RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 118 REVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS 14-There is a softball game almost every evening now and that gives us something to look forward to, although swimming is also a good attraction during the day. Tweed Bay Beach is a very fine sandy one, but not very large. We learn that the Holy Father has given $15,000.00 HK to victims of the war, and each internee at Stanley will receive about $5.40. — 15 Feast of the Assumption. Only one Mass in the Club Chapel today. We are hoping to receive our long-looked-for permission to leave Camp today, as hitherto something important usually happened on a Feast Day, but there is as yet no news from "The Hill." However, we did have quite a surprise when the Sisters gave us a dish of ice cream for supper. How they manage these things is more than we can fathom. No show tonight, but a farcical game of softball between the Police and the Ladies. The next few days are quite uneventful, with baseball the main feature of the day. As clothing is becoming quite a problem for the internees, flour sacks are being utilized for articles of apparel. On the 17th there was another death at the Hospital. The British are also having lectures each Tuesday for those who wish to attend. Rain kept us indoors at times and it looks as if we might have a typhoon. One of the patients who had been allowed to go to St. Paul's Hospital for X-ray treatment failed to return to Camp and as a punishment no more patients will be allowed this privilege for a month, no matter how sick they may be. 20-Seven months in Camp today and at last the good news has come: we get our call to sign our papers on "The Hill" at 9:30 a.m. These papers merely say that we shall do nothing against His Imperial Majesty's Japanese Government if we are paroled, and we gladly accede to such a request. Accordingly, promptly at the appointed time, we 13 Maryknoll priests, Brother Thaddeus and two of the remaining four Maryknoll Sisters, Sister Dorothy and Sister Henrietta Marie, sign the required papers and are informed that we may leave in a "few" days. Fathers Meyer and Hessler, with Sisters Eucharistia and Christella, will remain in the Camp to look after the Catholics. At present there is only one other priest left, Father Charles Murphy of Scarboro Bluff, Canada. He is seeking his release. 21 — Packing up our few belongings and Dr. Talbot gives us cholera shots. Softball gives us a good evening's entertainment. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 120 REVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS 5- "The Optimists" appear again in an entertainment on the Green and delight their audience. A Mr. Shaw, British, died of heart failure in bed just after tiffin. Today, we received HK$5.00 as our portion of the allocation of relief from His Holiness, the Pope. Sunday. General meeting of Catholic Action in the afternoon. A good crowd was present and various reports read. Father Meyer hands over his share of the cooking to Mr. and Mrs. Kiley. Father Walter and Father Keelan still continue to feed us at night, with hamburgers and "rubber plant"-Excuse me! I should have said "hamburger." 7-Labor Day and no classes for the Language School. Three adults were baptized in the Maryknoll Chapel. Due to some wiring difficulty we had no electricity at night. 8-Nativity of Our Lady, and First Communion Day for the newly baptized. No news of our impending departure! Patience! Lights on again. 9-Big News: Maryknoll, in a cable, orders all Maryknollers in occupied areas to be repatriated! But how? and when? Rumor has it that we are to get news of our release tomorrow. 10-No news! 11--At Last!! We are to leave Camp tomorrow, the Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, and Father Price's anniversary. Evidently we have friends in Heaven. Laus Deo! 12—What a day! We are to be released from our confinement and go back to civilized life! We toted our baggage in the morning down to the American Club Block A-4, and there at 10:00 a.m. it was examined, not too minutely, by the gendarmes. Nothing was confiscated, however. At about eleven o'clock the truck which brings the food out to the Camp backed up and the first group, consisting of Fathers Toomey, Troesch, Downs, Keelan, Siebert, Walter and Knotek, Brother Thaddeus and Sisters Dorothy and Henrietta Marie, got in. At the Depot were many of our friends to see us off and to wish us well. At 2:30 in the afternoon the second group, consisting of Fathers Tackney, Madison, Moore, McKeirnan, Gaiero and O'Connell, and most of our baggage, left. As we in the first group sped out of the Camp and on our way over the familiar winding road to Hong Kong, it was hard to ana- ================================================================================