236
DONALD C. BOWIE
however was in keeping with the Japanese refusal to remove what belonged to us—except of course our plain clothes.
In March some of our typewriters needed servicing and we had neither the skills nor spares to do this effectively. Having reported this I received a reconditioned machine which was quite essential for we used typewriters extensively to furnish lists and reports to the Japanese. They would have found our manuscript very difficult to understand and some of the paper they provided would have absorbed our ink as a blot rather than displayed our ideas.
Sentry stations were now linked by telephone with our Japanese supervisors, and many more lights were added round the wired perimeter. We allowed one of our refrigerators to go to the guard house. We were not commanded to do so by anyone but a request from the guard commander in typical gruff fashion and in the usual peremptory manner was met by us as a conciliatory gesture. We could well spare the refrigerator though I don't know that we did ourselves any good by doing so. By December 1944 I could carry out my weekly inspection of the hospital and visit all patients on one round.
I much regret that I kept no record of drugs etc. supplied by the Japanese. We did receive all the vaccines needed for the repeated inoculations we had and I think we must have been the most inoculated troops in the whole war. Receipts of the therapeutically active drugs such as the sulpha group were nil and the quantities of dressings and other drugs that we were given were for practical purposes negligible—a half dozen bandages, a small packet of cotton wool for example. Our own stocks laid in before hostilities were diminishing, though by August 1945 we still had a small quantity of cotton wool, small stocks of carbon dioxide, anaesthetic gases and oxygen. Our doctors rationed themselves carefully and I controlled myself the issue of certain valuable but irreplaceable items. On 21 September we were given two cases of Canadian Red Cross medical supplies; I did not record the contents but we were able to issue one multivite capsule daily to all in hospital. We continued to send small quantities of drugs to camp when we found men willing to smuggle these in. The prophylactic dose of thiamine varied according to stocks which were brought in by our visitors but had not fallen below 2 mgm daily. Our physicians tried the effect of giving large doses of nicotinic acid 500 mgm daily for 30
236
DONALD C. BOWIE
however was in keeping with the Japanese refusal to remove what belonged to us-except of course our plain clothes.
In March some of our typewriters needed servicing and we had neither the skills nor spares to do this effectively. Having reported this I received a reconditioned machine which was quite essential for we used typewriters extensively to furnish lists and reports to the Japanese. They would have found our manuscript very difficult to understand and some of the paper they provided would have absorbed our ink as a blot rather than displayed our ideas.
Sentry stations were now linked by telephone with our Japanese supervisors, and many more lights were added round the wired perimeter. We allowed one of our refrigerators to go to the guard house. We were not commanded to do so by any one but a request from the guard commander in typical gruff fashion and in the usual peremptory manner was met by us as a conciliatory gesture. We could well spare the refrigerator though I don't know that we did ourselves any good by doing so. By December 1944 I could carry out my weekly inspection of the hospital and visit all patients on one round.
I much regret that I kept no record of drugs etc. supplied by the Japanese. We did receive all the vaccines needed for the repeat- ed inoculations we had and I think we must have been the most inoculated troops in the whole war. Receipts of the therapeutically active drugs such as the sulpha group were nil and the quantities of dressings and other drugs that we were given were for practical purposes negligible--a half dozen bandages, a small packet of cotton wool for example. Our own stocks laid in before hostilities were diminishing, though by August 1945 we still had a small quantity of cotton wool, small stocks of carbon dioxide, anaesthetic gases and oxygen. Our doctors rationed themselves carefully and I controlled myself the issue of certain valuable but irreplaceable items. On 21 September we were given two cases of Canadian Red Cross medical supplies; I did not record the contents but we were able to issue one multivite capsule daily to all in hospital. We continued to send small quantities of drugs to camp when we found men willing to smuggle these in. The prophylactic dose of thiamine varied according to stocks which were brought in by our visitors but had not fallen below 2 mgm daily. Our physicians tried the effect of giving large doses of nicotinic acid 500 mgm daily for 30
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