became possible. But labour, strange as it may appear with over 1,000 adult males in camp, was difficult, the 'political situation Government feeling as such) was tense and the typical Hong Kongite still regarded menial (if one may refer to the acute anti- work as the birthright of Chinese coolies and manual labour connected with sanitation as degrading. Fortunately for the community some men, appreciating the dangers of the situation, voluntarily came to the assistance of the Government Health staff and helped to carry the camp successfully through the critical initial stages. Willingly and cheerfully these men carried out work which was generally disagreeable and frequently of a heavy nature. Later on, the importance of sanitation was more fully realised and more labour became available and worked with, and under the supervisior of, health inspectors. After the initial cleaning up camp sanitation was maintained at a satisfactory standard throughout.
The fight against flies was constant but success inside the camp was partly negatived by extensive breeding in the prison compound in close proximity and at Japanese head quarters in the centre of the camp itself. Refuse was collected once or twice daily according to circumstances and was disposed of by burial, attempts at incineration having proved unsuccessful owing to the absence of combustible material. Premises were inspected fre- quently and, with the few inevitable exceptions, their condition was a credit to the occupants, a state of affairs which, to my mind, indicated a high standard of morale.
Both indoor and outdoor sanitation was rendered difficult by lack of necessary equipment and stores such as brooms, brushes, dustbins and other receptacles, drain equipment, soap and disinfectants. Limited supplies were received from an organisation in town and later from the International Red Cross delegate. During the last year of internment these items were unobtainable by purchase and it was only after prolonged pressure that the Japanese authorities agreed to supply each month some washing soap (approximately 4 oz. per head) and 20 bamboo brooms for sanitation. was obtained from a Japanese store when the camp changed from civil to military control A good supply of disinfectants and, used sparingly, was sufficient for more urgent requirements to the end. Thirty square wooden dustbins provided in 1942, of poor design and worse construction, were somewhat dilapidated in 1945 and helped to aggravate the fly nuisance they were designed to prevent. A few galvanised iron bins obtained in 1945 had to meet the priority demands of camp kitchens for rice and stew containers. As already stated the drainage system was main- tained in a satisfactory condition and only in a few isolated cases was serious inconvenience suffered by residents for more than a few hours.
13. KITCHENS AND BAKERIES
Kitchens, and later on bakeries, had to be improvised as cooking facilities for nearly 3,000 people did not exist when the camp was opened. These kitchens, the manner in which they were conducted and the nature of the diet were truly depressing in the early days. Kitchen staffs were at times defiant in their attitude and abusive to those who dared to advise them and there was undoubtedly serious pilfering. Lack of material, particularly cement, made improvements difficult but this was successfully overcome and kitchen facilities were soon raised to as satisfactory a standard as was possible in the circumstances. Shortage of cooking and other kitchen utensils and equipment was relieved at the end of the first year by purchases in town but became acute again at the end. these difficulties kitchen staffs succeeded in providing meals which were generally well In spite of cooked and as palatable, if such a word may be used, as their nature allowed. At first there were some dozen kitchens in camp each serving from 30 to 800 people according to the size of the buildings or blocks concerned. satisfactory and made the most of the rations received. A proposal that no kitchen should The smaller kitchens were the more serve more than 200 people was rejected by the Authorities who, at a later period, reduced the number of kitchens to three in order to save fuel. By the time this change became effective it made little difference as rations consisted almost entirely of boiled rice and vegetable stew twice daily. Bakeries were operated in conjunction with kitchens. When wheat flour was supplied the quality of bread depended on the quality of flour, which was sometimes very poor, but generally the bread ration was good. Bread made entirely of rice flour, which was the only form of bread available during the later stages of internment, appears in retrospect entirely unworthy of the appreciation shown it in those hungry days.
Originally both electricity and wood fuel were used in kitchens and bakeries; later wood fuel only was available and sometimes in such limited quantities as to make it necessary
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