大象传媒

Continued from Life in the Dutch houses.

In October the Japs said that the three lower houses were to be vacated and the fifty-seven occupants to be added to our already over-crowded little houses. This caused great consternation. Fresh barbed wire was put up to exclude the three vacated houses. The days were hot and sometimes followed by terrific storms. One rain storm was so heavy that everywhere was flooded. A ll the roofs leaked and many people had streaming colds. Mary and I tried to sleep in the open but the mosquitos kept us awake all night.
Nora Chambers and her sister Ena were musical and helped get up a concert. This was quite a success.
By now the Dutch people in house 9 had used up most of the tins of food they had brought in with them. We asked them not to throw away their used tea leaves but give them to us so we could boil them to make a brew for ourselves.

At the end of September the older boys left to join the male prisoners. Mothers with husbands in the mens camp were not unduly worried but the women who did not know anyone in the mens camp were evry distressed.

At the start of December Mary and I got hold of an old mattress which we divided into two and filled rice sacks with the contents. Then Mary cleverly stitched them so that we could roll them up during the day, tied in a neat bundle. Up to then we had slept on the stone floor - it was bliss to have something soft to lie down on.

Once a week at this time we were allowed down the hill to the guard house where an Indian merchant came to sell us cheap material. Those of us with no money sold our jewellery to buy little extras. Some of the Dutch had brought a lot of paper money into the camp so were able to buy jewellery from us. I bought some navy shorts and two red and white tea towels which I made intto suntops. The Japs told us that we must wear coats as we did not look decent in suntops, but of course no coats were ever provided and soon they stopped telling us this. It was not long before they stopped the merchant coming. The Japs also had a bright idea that we were all to learn Japanese, but they never did anything about it.

Dr.McDowell was elected commandant and Mrs Hinch vice-commandant.
In preparation for Christmas Dorothy Moreton made toys out of sample cloth books from the Indian merchant. She made rag dolls and toy animals. Dorothy was a school teacher and she got other people to help her. Georgette Gilmore helped to make nursery rhymes rag books with appliqued pictures all beautifully sewn. Joan Maddams made and drew 'snap' and 'happy families' cards. There was a combined Dutch and British party given for the children and every child was given a present.
On Christmas Eve almost all gathered on the rising ground where we used to catch a glimpse of the men's working party marching back and forth from the jail. As we saw them returning that day we sang 'O Come All Ye Faithful'. They stopped to listen and in the distance they waved to us. On Boxing Day morning they stopped at the same spot and sang the same carol to us in English and Dutch. It was wonderful to hear the men's voices singing, but we all felt very sad. On Christmas Day the food was the best we had had for many months. Each group was given a piece of beef, a few onions and a piece of gula malaca (palm sugar).

Nothing was ever wasted - egg shells were crushed and powdered - if we had fish, the bones were boiled then pounded into a rather gritty powder after being dried in the sun. We sprinkled this on our rice hoping it would provide us with some calcium. The charcoal resulting from the wood fires was also ground into powder which could be used as tooth powder or for stomach troubles.

The months went by slowly; we were always hoping for news of letters. At one time a Jap doctor visited the camp and arranged for some tinned milk to be sent in for the children and sick people were sent to the local hospital. Every morning my legs felt numb and I had a pain like dull toothache in my feet. It was difficult to walk when I first got up but later in the day it improved.

We were glad to have towgeh (bean sprouts) and bean curd sent in the rations occaisionally. Then at one time we had soya beans which we cooked in numerous ways. Sometimes we pounded the beans and mixed them with water to make a sort of milk. Soon the kind Jap doctor was prevented from visiting us again, so the rations deteriorated and no more milk was sent in for the children.

In September 1943 we were all moved into the camp where the civilian men had been; they had been sent back to Muntok. When the men heard that they were to leave, they thought that the camp was to be used by Jap troops, so they left the place as messy as possible and threw rubbish down the well. This was one of the first things that had to be cleaned out when we arrived!
Amongst articles that had been left behind was a solid wooden stool made by Mary Jenkin's husband. He had carved his name on it and she was delighted to have it.

Our conditions in the new camp were depressing with hard work, much carrying of water and digging and planting. We lived in long wooden huts with earth floors and slept on raised wooden platforms known as the bali-bali. There was a communal wash room with water tanks but often there was no water. During our first weeks there, there was plenty of water in the mornings so we all went along for dipper baths. The sight of so many naked women of all ages made one feel one never wanted to see another nude body. The women were either very thin and scraggy or else had swollen rice tummies and legs and most of them had septic sores and mosquito bites.
The Dutch lived in huts on one side of the camp and the British on the opposite. Each group selected a commandant. At this time there was Mother Superiour for the Dutch and Mrs.Hinch for the British. There was barbed wire all round the outside of the camp and as the huts faced inwards we saw nothing of the outside world.
Our little group from garage 9 kept together - Mrs.Brown and Shelagh slept on one side of me and Mary Jenkin on the other. We took it in turns to cook for the group, fifteen of us and we all had some extra chore as well. Mary was in charge of rations, the British Sisters still helped with those who were ill in the British hut. Miss Dryburgh and Nora Chambers prepared music from memory for a four part orchestra and as there were no intsruments we hummed the accompaniment and it sounded really lovely.
Almost everyone collected and wrote out recipes, hoping that one day we could make all these delicious sounding dishes. The mosquitos at night were unbearable.
Christmas day came and went without much enthusiasm; we sang carols at a service and the Dutch children did a Nativity play. We had tapioca root, vegetables and a little pork, given to us by a Chinese contractor and this was a real treat as we had had no meat since September. On Boxing day we gave a concert. We took great care of our clothes as there was no hope of getting anything new. Needles were more precious than diamonds and worn out garments were unravelled to provide thread. Trompers were the universal form of footwear. These were clogs of wooden soles with either leather or a piece of bicycle tyre as a strap to keep them on. The straps frequently broke and were a constant worry as there was a scarcity of nails, which made repairs difficult.

Up to now anyone seriousley ill had been sent to the hospital in Pelambang, from now on this was stopped and a building near the guard room was used as a hospital. From March 1944 an increasing number of people became ill. Mary Anderson was one of these; I used to wash her and try to make her comfortable, she was so desperately thin that no-one would have recognised her. I had known her in Penang; she had been a large woman with a booming voice and a keen golfer. Now she was frail and pathetically grateful for anything one did for her. She died on the 4th March during a Jap holiday and her body had to remain in the camp for two days. In the tropical heat this was dreadful. We moved her body to the centre of the compound under an open shed and had an all night vigil. We took turns holding a vigil until the Japs finally came with a coffin to take her away.

The Vigil
'Tis night and in the camp's wide square
Unwonted silence fills the air
For now the central open shed
Acts as a shelter for the dead
How slowly time doth pass!

A tiny lamp with steady glow
Lightens the darkness and doth show
Where watchers solemn vigil keep
Beside the dead, while others sleep
How slowly time doth pass!

Why do you use this public place?
Within the walls is there no space?
The living scarce have room to lie
There is no spot for those who die
How slowly time doth pass!

But watchers, in this tropic clime
Death brings decay in little time
Why, therefore, do you think it meet
To use nought but a winding sheet?
How slowly time doth pass!

'Tis Sunday and authority
Its deaf to importunity
A coffin wanted, did you say
Do not disturb our holiday
How slowly time doth pass!

Is there no wish to give respect
to Death? Show sorrow for neglect?
Had healing medicines been supplied
Death's triumph might have been denied.
How slowly time doth pass!

'Tis but a prisoner of war
A woman too. Why worry more?
To drive away and rats that creep
And hungry dogs, we vigil keep
How slowly time doth pass!

A victim of accursed war
Who ne'er shall see her native shore
In open shed sleeps her last sleep
While watchers solemn vigil keep.
How slowly time doth pass!
written by M.Dryburgh 5.3.44

From now on we became accustomed to our friends dying and it became an everyday occurrence.

Continued in 'notes from my diary'

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