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Mail for prisoners came in well by our standards in 1944, and the record was established in a Red Cross message dated January 1944 to a man from his wife in Australia which he received in May. At the other extreme one letter from a wife in Stanley Civil Internment Camp and dated 4 September 1944 addressed to her husband was delivered in Bowen Road at the end of October 1944. The husband died in our hospital on 27 October 1943 and of course his death had been reported at once to the Japanese. All in hospital were now allowed fifty words on their outgoing cards irrespective of destination once a month. In October 1944 six of our patients and staff handed in through me forty-word messages to their families on the offer that these would be broadcast by the Japanese. Replies were invited. These messages were returned to me as lacking in drama. The contents were, like all such messages devoted to personal and family affairs and could be of no possible interest to anyone except the recipient. I never heard that any messages submitted for broadcasting were received at home.
Several times during 1944 I re-classified for Saito all our patients under certain heads; first there were those fit to return to camp; next came those with visual defects, the result of dietary deficiencies but generally physically fit; the third showed patients unfit for military service by reason of age, wounds etc. Those not included in the lists were under treatment with a reasonable prospect of restoration to fitness for camp, fitness for camp being judged in all cases as being unlikely to come to harm by such a move. The first category of patients, numbering fourteen were having no treatment and needed special accommodation only; in the second case we advised that patients could go to camp into special accommodation so long as they received eight mg thiamine by injection every second day and were seen by our ophthalmologist every two months (we had produced this list with great care some months earlier). In the third category there were 94 names including 24 Canadians, Portuguese and 1 Dutchman. A series of drafts left hospital for camps and our staff was likewise reduced by 10 R.A.M.C. and R.A.D.C. in April. Japanese policy became clear when on 19 November 1944 Saito notified me of their intention to reduce the total of patients and staff in Bowen Road to 200, and a final draft of 9 staff and 46 patients left for camp on 22 November.
Our men were better adjusted to their diets, but some of those admitted from camp were showing serious signs of undernourishment.
CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG
233
Mail for prisoners came in well by our standards in 1944, and the record was established in a Red Cross message dated January 1944 to a man from his wife in Australia which he received in May. At the other extreme one letter from a wife in Stanley Civil Intern. ment Camp and dated 4 September 1944 addressed to her husband was delivered in Bowen Road at the end of October 1944. The husband died in our hospital on 27 October 1943 and of course his death had been reported at once to the Japanese. All in hospital were now allowed fifty words on their outgoing cards irrespective of destination once a month. In October 1944 six of our patients and staff handed in through me forty-word messages to their families on the offer that these would be broadcast by the Japanese. Replies were invited. These messages were returned to me as lacking in drama. The contents were, like all such messages devoted to per- sonal and family affairs and could be of no possible interest to anyone except the recipient. I never heard that any messages sub- mitted for broadcasting were received at home.
Several times during 1944 I re-classified for Saito all our patients under certain heads; first there were those fit to return to camp; next came those with visual defects, the result of dietary deficiencies but generally physically fit; the third showed patients unfit for military service by reason of age, wounds etc. Those not included in the lists were under treatment with a reasonable prospect of restoration to fitness for camp, fitness for camp being judged in all cases as being unlikely to come to harm by such a move. The first category of patients, numbering fourteen were having no treatment and needed special accommodation only; in the second case we advised that patients could go to camp into special accommodation so long as they received eight mgn thiamine by injection every second day and were seen by our ophthalmologist every two months (we had produced this list with great care some months earlier). In the third category there were 94 names including 24 Canadians, | Portuguese and 1 Dutchman. A series of drafts left hospital for camps and our staff was likewise reduced by 10 R.A.M.C. and R.A.D.C. in April. Japanese policy became clear when on 19 November 1944 Saito notified me of their intention to reduce the total of patients and staff in Bowen Road to 200, and a final draft of 9 staff ad 46 patients left for camp on 22 November.
Our men were better adjusted to their diets, but some of those admitted from camp were showing serious sign of undernourish-
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