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DONALD C. BOWIE
chases made using funds voluntarily subscribed by officers of the staff and officer patients. A first charge upon all receipts was to provide what we called "extras" for patients in need and only the surplus after this prime need was met was issued for general use. The true value to the hospital of the gifts received is therefore much greater than appears in the records I am able to give here, which reflect only that portion used for general issue.
(b) Supplies bought with money, contributed by Officers, Staff and Patients.
I recorded earlier how sometime in 1942 before the departure of our nurses the Japanese began to pay commissioned officers, both staff and patients. In these days members of the Q.A.I.M.N.S., as it was then, were not commissioned and were not paid. I also recorded how Colonel Shackleton started funds from which to finance purchases for the general good. When I succeeded him the funds were reorganised and responsibility for administering them was spread more widely. A Hospital Central Fund was set up and managed by an executive committee of two officer patients and one medical officer with myself as chairman. This received money, still on a voluntary basis, from officers in the hospital and occasionally from those in P.O.W. camps in North Point and in Argyle Street, Kowloon. Disbursements were made to four sub-funds; one to provide extra diets for patients, one to supplement general messing, one to provide necessities and comforts e.g. electric bulbs, cigarettes etc. and lastly a small C.O.'s Fund. The first three were run by sub-committees and I was left to apply the minor resources of the C.O.'s Fund to support any enterprise for the general good.
As a side light on human nature it is interesting to recall that one or two British officers were reluctant for a time to support the Central Fund. They feared, from past experience no doubt, that the British army's accounting system would seek to recover from their pay at home the value of the military yen they were receiving from the Japanese. They knew that when they became prisoners, marriage and other allowances ceased and they foresaw that their wives and families might be able to draw only upon their basic pay. This view was ridiculed by the majority who held that we were faced with a situation in which immediate action was required and the reluctant ones soon abandoned their position and made their contributions valiantly. Readers in the 1970s will find it hard to believe
180
DONALD C. BOWIE
chases made using funds voluntarily subscribed by officers of the staff and officer patients. A first charge upon all receipts was to provide what we called "extras" for patients in need and only the surplus after this prime need was met was issued for general use. The true value to the hospital of the gifts received is therefore much greater than appears in the records I am able to give here, which reflect only that portion used for general issue.
(b) Supplies bought with money, contributed by Officers, Staff
and Patients.
I recorded earlier how sometime in 1942 before the departure of our nurses the Japanese began to pay commissioned officers, both staff and patients. In these days members of the Q.A.I.M.N.S., as it was then, were not commissioned and were not paid. I also recorded how Colonel Shackleton started funds from which to finance purchases for the general good. When I succeeded him the funds were reorganised and responsibility for administering them were spread more widely. A Hospital Central Fund was set up and managed by an executive committee of two officer patients and one medical officer with myself as chairman. This received money, still on a voluntary basis, from officers in the hospital and occa- sionally from those in P.O.W. camps in North Point and in Argyle Street, Kowloon. Disbursements were made to four sub-funds; one to provide extra diets for patients, one to supplement general messing, one to provide necessities and comforts e.g. electric bulbs, cigarettes etc. and lastly a small C.O.'s Fund. The first three were run by sub-committees and I was left to apply the minor resources of the C.O.'s Fund to support any enterprise for the general good.
As a side light on human nature it is interesting to recall that one or two British officers were reluctant for a time to support the Central Fund. They feared, from past experience no doubt that the British army's accounting system would seek to recover from their pay at home the value of the military yen they were receiving from the Japanese. They knew that when they became prisoners, marri- age and other allowances ceased and they foresaw that their wives and families might be able to draw only upon their basic pay. This view was ridiculed by the majority who held that we were faced with a situation in which immediate action was required and the reluctant ones soon abandoned their position and made their con- tributions valiantly. Readers in the 1970s will find it hard to believe
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