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DONALD C. BOWIE
ed out of bounds. One Volunteer died at 11.15 a.m. on 27 April and having no acceptable mortuary we conducted the funeral at once to a site near Argyle Street, a short distance from the hospital.
The Japanese celebrated 29 April as a holiday in honour of the Emperor's birthday, and we received two issues of cigarettes for staff from the Japanese. Early in May we got plants including tomato and pakchoi, from a Chinese garden and had already planted onions. On 2 May Saito told me to try the main switch and true enough on the following day the mains electricity supply was restored. More mail came in and on 4 May parcels arrived from our visitor friends, two being for the Hong Kong Volunteer who had died on 27 April.
On 5 May Saito put on the lights on the platform of the Assembly Hall and there was a concert which my diary shows to have included items in Japanese and English, though my memory does not recall details. On 7 May we ran a lottery for a consignment of Red Cross pullovers, blankets, underpants, vests, gloves, wool hats, green hats, mosquito nets, towels, jackets, and cardigans. There were two towels and eighteen jackets, but in all other cases the numbers were between thirty and thirty-five. By 10 May engineers were wiring up the room used as the operating theatre and X-ray room and were arranging to run our generator two days later to allow examination of our tuberculous patients and to allow a couple of minor operations to be performed. By now we had an additional supper meal including at times sweet meatless rissoles, cake, buns, and soup. For a time we had no ration beans and the vegetables were poor. The absence of beans was serious for us since we had been issuing 28 grammes daily after fish ceased to be provided. About this time pay for staff and officers came in and I asked that those who were attending the blind might also be paid. We had another concert on 12 May and by the middle of the month I estimated that we had 42 patients who on their expected recovery would be eligible for turn-over with patients from Sham Shui Po. Some of these were already being employed by us on the one-month temporary basis. On 19 May we had a concert for the third Saturday running though I record that the turns were of mixed interest but that the standard was poor.
Small quantities of mail continued to come every week or two and I received a card dated July 1944. We were carrying out anti-mosquito measures both inside and outside our wire and we received
250
DONALD C. BOWIE
ed out of bounds. One Volunteer died at 11.15 a.m. on 27 April and having no acceptable mortuary we conducted the funeral at once to a site near Argyle Street, a short distance from the hospital.
The Japanese celebrated 29 April as a holiday in honour of the Emperor's birthday, and we received two issues of cigarettes for staff from the Japanese. Early in May we got plants including tomato and pakchoi, from a Chinese garden and had already plant- ed onions. On 2 May Saito told me to try the main switch and true enough on the following day the mains electricity supply was re- stored. More mail came in and on 4 May parcels arrived from our visitor friends, two being for the Hong Kong Volunteer who had died on 27 April.
On 5 May Saito put on the lights on the platform of the Assem- bly Hall and there was a concert which my diary shows to have included items in Japanese and English, though my memory does not recall details. On 7 May we ran a lottery for a consignment of Red Cross pullovers, blankets, under pants, vests, gloves, wool hats, green hats, mosquito nets, towels, jackets and cardigans. There were two towels and eighteen jackets, but in all other cases the numbers were between thirty and thirty five. By 10 May engineers were wiring up the room used as the operating theatre and X-ray room and were arranging to run our generator two days later to allow examination of our tuberculous patients and to allow a couple of minor operations to be performed. By now we had an additional supper meal including at times sweet meatless rissoles, cake, buns and soup. For a time we had no ration beans and the vegetables were poor. The absence of beans was serious for us since we had been issuing 28 grammes daily after fish ceased to be provided. About this time pay for staff and officers came in and I asked that those who were attending the blind might also be paid. We had another concert on 12 May and by the middle of the month I estimated that we had 42 patients who on their expected recovery would be eligible for turn-over with patients from Sham Shui Po. Some of these were already being employed by us on the one-month temporary basis. On 19 May we had a concert for the third Satur- day running though I record that the turns were of mixed interest but that the standard was poor.
Small quantities of mail continued to come every week or two and I received a card dated July 1944. We were carrying out anti- mosquito measures both inside and outside our wire and we received
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