CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG
221
In 1942 members of the hospital staff were given small, very small gifts of military yen from the Central Hospital Fund. In April 1943 the Japanese announced their intention to pay working staff and to do so from one year earlier. In the event by June, 7 of our engineers, 4 cooks, 2 bakers and 3 working patients received pay for April 1943 at rates of 20 sen daily for a warrant officer, 15 sen for a N.C.O. and 10 for a private. Receipts were authenticated by thumb prints. Every officer had had 60 yen deducted monthly by the Japanese from his pay to cover the cost of his messing, but by the end of September the deduction was reduced to 30 yen and for junior officers to 27 yen. By October the Central Fund was paying 5 yen a month to 6 N.C.O.'s in charge of wards and to the librarian as well as to other staff. In November a new deduction was made by the Japanese from officers' pay. The additional deductions were 60 yen from a Lieutenant Colonel, 40 from a Major and 20 from a Captain with the stated aim of accumulating savings for the future on behalf of the individuals concerned. I do not know when the British system of post-war credits was started, but the aims in both cases were obviously to reduce the amount of spending money available when goods were in short supply as well as to build up an individual's future bank balance. I tried hard to get permission to use money thus saved for the benefit of patients through our Central Hospital Fund but of course I failed. The Japanese told me that officers would be shown their savings accounts in January 1944. I have no note that this was done by that date but it could have been done without me making a note in my diary. It was certainly done at a later date. In any case, in my story of the events of 1945 I record that in August I was handed substantial sums in military yen by Saito which were said to represent savings thus accumulated by officers in the hospital. By then the military yen had for practical purposes lost all value and my diary does not record what happened to our savings. By then we had our minds set on much more important matters.
During the year we also received through the Japanese a Red Cross issue of vests intended for all in hospital. These were very acceptable, but the numbers were 39 short and so we excluded senior officers from the distribution. We also had a gift of socks and we issued these only to staff and to patients in special need as we had not enough to go round.
CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG
221
In 1942 members of the hospital staff were given small, very small gifts of military yen from the Central Hospital Fund. In April 1943 the Japanese announced their intention to pay working staff and to do so from one year earlier. In the event by June, 7 of our engineers, 4 cooks, 2 bakers and 3 working patients received pay for April 1943 at rates of 20 sen daily for a warrant officer, 15 sen for a N.C.O. and 10 for a private. Receipts were authenticated by thumb prints. Every officer had had 60 yen deducted monthly by the Japanese from his pay to cover the cost of his messing, but by the end of September the deduction was reduced to 30 yen and for junior officers to 27 yen. By October the Central Fund was paying 5 yen a month to 6 N.C.O.'s in charge of wards and to the librarian as well to other staff. In November a new deduction was made by the Japanese from officers' pay. The additional deductions were 60 yen from a Lieutenant colonel, 40 from a major and 20 from a captain with the stated aim of accumulating savings for the future on behalf of the individuals concerned. I do not know when the British system of post-war credits was started, but the aims in both cases were obviously to reduce the amount of spending money available when goods were in short supply as well as to build up an individual's future bank balance. I tried hard to get permission to use money thus saved for the benefit of patients through our Central Hospital Fund but of course I failed. The Japanese told me that officers would be shown their savings accounts in January 1944. I have no note that this was done by that date but it could have been done without me making a note in my diary. It was certainly done at a later date. In any case, in my story of the events of 1945 I record that in August I was handed substantial sums in military yen by Saito which were said to represent savings thus accumulated by officers in the hospital. By then the military yen had for practical purposes lost all value and my diary does not record what happened to our savings. By then we had our minds set on much more important matters.
During the year we also received through the Japanese a Red Cross issue of vests intended for all in hospital. These were very acceptable, but the numbers were 39 short and so we excluded senior officers from the distribution. We also had a gift of socks and we issued these only to staff and to patients in special need as we had not enough to go round.
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