186
DONALD C. BOWIE
to grow vegetables. Their rice ration for example was 600 G. against our 480 G., but by constant working on the Japanese using this example to reinforce my arguments over the preceding year or two I got authority to raise our staff rations also to 600 G. of rice. By this time it was much easier for me to use special advocacy because fewer patients needed extra food and the raising of staff working rations created no resentment. Of course the size of the rice ration issued rarely reached the quantity authorised by the Japanese. The shortage arose because none of our supposed 100 kg. sacks of rice ever reached this level, due possibly to pilfering or to a slovenly method of filling the sacks. We always therefore had to limit our issues to the amounts we thought we could afford, taking into account the stocks we had in store and the expected date of the next delivery. In Kowloon in 1945 I authorised the issue of rice for cooking at the full rate permitted by the Japanese without regard to our stocks. By that time I felt myself to be in a stronger position with them but as a result we practically ran out of rice stocks, a state of affairs which alarmed the hospital and earned for the quartermaster and myself a slapping from our Japanese doctor. We did in fact receive further supplies before our cupboard was completely bare. By hammering away at the subject we were eventually in 1945 allowed to take on the 100 kg. rice sacks at 96 kgs., but deliveries, like those of other foodstuffs continued to be made at intervals which were not always regular.
Deliveries of Japanese Rations.
The irregular deliveries of rations caused us much worry on many occasions, but I must say that when we were getting anxious our Japanese guards seemed also to be worried and we would have them coming up to our cookhouse to find out for themselves whether we had been given rations when they had not. Our greatest worry was about rice, for so long as we had rice we could at least assuage the worst pangs of hunger. The quality of the rice varied, though once the art of cooking it without the advantage of a fully equipped kitchen was mastered it was only occasionally that we had to put up with a soggy mess. The art of producing a dry rice in which the grains remain crisply separated is, contrary to what many so-called experts say, quite a simple matter in a household kitchen, but in our conditions our cooks took some time to acquire this skill and they
186
DONALD C. BOWIE
to grow vegetables. Their rice ration for example was 600 G. against our 480 G., but by constant working on the Japanese using this example to reinforce my arguments over the preceding year or two I got authority to raise our staff rations also to 600 G. of rice. By this time it was much easier for me to use special advocacy because fewer patients needed extra food and the raising of staff working rations created no resentment. Of course the size of the rice ration issued rarely reached the quantity authorised by the Japanese. The shortage arose because none of our supposed 100 kg. sacks of rice ever reached this level, due possibly to pilfering or to a slovenly method of filling the sacks. We always therefore had to limit our issues to the amounts we thought we could afford, taking into account the stocks we had in store and the expected date of the next delivery. In Kowloon in 1945 I authorised the issue of rice for cooking at the full rate permitted by the Japanese without regard to our stocks. By that time I felt myself to be in a stronger position with them but as a result we practically ran out of rice stocks, a state of affairs which alarmed the hospital and earned for the quartermaster and myself a slapping from our Japanese doctor. We did in fact receive further supplies before our cupboard was completely bare. By hammering away at the subject we were even- tually in 1945 allowed to take on the 100 kg. rice sacks at 96 kgs., but deliveries, like those of other food stuffs continued to be made at intervals which were not always regular.
Deliveries of Japanese Rations.
The irregular deliveries of rations caused us much worry on many occasions, but I must say that when we were getting anxious our Japanese guards seemed also to be worried and we would have them coming up to our cookhouse to find out for themselves whether we had been given rations when they had not. Our greatest worry was about rice, for so long as we had rice we could at least assuage the worst pangs of hunger. The quality of the rice varied, though once the art of cooking it without the advantage of a fully equipped kitchen was mastered it was only occasionally that we had to put up with a soggy mess. The art of producing a dry rice in which the grains remain crisply separated is, contrary to what many so called experts say, quite a simple matter in a household kitchen, but in our conditions our cooks took some time to acquire this skill and they
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