[ { "id": 207414, "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-1975", "page_number": 182, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "174\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\npatient of ours told us that a substantial stock of serum had been stored in the Dairy Farm Storage Godown near the vehicular ferry at the beginning of hostilities. We at once asked the Japanese to get this stock for the treatment of prisoners. I never found out whether the supplies we were given came from that stock or not but Sergeant Seino told me that no serum had been found in the Dairy Farm cold store.\n\nSince serum was in such short supply Major Harrison, after anxious consultations in which I and others took part, gave transfusions of whole blood from patients who had recovered from diphtheria to four patients suffering from the disease in an acute form. Two of these recovered. Here again I want to record my personal admiration for the courage of doctors and R.A.M.C. and R.A.D.C. soldiers who nursed these diphtheria cases. Everyone knew of the shortage of serum and all knew the risks of infection. No one shirked the close contacts involved in the treatment of these patients and this to my mind was an outstanding example of cold and sustained courage in a situation where staff were at risk for at least five months. All this was done on an uninviting diet which was low in protein and vitamin content while there was nothing to provide any relief from day to day and little to provide even a diversion. The work of these men cannot be praised too highly and the story deserves to be cherished in the annals of the Corps.\n\nThe phase of the Infections had started a little before I assumed charge of the hospital and was drawing to a close by the end of 1942. During the five months 42 deaths occurred, all but five resulting from dysentery, diphtheria or deficiency diseases.\n\nBefore the infections came to an end the deficiencies had begun and already before the end of 1942 we were admitting members of the staff suffering from painful feet.\n\nTHE PERIOD OF THE DEFICIENCY DISEASES\n\nI make no attempt here to give a scientific account of these diseases. They result from sub-standard nutrition including vitamin deficiencies. When I took charge our doctors were already reporting that many patients were complaining bitterly about burning feet and that some were also showing other signs of neurological damage. Others had ulcers on the cornea, visual defects, sore tongues, ulcers", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207417, "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-1975", "page_number": 185, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n177\n\nOur food came from four sources; the Japanese rations, food sent in by our friends in Hong Kong, supplies received from the Red Cross Society and food purchased with funds contributed by officers mainly those in the hospital but also those in the camps from time to time. These contributions were made from pay received from the Japanese by these officers.\n\nJapanese Rations\n\nI have prepared tables (Appendix A) to show the kinds and the amounts of foods issued to us from Japanese sources and used on behalf of patients and staff who were on a full diet. Notes given in the tables give additional information and include details of certain additional Japanese food received and how it was used. The amounts in these cases were very small and while they must be recorded, especially the milk, it was rare for any to appear in the general diet and then only as a treat when supplies allowed. Since this is not a scientific treatise, I intend the tables to present a broad picture of our food situation. The daily quantities of food therefore are shown as averaged over five months in 1942, rather under three months in Bowen Road in 1945, rather over three months in Kowloon in 1945, and over the whole years of 1943 and 1944. These averages should be read in conjunction with specimen daily menus I set out in tables at Appendix B. There were many, many days on which our diet consisted of boiled rice and vegetables.\n\nIn these tables, I make no allowances for losses resulting from poor quality, preparation, and cooking in the case of vegetables and fish. These losses were usually high, and on occasions reached a level of 30% in the case of vegetables, which were sometimes rotten when received. We were not choosy when deciding when food was fit to cook and eat. The fresh vegetables, in addition to the more usual varieties, which practically never included Western-type potatoes, though we had sweet potatoes more often, did however include such unusual varieties as chrysanthemum leaves, Chinese lily root, tara root, and so on. The fish varied greatly; on 10 October 1942, I noted that we had received \"long thin fish, shark flesh, baby sharks, and heaven knows what, most of it a little old\". Sergeant Seino, of whom I shall have more to say later, warned the quartermaster that some fish was perhaps poisonous and advised us to be careful using it. I believe Seino's intention was to be helpful, though...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207418, "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-1975", "page_number": 186, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "178\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nhe did not explain his meaning. I concluded that the fish had probably been taken from the harbour whose waters were thoroughly polluted. Some of the fish was quite horrid and my diary recorded on 8 August 1942 that I could not touch mine. This was quite an admission for it was rare for me to boggle at any sort of food. Our cooks at first removed the fish heads before cooking but Seino pointed out to us that this was a waste. As a result we began to make what we called fish head soup; this proved to be not to everybody's taste but it did add a new if not always attractive flavour to plain boiled rice and vegetables.\n\nAdditions to the Japanese supplies of Food.\n\n(a) Gifts from Friends in Hong Kong\n\nUnfortunately I have no record to show the date on which these gifts started, but by August 1942 visitors from the City of Victoria were being allowed to bring gifts of food to the hospital on Mondays and Thursdays. The food was usually contained in gunny sacks and included tins which contained food sealed in by the makers e.g., jam, or which were filled by the donors with for example peanut butter. I have never learned the whole story about these supplies and I hope that Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke, then Dr. P.S. Selwyn-Clarke, will find it possible to relate this in detail.* A little later I shall have more to say about this remarkable man who was Director of Medical Services in Hong Kong at the outbreak of war.\n\nAs may be imagined the tins and containers became the vehicles for an exchange of notes between the hospital and citizens in Hong Kong. These notes contained personal and family items of news but very useful information came in from our friends to us suggesting methods of combating the deficiency diseases. Small supplies of important drugs were sent in by this route and information was given on methods of cultivating yeast, hop barm and other preparations thought to remedy vitamin deficiencies. Much ingenuity was expended in the hospital in making false bottoms and lids to tins and I can remember only one time when a communication was discovered. The culprit, a Hong Kong man, reacted by his cries and behaviour in a most satisfactory manner to the slapping he\n\n* Sir Selwyn's autobiography, Footprints, the Memoirs of Sir Selwyn Selwyn-Clarke, was published by Sino-American Publishing Company, Hong Kong in 1975.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207419, "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-1975", "page_number": 187, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n179\n\ngot from Sgt. Seino. He was not hurt in the least and I saw him directly afterwards fully relaxed and quite at ease. It struck me then that this sort of noisy reaction would be most satisfying to the person administering the punishment and the man who could put on this kind of act was to be envied. Incidentally I think our patient was lucky that Seino was in charge on this particular day and not Saito. In the very earliest days of these parcel deliveries some hasty speech at long range was possible between some people in hospital and our benefactors though this was soon stopped.\n\nThose who brought parcels to the hospital were of course all women. Some had amahs or servants to help them to transport their heavy burdens up the steep roads to the hospital. Even when they had help, we in the hospital understood the physical effort involved in buying, preparing, packing and carrying heavy loads and even after all the intervening years I am glad to have the chance of expressing the gratitude and admiration I still feel for what they did. They also had to exercise the greatest care never to get at cross purposes with our sometimes uneven tempered guards.\n\nAt the receiving end of this supply line I had to withstand some pointed questions. We knew that except for gifts addressed to certain known recipients, for example from wives to husbands and from relatives and friends of inmates all other parcels addressed to people by name were intended for our general use and these latter were taken straight into our hospital store. Sergeant Seino repeatedly required assurances from me that the individuals to whom these particular parcels were addressed were not receiving and using the contents themselves while those less fortunate had to go without. This meant of course that the Japanese were shutting their eyes to a method of getting additional stores into the hospital, and then and now I find this to be strange. I always gave Seino the most explicit guarantees of the facts and showed him how we stored gifts in our steward's store. The only reason for any scepticism on his part might have been that inmates with wives, relatives and close friends outside quite properly retained what they received, though I knew at the time that all who received these personal parcels shared the contents with their friends within the hospital.\n\nI made records of issues of food from our hospital store which came from our Hong Kong friends, but I now find that these records show the combined value of issues from these gifts and from pur-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207423, "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-1975", "page_number": 191, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n183\n\na more cheerful atmosphere became apparent; most people used the contents intelligently to make the basic diet more palatable while the thought that we were not forgotten did much to improve morale.\n\nSix months later, in May 1943 a second consignment of parcels arrived. Some of our patients had already received a second parcel in Sham Shui Po and those who had done so were allotted one parcel between two men from our second allocation. All others in the hospital received one parcel each, but as before a number of parcels showed shortages.\n\nOn 1 September 1944, sixteen months later we received a splendid consignment of parcels from the Canadian Red Cross, enough to issue two to each person in hospital. A few parcels remained after this distribution and I took these into the store and used the tinned foods for general messing. As usual some parcels were incomplete though the wrappings were intact, and the shortages in this case and perhaps in others must have resulted from bad packing.\n\nIt was only three days later when on 4 September 1944 we received a further 144 Canadian parcels and issued two between five men. As before a few parcels not allocated in the foregoing way were broken up, the tinned food being used for general messing while such items as prunes, chocolate, raisins, biscuits etc. were added to bulk stores of similar nature received three days earlier and used to make 133 prizes which were raffled among 315 people.\n\nNo further individual parcels were received, and therefore each member of staff and each long-term patient received a total of just under 41 parcels between 1942 and 1945, though patients admitted from Kowloon may have had a fraction more. In January 1943 the Red Cross organization in Hong Kong had started to send in bulk stores of food to us. These included tins of meat and vegetable, preserved meat, sardines, condensed milk, marmalade, jam, tomato catsup, syrup, Yershey's milk powder, shark liver oil, dripping, hen and duck eggs, barley, fresh limes, dried peas, soy beans, soy bean powder, soy sauce, peanut butter, peanut oil, Chinese and cube sugar, tea and cocoa. In January we had two intakes and further intakes were spread at irregular intervals, one in May, one each in June and July and two in October. In August 1943 Sergeant Seino told me that we could expect no further supplies but in 1944 we had two intakes in each month from March to August inclusive, one each...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207427, "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-1975", "page_number": 195, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n187\n\nhad to endure many insulting references to their competence in the early days.\n\nI have referred earlier to the poor quality of much of the vegetables, and much was soft and often rotten by the time we received them. A tuber or leaf had to be pretty obviously rotten before it was rejected for cooking, but even so the wastage was high. I have also commented earlier on the varieties of fish we received and the time that had obviously elapsed since it left the water.\n\nWe received some fresh meat from Japanese sources between April and July 1942. Between April and June 1942 we received some preserved meat and whale meat from the same sources. Thereafter meat disappeared from Japanese rations and reappeared only in May 1945.\n\nFuel for cooking caused us recurring anxieties. The hospital's stock of coal was exhausted early in 1942, though we did scrape up practically every grain of coal dust from the coal yard and made briquettes which helped for a time. Wood for fuel was, like the rations, delivered at irregular intervals and on many occasions in Bowen Road working parties of our staff went out under armed guard to fell trees on the hillside and bring in the wood. These forays seemed to be authorised by Sergeant Seino acting on his own authority, and he always seemed anxious that the operations of the working parties should not be observed by Japanese not connected with the hospital. All wood delivered had to be chopped into manageable logs, but the fresh wood from the hillside could often not be left to weather and this caused us the most serious difficulties in the kitchen. We employed men specially for chopping wood and the cooks had often to be on their jobs long before daylight to get fires started. Our meals were sometimes very late.\n\nThe Japanese did try to anticipate the shortage of flour and I think Seino was responsible for this. In August 1942 we were required to accumulate a stock of 100 bags of flour by 1 December. This showed very clearly that stocks in the Colony were running low, and we made many experiments using flour, atta, boiled rice and ground rice in varying proportions to try to get a product which would resemble bread and which would keep reasonably well. We did get more flour on 9 August 1943 quite unexpectedly and on 3 February 1944 we ate our last baking of bread in which a proportion of flour was used until 1945. When I refer here or in the food tables to bread as an article of food, the ingredients and the product\n\nPage 188 is not present, actual text is continuing from 187 to 195, 196\n\nPage 195\n\nPage 196", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207438, "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-1975", "page_number": 206, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "198\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nthat camp. It was at this time that I first proposed that I should be allowed to visit P.O.W. camps in order to discuss the various medical problems with our doctors there and plan the best use of our hospital services for their patients. This suggestion, like so many others, provoked no apparent reaction and though I repeated it at frequent intervals I never got near a P.O.W. camp until I was moving to our new hospital in Kowloon in 1945. Major Harrison was allowed to make one visit to North Point Camp to consult with Canadian medical officers about some problems in which specialist advice was wanted. This was his only visit to a camp and none of our other doctors were ever allowed to visit either.\n\nI had another passage with Saito following an air raid on Hong Kong in October of which I shall write later, but in these critical months in 1942 my approaches to him had to be made in writing or through his N.C.O., Sergeant Seino or the interpreter and any messages from him came back by the same route.\n\nOn 23 November Saito saw all officer patients and though he did not make a physical examination he marked five for discharge. We considered that two of these would improve by a further stay in hospital, though it was not vital for them to do so. The order for discharge however stood. On 21 December we had our second Red Cross inspection, the first during the period I was in charge but Saito did not appear in the suite. A day or two later however he demanded a report on our sufferers from pellagra asking for detailed information about skin, gastro-intestinal and nervous symptoms and the details of treatment and on 16 January 1943 he came to see the patients. We demonstrated these including the eye cases. As our experience in these fields was small we asked his advice and he suggested giving 100 mgm nicotinic acid by intramuscular injection daily for 10 days. As was his usual custom he would not wait to make a detailed inspection and cut his visit short. We delayed him on the stairs long enough for him to use the English words \"B. complex\" when speaking on the causal deficiency. With this exception he had spoken Japanese throughout and whether he had got the information in discussion elsewhere, it agreed with our view that the symptoms were not to be explained by a pure vitamin B1 deficiency. In reply to my question he said that nicotinic acid and suitable diet were the important elements of treatment. He said also that yeast, easy to get before the war, was now hard to obtain. He promised to consult a colleague about", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207444, "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-1975", "page_number": 212, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "204\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nthan he need. The improvement in his attitude to us in 1945 as the war drew to a close was significant. I never felt safe with him. His management of drafts of patients coming to our hospital from P.O.W. camps showed gross negligence particularly in the early year or so and I found it scandalous that he allowed a patient with acute and easily remediable intestinal obstruction to reach death's door in 1942 before allowing him to be sent to the hospital. How far blame should be laid on Saito and how far his commander, Tokunaga, should bear responsibility I do not know. I was then, and still remain, glad that we did not have to have Saito as our master if we had been losing the war,\n\nI thought Sergeant Seino was the most intelligent of all the Japanese army administrators with whom we came in contact. It was he who was most closely concerned with our routine affairs. He retained his dignity and upheld his position, but he was a man who could be talked to though not easily swayed. He never let his army down, and he never slapped me though he did, I know administer a token slapping to one of our officer patients whom he had caught communicating on a family matter with the outside world through the medium of our parcels. I do not know what happened to him after the Japanese surrender, but so far as we were concerned he did his duty fairly and earned a degree of my respect.\n\nJapanese officers and N.C.O's nearly always wore swords and always on duty wore what used to be called field boots in the British army in the First War and between the wars when they were worn by cavalry and gunner officers and by field officers in other regiments and corps. The Japanese used to skiff (or \"skliff\" is likely an OCR error for \"scuff\" or \"skiff\") their feet along the ground thus making an important noise as they walked, well suited to the dignity of their wearers.\n\nAt first in 1942 the guards were drawn from Japanese units but later were Formosans (Taiwanese). The latter were of no great quality and were poorly clad and equipped, and some of their N.C.O's were pettily officious and often over ready to take offence. They wore ankle boots with canvas uppers and rubber soles and there was a separate compartment in the canvas for the big toe. It was often startling to meet them on a verandah in a blackout as they moved silently along with fixed bayonet and rifle at the trail. These guards interpreted their own orders in such matters as the amount of lighting allowed during blackouts and the time of our", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207445, "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-1975", "page_number": 213, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n205\n\nlights-out and a host of minor matters. They sometimes slapped patients, both officers and other ranks, for what they considered to be breaches of orders. On our side the victims could only guess at the reasons for the slapping for no interpreter was ever to hand at the time. I took up every one of these cases with Saito or Seino as soon as either appeared after the incident, and I always tried to have the matter investigated. Repeatedly I was told that a sentry represented the Imperial Army and must inflict punishment at once for any irregularity on our part. I never discovered that there was anything personal in these slappings in the sense that they might be a retaliation for what, in the British army, we used to call dumb insolence. Some tempers on our side were sorely tried but no major incident occurred. I was never approached by any Japanese officer or N.C.O. for help over medical treatment.\n\nOnly once did an opportunity occur to retaliate. Late in 1945 in the Central British School in Kowloon we had an officious guard sergeant who was nicknamed 'Slappy' because of his readiness to slap all and sundry for what he thought were offences. About the time of the Japanese surrender, but well before the guards were withdrawn, this man was waylaid by some of our sappers who had suffered themselves and who wanted to repay him on their own and their friends' behalf. I was told that they were very satisfied with the result and there were no repercussions.\n\nTRADING\n\nThe Japanese allowed us to have a shop within the hospital. We had to buy stocks from a Hong Kong Chinese compradore, a term which will be familiar to all who have been in the Far East, and we then sold the goods within the hospital. For a very long time we were not allowed to make a profit, and it was not until a year or two after our surrender that I got permission to make five per cent and use the proceeds within precisely defined limits. The shop stocked goods likely to be desired, mainly cigarettes, matches, syrup, jams, salt, eggs on occasion, tomato sauce, beans, cigarette papers, sugar, sewing cottons and needles, ginger, laces, soy bean powder, soap, razor blades etc. We placed an order one week and such goods as were available were delivered the following week.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207453, "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-1975", "page_number": 221, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n213\n\nservice, thirty-two women members of the Nursing Detachment of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps and two women nursing auxiliaries. By December 31 we had 341 patients, slightly over half of whom were Canadians, attended by six medical officers including myself, one dental officer, one Church of England chaplain, one quartermaster R.A.M.C., 81 other ranks including seven engineers and nine Canadian combatant soldiers who served as orderlies. In these five months we admitted 546 patients of whom 42 died, 31 of these were Canadians.\n\nUp to about 19 December 1941 we had buried our dead in Happy Valley, but when this site became unapproachable we used large bomb and shell craters close to Bowen Road immediately below the hospital to form common graves. When this site was full we prepared another cemetery by the main gate of the hospital. In August 1942 we had to prepare a new cemetery within our wired perimeter on the bank to the north of the hospital and between the hospital and Bowen Road. We had, of course, no coffins and at first we used sheets as shrouds. The mounting number of deaths compelled us to substitute well-worn blankets as shrouds and this practice continued up to the end of 1942. Our funerals were dignified affairs and I attended in every case. We usually had a few patients and staff as well and at first, remarkably enough, the Japanese were always represented by Sergeant Seino or others and they came bearing wreaths and sheaves of beautiful flowers. They did not keep up this practice very long and I think they had ceased to attend well before we had buried the last of our 42 men before the end of the year. Funeral parties were always guarded.\n\nIn August 1942 we began to give thiamine by injection regularly to staff while all in hospital received yeast drinks. Each member of the staff received two yen from the Central Hospital Fund and I was given a copy of the Japanese \"Rules for P.O.W. Camps\", and I was told that though these were not wholly applicable to a hospital, we were required to conform to the rules in a general sense. I have no idea now what these rules were, but I do know that they did not introduce any new feature into our daily life.\n\nAbout this time all in the hospital were required to complete a form showing their previous experience especially as car drivers, members of the medical profession, those experienced in manufacturing processes and mining, communications experts, agriculture etc. One splendid question was \"In what occupation you want to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207455, "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-1975", "page_number": 223, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n215\n\nmuch space as possible. The raiding plane on 26 October had therefore been seen by many of our population in the hospital. The sequel came on 3 November when, in the middle of afternoon, all up-patients and all staff were ordered to parade on the tennis court. Sentries had been posted overlooking the court and Lieutenant Saito and Mr. Hasegawa, an interpreter from Japanese Headquarters, were present. Two days earlier Sgt. Seino had told Major Charles Boxer that the Japanese navy had reported to the Japanese army that our men had been seen on the hospital verandahs during air raids. The intense rivalry between the two services was well known, and after Boxer's warning I saw to it that all staff and patients were ordered to keep off verandahs during air raids. The precaution came too late, however, and at the tennis court parade Saito made a speech interpreted by Hasegawa to the effect that many people in the hospital had laughed at and criticised the Japanese Military Authorities during and after the air raid. All on parade who had not laughed or criticised were ordered to hold up their hands and all did so. Hasegawa then said he did not believe this and I was called further forward from the head of the parade and asked if I knew who had laughed or criticised. On replying that I did not know I was dealt a buffet on each side of the face by Saito. His fist was not clenched but he was quite a powerful man and my cap was knocked askew and the inside of my cheek was cut though I suffered no real injury. Boxer was then called forward and asked why he had not signed an undertaking not to escape about which I shall have something to say later. Boxer replied that a Japanese officer would not have signed such a document and he then received two blows on the face from Saito. The parade was then dismissed and Saito went to No. 3 ward at the top of the building where up-patients were paraded on the verandah. These were mainly men recovering from diphtheria and any who had been on verandahs during raids were ordered to stand forward. When none did all were slapped. A new interpreter to the hospital, Takeyama, had just taken over and the latter told me formally that any further complaints of this nature would be followed by the closing of the hospital. We therefore arranged that verandahs on the harbour side would be policed by us during raids and that no one would even go on the verandah on the harbour side to get to lower floors where shelter was better. Shortly afterwards, on Japanese orders all beds were removed from verandahs on the harbour side of the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207457, "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-1975", "page_number": 225, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n217\n\nwe had sudden night checks which would be carried out about midnight or one a.m.\n\nOne of the most disagreeable tasks in the hospital was that of the washing squad. We had to have a system of washing bed linen for those unfit to wash their own sheets. Most of the work was carried out on badly stained sheets which had come from the dysentery wards and which had to be washed in cold water. The four men under Corporal R. Thompson R.A.M.C. who did this work deserve unstinted praise, but it was not until December that I was able to buy a pair of rubber boots for the washing squad.\n\nIn the same month Seino gave me 25 grammes of nicotinic acid and all Canadians received ten yen each from home,\n\nPatients and staff decorated the wards at Christmas time and it was remarkable what a gay effect was produced by the bright colours of a few empty cigarette packets. We had a little extra for Christmas dinner carefully hoarded for many weeks beforehand. We even had a concert on Hogmanay but I was glad to reach the end of 1942.\n\n1943\n\nThirty years after the event it is possible to look back and see that 1943 was the turning point for the better in the affairs of the hospital and its inmates. It was less easy to discern this at the time.\n\nWe had known of the naval battles of the Coral Sea in May and Midway in June 1942. They were fought over four thousand miles from Hong Kong and seemed remote to us. The Japanese accounts claimed them as decisive victories, and it was not till the history of the campaigns became available long after the war that I saw these battles clearly as having imposed the first check on the Japanese advance in the Pacific. It would have been immensely encouraging to have known this at the time.\n\nIn 1943 we knew of the Russian successful defence of Stalingrad, we knew of the victory in North Africa, the invasion of Sicily and the fall of Mussolini. The placenames on the Russian front showed how that terrible campaign was going. We knew of the island battles in the Pacific; we knew of Guadalcanal; but all the Far East news published in the Hongkong News was presented to show the huge losses inflicted on the Americans by the Japanese defenders of positions which in the end remained safely in their hands. The impression conveyed was one of enormous American losses from\n\nPage 225\n\nPage 226", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207463, "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-1975", "page_number": 231, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n223\n\nonce to our hospital. At any rate we were prepared to try a method by which we might exercise influence on the procedure for admitting patients to hospital.\n\nWe had been preparing what we called yeast drinks for all in hospital. We interrupted the issue for a time because the fluid became very sour and was discovered to have eroded some of the zinc pails in which it had been prepared. This was an arresting thought for us who were trying to do good. We then adopted a new process for producing yeast for baking and for issue aided by an ingenious device made by Mr. Sims, our chief engineer, whose fertile brain produced many ideas for our benefit.\n\nA few of our patients were showing signs of obsessional mental disturbances, mostly harmless but we had a number of cases of real mental disorder which called for supervision. We had what used in peacetime to be called a mental ward in the hospital and we had nursing orderlies who had been trained in the nursing of mental cases. These patients however were mostly cared for in a small ward, in no way different to the other wards in the hospital and some of the supervision was often provided by convalescing patients. Only once did a mentally afflicted patient cause us real anxiety when he broke free and rushed out of the hospital toward the guard-room pursued by his attendant. The guards did not attempt to shoot and our patient was brought back quietly to the hospital. I considered that the conditions under which prisoners of war were confined did not in themselves cause mental disorder, though they may have accelerated a breakdown in men otherwise liable to be affected.\n\nIn March we received another 622 books from the Red Cross via the Japanese and a little later we installed our library in the peacetime operating room on the first floor. Some books and the musical instruments and indoor games were displayed effectively in the recreation room for the benefit of inspecting officers. The librarian did an excellent job repairing damaged books and used threads unpicked from a soldier's webbing belt to stitch back detached covers and folios.\n\nOn 3 May 1943 the Japanese asked for boxes of personal possessions which had been left behind by our nurses to be delivered to them, and within an hour Seino took away 14 trunks, boxes etc. belonging to 10 ladies. I never heard if these reached their owners in Stanley Camp.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207465, "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-1975", "page_number": 233, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n225\n\ntheir heads. Though bits of protein may thus have been made available many found it hard to look their fish in the face.\n\nWe had two Red Cross inspections by Mr. Zindel in June and December. On both occasions staff and patients paraded and he made quite extensive rounds though no communication between him and us was allowed. In July though, he sent us a number of indoor games including chess sets, a table tennis outfit, two dart board sets, 18 packs of cards, four badminton rackets and two boxes of shuttles. These again had to be given prominent places in the recreation room where they could be seen. About half way through the year we began to have to pay for our four copies of the Hongkong News which we received usually each day, 15 sen each at first.\n\nIn June I was faced with a demand from Seino for reports on our compradore shop, on the state of health of our staff, on the boots and clothing of all in hospital, on patients classified by diseases, on our complaints and on our methods of dealing with mosquitoes, lice, bugs and flies. About the end of July staff, but not patients, were allowed to bathe in the reservoir provided they wore fandoshis while I required bathers to have a shower first. The supply of mains water was intermittent and low stocks of the drug forced us to reduce the daily dose of thiamine in August to 4 mgm by injection. All concerts, church services etc, had to be finished by 8 p.m. and applause, cheers for entertainers, community singing etc. were forbidden, again I think partly because of the nearness of the Japanese army's watchful critics, the Japanese navy, and partly because our own guards might take exception to noises of this kind. We had a good piano in our recreation room and a less tuneful instrument in what had been the Chinese boys' quarters. By September all concerts and piano playing in the recreation room except during church services were stopped.\n\nI failed again to get an extra rice ration for our staff and stocks of rice would not allow us to issue extra to them without reducing the amount available for patients; for my pains we were called upon to make returns to the Japanese showing all our food stocks.\n\nMembers of the staff had been allowed to store certain locked boxes containing personal possessions in our boiler house and on 3 September a sudden search of these was made by the Japanese, all locks being smashed to get the boxes open. Seven officers and two other ranks were involved as owners, and a pair of binoculars", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207467, "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-1975", "page_number": 235, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n227\n\nlera, and dysentery using Japanese material was completed in the same months.\n\nIn mid December the first move was made to restrict the area round the hospital in which we were allowed to move and the wire was brought closer in to exclude us from the peacetime N.A.A.F.I. block, the senior warrant officers' quarters and the tennis court. Christmas passed quietly, marked by the issue of extra food which had been prudently accumulated over a long time. The wards were decorated and carols were sung on Christmas Eve. We returned to reality with a night search by Seino in which he confiscated all electric heaters he found.\n\nI JANUARY 1944 23 MARCH 1945\n\nThe British Military Hospital remained in Bowen Road till 23 March 1945 when it moved to the Central British School in Kowloon. It will be convenient therefore to cover the whole of 1944 and the first three months of 1945 in this section, and to leave the remainder of 1945 up to our release in August to be considered in a later section. Conditions in Bowen Road and in Kowloon were quite different.\n\nOn 1 January 1944 we had 234 patients, but by 31 December the number of patients had dropped to 145 and the staff had fallen to 55. During 1944 deaths numbered 14, and between January 1945 and our move to Kowloon in March a further two patients died. For the last ten days of January 1944 we had no patients on our dangerously ill list for the first time since our capture. This happy position did not last.\n\nThe decline in the number of patients was the result of two factors. Firstly, prisoners of war who had survived thus far had constitutions which had become better adjusted to the type of diet which was alone available to them while no further outbreaks of infections disease occurred. The general condition of our patients and staff upon whom our observations were made drifted slowly down, and in 1944 and early 1945 more of our staff were admitted for hospital treatment than at any other period during our imprisonment. The second cause was a Japanese order to me by Saito on 19 November 1944 to reduce our total of patients and staff to 200, and during that month two drafts totalling 9 staff and 96 patients left for camp. The timing of this decision should be seen against our predicament in Bowen Road resulting from growing shortages", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207470, "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-1975", "page_number": 238, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "230\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nlikely to follow neither I nor any of those present realised the straits to which the Japanese were being reduced by the Allied blockade.\n\nOn 1 April I had to give Saito a certificate in writing that no Japanese school children, soldiers or ordinary spectators had been allowed to come and look at us in the hospital, in fact that we had not been put on display for the curious to gape at. I had no difficulty in complying, for nothing of this kind had ever happened. My explicit clearance certificate was amended and returned by the Japanese and though their version was, I thought, less exculpatory than the original I was still able to sign it without reservation. On 20 June Watanabe told me that we must keep all our worn-out clothing including even the fandoshis and this was yet another indication of the deteriorating situation on the Japanese side.\n\nOn 1 July Saito brought a senior doctor to see our equipment in the operating theatres, the X-ray department, the laboratory, the physiotherapy and the ophthalmic departments, and they also looked at our disinfestor arrangements. A little later photographs of the operating rooms, the X-ray department and the laboratory were taken.\n\nOn 7 August Watanabe took away the remainder of the kit which Colonel Shackleton had left behind with us, seven boxes in all none being locked. On 10 September Saito again made a search and took more plain clothes. On 6 November a Japanese officer searched the operating theatres and X-ray department in the basement, knocking out some bricks in walls in the process. Directly after this search was completed Saito and Seino repeated the whole procedure.\n\nIn our small community I got news very quickly of any unusual happenings and one day late in the year I was told by our own people that two members of the gendarmerie, the Kempeitai, had arrived. I believe that they were identified by the Japanese guards and a notable stillness fell upon the hospital, guards and guarded alike. The former were clearly concerned to keep out of trouble while we knew enough about the reputation of the gendarmerie to keep quiet and avoid provocation. I was not summoned to accompany them nor were any of our local Japanese authorities but I observed two very powerfully built men whom it would have been unwise to provoke. They paid a few perfunctory visits to different parts of the hospital and then left. I never knew if this visit was any", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207480, "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-1975", "page_number": 248, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "240\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nremains though as time went on the permitted hours of use had to be restricted. The most alarming and dangerous devices were connected to live sockets by our men who wanted to heat water for some form of food. I prohibited the use of these dangerous bits of wire on the advice of the engineers to try to avoid a fatal accident. Though my order was I knew widely ignored, no one was electrocuted.\n\nAfter the first air raids in October 1942 we had to black-out the hospital, first on the harbour side and soon all over. Electricity was frequently switched off at the central stations in Hong Kong without notice during air alerts, and this caused many difficulties for our night staff who had to care for very sick men especially in the diphtheria and dysentery wards. We were not allowed to use our generator at this time and we only had six candles (a curious shortage this) when lighting problems first arose. I ordered many more candles through the compradore, our dispenser made some good candles himself and we learned that medicinal oil of paraffin burned well in hurricane lamps. Pieces of string soaked in peanut oil gave some light and our ingenious sappers constructed a few battery-operated lamps for special use. Imposed black-outs lasted at first from midnight till dawn, but later from dusk till dawn.\n\nUp to December 1943 the main consideration so far as the use of electricity was concerned was to enforce black-outs; thereafter economy in the use of current was urged upon us. In 1944 all electric heaters were confiscated by Seino and we were allowed to use our ward sterilizers only for a few stated hours each day. In February some Japanese officers inspected our larger generator which they removed in August. As the imposed economies did not show a sufficient saving, in June we were ordered to lower our consumption of light by 33% and our power by 57%, so that we had to reduce the ward services further. In July we were told exactly the number of light bulbs we could use, and all 60-watt bulbs were replaced by 40 watts. By August no gas or electricity was being supplied in Hong Kong and so we had to do without light and power. Batteries used by night duty staff were charged, using the exercise bicycle in the physiotherapy department. Water for injection purposes was prepared from filtered water which was then passed through a Seitz filter and raised to 80 degrees C. for one hour on each of three successive days. The emergency batteries", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207482, "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-1975", "page_number": 250, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "242\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nthis feeling, but I still was troubled by a nagging fear of the dangers that closer American pressure and a final assault could bring for all prisoners in Japanese hands.\n\nIn 1945 the order to move to Kowloon was given to me by Saito on 6 March and the move itself took place on 23 March. The place first named as our destination was the Heep Yunn School and I learned of the change only on arrival in Kowloon.\n\nUntil we moved we continued to be short of ration wood, though we used a great deal of wood from floors in vacated buildings in the hospital with which to start our fires and often to maintain them. Early in January vegetable rations were short and many meals consisted of boiled rice only. On 26 January Seino began to store peanut oil in our boiler house, to protect it he said from incendiary bullets. We received 280 sacks of rice from a city godown followed in another day or two by another 60 sacks. Some of these sacks were taken into our store and some to the Japanese quarters, 200 were stacked in our casualty department for re-export. Altogether our men handled 400 sacks each weighing a nominal 100 kilos or about 40 tons over a few hours. They richly earned the small extra issue I arranged for them. Our men also had to carry 600 sacks of charcoal up the very steep steps to the old barrack room where it was stored, the doors being then locked. None of this charcoal was ever issued to us.\n\nIt was about now that I was allowed for the first time to take on our books a nominal 100 kilos sack at 96 kilos and this was lucky, for we were already issuing less than the authorised Japanese rice ration in order to avoid running out of our short-weight stocks. In fact over a recent period we had actually received 370 kilos of rice less than the weight we had to take on our books. When I told Seino about this he asked me not to lower our rice issues below our entitlement, and asked also that we should make up one sack a month. This advice was, I believe well intentioned but was much less realistic than I expected from Seino. Arising out of our talk on shortages one day Kochi, an interpreter, said that the Japanese had been very busy during December. That was certainly true for the Americans were making much progress in their invasion of the Philippines.\n\nIn January 1945 the system by which an amount of money was deducted by the Japanese from officers' monthly pay as savings was abandoned and so a lieutenant colonel, for example, got 160 yen in his pocket instead of 130. In the same month Seino gave me six dozen 11×14", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207484, "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-1975", "page_number": 252, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "244\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nsive demonstration of American air power. I do not know if any Japanese planes took part in the defence. After the raid we picked up a great many jagged fragments of bombs and shells in our grounds though the hospital itself suffered no obvious damage. The history of the war shows that this raid came from Admiral Halsey's Sixth Fleet which had passed to the north of the Philippine Islands and approached the China coast searching for some remaining ships of the Japanese fleet. On this occasion the attackers failed to find the ships which at the time were lying up much further to the south but we got enormous encouragement from the successes we saw. The bombing was very accurate but during one raid on another occasion a fleet of large American bombers came in from the sea aiming from high altitude no doubt at dockyards and Japanese headquarters. Unfortunately their bombs fell short and damaged a large part of Wan Chai. As maybe imagined we had no newspapers for some days after these occasions.\n\nOn 21 January bombs from another raid fell very close to the hospital and we lost a good deal of glass and plaster and picked up many fragments of shells and bombs in the grounds. Our guards never overcame their excitement during air raids and added their own defence contribution by rapid fire from their rifles at the attacking aeroplanes. It would be interesting to learn how much ammunition the Japanese had left at the date of their surrender.\n\nFrom the end of January 140 men from Sham Shui Po camp were accommodated on the top floor of the hospital which was wired off from the rest of the building. They were marched off daily to prepare ground in Happy Valley to grow vegetables there and were accompanied each day by one of our nursing orderlies. The original orders to me were to house the working party in the now vacant barrack block from which the hospital was by now wired off, but when these orders were changed Seino quite courteously apologised for the alteration. We cooked for the newcomers and helped their own 10 maintenance men to draw and hoist water daily to their quarters. The work in Happy Valley was arduous at first and the weather was cold and wet. Later the conditions were easier and the hours of work were less. The ration scale allowed by the Japanese for the working party was on a substantially higher level than that in the hospital in rice, fish, vegetables, beans, oil and sugar. I pressed this precedent and I got our official rice ration raised by 30 grammes to 510 grammes; the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207485, "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-1975", "page_number": 253, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n245\n\nworking party got 600 grammes. They stayed with us for three weeks. By 23 January we often had little Japanese ration food to offer our people except rice and on alternate days we issued beans and small extras from Red Cross stocks to try to vary the monotony. As a contrast to this state of affairs Seino gave me 198 packets of cigarettes for 59 staff and working patients.\n\nSyrup now cost 85.90 yen for a two lb tin, Chinese brown sugar 35.20 yen, rock salt 18.90 yen, soy sauce 17.70, matches 3.95 per box and razor blades 2.60 each,\n\nIn August I had developed cracks between my toes and my fingers became numb so by the end of January I was being given a little thiamine as treatment. We were able to issue one vitamin capsule to every man every second day.\n\nIn February I had to make another report on our cases of boils and upon the religions of our staff and patients. On 9 February Bishop Valtorta, Roman Catholic Bishop of Hong Kong arrived with Tokunaga, Saito, two other officers, Nomura the headquarters interpreter, and Seino and took a service. He exhorted men to pray for a just peace. He said that he had tried to get a priest to us to say mass but things were difficult. No priest had come or did come. The bishop did not visit any wards and went straight off by car, no doubt on Japanese instructions, though R.C. patients who had not been able to attend the service were disappointed. In response to a question from Saito I told him that we had had four R.C. deaths and 21 others had died of disease.\n\nIn and around the hospital in Bowen Road, by the date we moved, the bomb and shell craters were the resting places of 24 men including 2 Indians and 2 Chinese. Numbers 1 and 2 cemeteries provided graves for 70 men including one Indian. There were single graves in No. 1, No. 2 had one triple and five double graves and No. 3 cemetery held 33 graves, only one being a double grave. The craters were of course common graves and we had no access to them. The others were beautifully marked and kept. The total of dead was therefore 127, two having occurred in 1945.\n\nChinese New Year arrived on 13 February and in accordance with tradition the day was wet and cold. The hospital rice ration was raised by 28 grammes. We were again very short of wood and had run out of cooking oil and salt while the vegetables remained very poor. At this time we had three patients on the dangerously ill list.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207511, "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-1975", "page_number": 279, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n271\n\nI 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.\n\nPatients 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.\n\nWithin 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.\n\nOccasionally 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.\n\nMany 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", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 } ]