[
    {
        "id": 208658,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1979",
        "page_number": 115,
        "title": "RAS-1979",
        "content_text": "88\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nsoya bean supply in the Colony is exhausted or it is being diverted to other uses. It can hardly be exhausted, as the British Government must have put in an immense supply. American communal meeting, at which people either stand or sit on the floor, as we have no chairs. Roll call at twelve noon in each Block, to be repeated every 48 hours.\n\n19 Feast of St. Joseph. Benediction at Maryknoll Sisters' Chapel. Good supper tonight—hamburg steak, soya beans, vegetable, rice and one slice of bread. From now on we are allowed only one electric light in each room, and no fans allowed.\n\n20—No soup at noon today, because we have no salt in the Camp kitchen. EXTRA! SENSATIONAL ESCAPE! The whole Camp was electrified this morning by the whispered report that at least five, possibly eleven, internees, have escaped. As reprisals, we are to have a roll call twice a day, at 8 a.m. and 10 p.m., with all lights out at 11, and there are to be Japanese gendarmes on duty throughout the Camp. Our own American patrol is automatically dismissed. No public gatherings allowed. There is to be no diminution of our food rations, however. We understand that when some of the interned soldiers escaped recently from the Shumshuipo Camp, the rest of the internees were put on a diet of rice and water for a week. Brother Anthony ill again. No cigarettes as yet, and the brethren are resorting to all sorts of concoctions, made of pine needles, ginger and other leaves, for tobacco. Internees are seen walking around with their eyes glued to the ground, looking for cast-off cigarettes. How low have the mighty fallen!\n\n21—Latest official instructions: all typewriters and flashlights to be turned in to the authorities; also, we are not allowed to stand on our verandahs or on any eminence overlooking the Prison and look down on the superior beings quartered there, nor may we look on groups drilling. With the ban on public meetings, our proposed American spelling bee has been cancelled. Father Vincent Walsh improved and no operation seems necessary. The new regime on \"The Hill\" brings no relief or betterment in our food situation, though today we each got one duck egg and a slice of bread.\n\n22—Sunday. As usual, with the Bishop and Father Norris preaching. Father Benson has not been well for some time and today goes to the Tweed Bay Hospital, with diabetes and rather...",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 211904,
        "series_id": 26,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine",
        "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "RAS-1989",
        "page_number": 319,
        "title": "RAS-1989",
        "content_text": "294\n\nIn fact since reaching Java I never enjoyed such good health. Captain Moate continually jokes me about my stoutness. I am really getting quite a corporation, in spite of having my clothes continually saturated with perspiration. Even now as I write the perspiration stands in great drops on the backs of my hands.\n\nOur diet holds out wonderfully well, in fact we laid in a good store in Batavia. Every morning I have a great dish of rice and curry. It is a capital dish and the condiments in the curry tend to strengthen the stomach, so that I can now almost digest a brick bat. I mean to live chiefly on it at China if all is well. Today there has been a pig killed, so tomorrow there comes a feast of liver and crow and roast pork. Meat here never keeps over a day, even under the most favourable circumstances.\n\nA few days more and with a fair wind we ought to finish our journey. I shall begin to pack up tomorrow. I brought a piece of American Drilling at Batavia. I got forty yards for eight rupees. Already I have made myself two pairs of trousers and nearly finished a third. I cannot however finish them off before reaching China. All on board in the cabin dress in white, as is the universal custom in Java, and China.\n\nMy cabin is like a little oven on account of the hot sun shining on it all day. At night I sleep with my window open and of course never think of bed clothes. It is only towards morning that the temperature of the room becomes bearable. All day nearly I sit on deck under the awning, where there is generally a fresh breeze blowing when there is a breath of wind. Walking about or taking exercise is an utter impossibility on account of the heat.\n\nI find however the benefit of taking nothing of stimulative drinks. I am always myself, which is more than I can say of the rest of the folks. Only fancy a man taking these things during the day:- at seven o'clock a stiff glass of grog, made with full quarter pt [pint] of rum. Ditto at eleven, at twelve, at five, at eight and at midnight. At dinner a large glass of beer, and three or more glasses of port or sherry. I might have just as much if I liked to drink it, only I know a trick worth two of it. Captain Moate is almost if not quite a slave to spirits. He envies me for looking so stout, while he is continually troubled with a dysentery and is quite thin.\n\nA The Chinese has come off rather badly lately on account of this",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h",
        "rank": 0
    }
]