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had to endure many insulting references to their competence in the early days.
I have referred earlier to the poor quality of much of the vegetables, and much was soft and often rotten by the time we received them. A tuber or leaf had to be pretty obviously rotten before it was rejected for cooking, but even so the wastage was high. I have also commented earlier on the varieties of fish we received and the time that had obviously elapsed since it left the water.
We received some fresh meat from Japanese sources between April and July 1942. Between April and June 1942 we received some preserved meat and whale meat from the same sources. Thereafter meat disappeared from Japanese rations and reappeared only in May 1945.
Fuel for cooking caused us recurring anxieties. The hospital's stock of coal was exhausted early in 1942, though we did scrape up practically every grain of coal dust from the coal yard and made briquettes which helped for a time. Wood for fuel was, like the rations, delivered at irregular intervals and on many occasions in Bowen Road working parties of our staff went out under armed guard to fell trees on the hillside and bring in the wood. These forays seemed to be authorised by Sergeant Seino acting on his own authority, and he always seemed anxious that the operations of the working parties should not be observed by Japanese not connected with the hospital. All wood delivered had to be chopped into manageable logs, but the fresh wood from the hillside could often not be left to weather and this caused us the most serious difficulties in the kitchen. We employed men specially for chopping wood and the cooks had often to be on their jobs long before daylight to get fires started. Our meals were sometimes very late.
The Japanese did try to anticipate the shortage of flour and I think Seino was responsible for this. In August 1942 we were required to accumulate a stock of 100 bags of flour by 1 December. This showed very clearly that stocks in the Colony were running low, and we made many experiments using flour, atta, boiled rice and ground rice in varying proportions to try to get a product which would resemble bread and which would keep reasonably well. We did get more flour on 9 August 1943 quite unexpectedly and on 3 February 1944 we ate our last baking of bread in which a proportion of flour was used until 1945. When I refer here or in the food tables to bread as an article of food, the ingredients and the product
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CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG
187
had to endure many insulting references to their competence in the early days.
I have referred earlier to the poor quality of much of the vege- tables, and much was soft and often rotten by the time we received them. A tuber or leaf had to be pretty obviously rotten before it was rejected for cooking, but even so the wastage was high. I have also commented earlier on the varieties of fish we received and the time that had obviously elapsed since it left the water.
We received some fresh meat from Japanese sources between April and July 1942. Between April and June 1942 we received some preserved meat and whale meat from the same sources. There- after meat disappeared from Japanese rations and reappeared only in May 1945.
Fuel for cooking caused us recurring anxieties. The hospital's stock of coal was exhausted early in 1942, though we did scrape up practically every grain of coal dust from the coal yard and made briquettes which helped for a time. Wood for fuel was, like the rations, delivered at irregular intervals and on many occasions in Bowen Road working parties of our staff went out under armed guard to fell trees on the hillside and bring in the wood. These forays seemed to be authorised by Sergeant Seino acting on his own authority, and he always seemed anxious that the operations of the working parties should not be observed by Japanese not connected with the hospital. All wood delivered had to be chopped into manageable logs, but the fresh wood from the hillside could often not be left to weather and this caused us the most serious difficulties in the kitchen. We employed men specially for chopping wood and the cooks had often to be on their jobs long before day- light to get fires started. Our meals were sometimes very late.
The Japanese did try to anticipate the shortage of flour and I think Seino was responsible for this. In August 1942 we were required to accumulate a stock of 100 bags of flour by 1 December. This showed very clearly that stocks in the Colony were running low, and we made many experiments using flour, atta, boiled rice and ground rice in varying proportions to try to get a product which would resemble bread and which would keep reasonably well. We did get more flour on 9 August 1943 quite unexpectedly and on 3 February 1944 we ate our last baking of bread in which a propor- tion of flour was used until 1945. When I refer here or in the food tables to bread as an article of food, the ingredients and the product
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