CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG
271
I can recall only three occasions on which the Japanese interfered with internal discipline in the hospital and I have given a short account of two of these earlier. On the third occasion our executive sergeant-major Mr. Bartley had crossed the Japanese in some way and for the only time in my three years' experience Sergeant Seino came to me, indicated displeasure with Bartley and asked if I wanted him removed from the hospital staff and sent to P.O.W. camp. Bartley's executive ability was of great value in the hospital and I had no hesitation in saying that I did not want him removed. He stayed with us until our release.
Patients and staff were fairly often slapped by guards for some real or imagined disobedience or slight. These punishments were never serious, but I was always apprehensive that the person slapped might retaliate and so cause real trouble. I took up the cudgels on behalf of our people on every occasion, but I never obtained any real satisfaction and I wondered how much authority our hospital Japanese administrators had over sentries.
Within the hospital the routine discipline affecting patients and staff was in my hands. Control in wards was in the hands of medical officers in charge, assisted most effectively by the system whereby selected patients were placed in charge of internal ward affairs. These patients were of several nationalities and were not always senior in rank. Their characters and standing with patients seemed to give them more effective authority. I have referred earlier to petty thieving.
Occasionally offenders had to be dealt with formally by me in my office. Usually a reprimand sufficed though occasionally a man would be confined in a small room in an outhouse with a wire stretcher as bed. This method was used rarely and a man's food was never cut in any circumstances, while he was closely observed during the term of his punishment in order to avoid adverse effects. At the end of the war no records of misconduct were handed over to any authority by me and no man was reported to any service authority for misbehaviour of any kind.
Many of the problems I had to cope with arose from the antagonisms which spring up between individuals, particularly if they are called upon to work in conditions of close proximity. There was no relief from the physical presence, the personal habits, the method of working of others in the particular team so that it was
CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG
271
I can recall only three occasions on which the Japanese inter- fered with internal discipline in the hospital and I have given a short account of two of these earlier. On the third occasion our executive sergeant-major Mr. Bartley had crossed the Japanese in some way and for the only time in my three years experience Sergeant Seino came to me, indicated displeasure with Bartley and asked if I wanted him removed from the hospital staff and sent to P.O.W. camp. Bartley's executive ability was of great value in the hospital and I had no hesitation in saying that I did not want him removed. He stayed with us until our release.
Patients and staff were fairly often slapped by guards for some real or imagined disobedience or slight. These punishments were never serious, but I was always apprehensive that the person slapped might retaliate and so cause real trouble. I took up the cudgels on behalf of our people on every occasion, but 1 never obtained any real satisfaction and I wondered how much authority our hospital Japanese administrators had over sentries.
Within the hospital the routine discipline affecting patients and staff was in my hands. Control in wards was in the hands of medical officers in charge, assisted most effectively by the system whereby selected patients were placed in charge of internal ward affairs. These patients were of several nationalities and were not always senior in rank. Their characters and standing with patients seemed to give them more effective authority. I have referred earlier to petty thieving.
Occasionally offenders had to be dealt with formally by me in my office. Usually a reprimand sufficed though occasionally a man would be confined in a small room in an outhouse with a wire stretcher as bed. This method was used rarely and a man's food was never cut in any circumstances, while he was closely observed during the term of his punishment in order to avoid adverse effects. At the end of the war no records of misconduct were handed over to any authority by me and no man was reported to any service authority for misbehaviour of any kind.
Many of the problems I had to cope with arose from the anta- gonisms which spring up between individuals, particularly if they are called upon to work in conditions of close proximity. There was no relief from the physical presence, the personal habits, the method of working of others in the particular team so that it was
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