Diary of John William Cardwell Wyett, 1942 - Part 7

FRIDAY—June 12th, 1942
SATURDAY—June 13th, 1942
Attended conference this morning & a
meeting later to discuss relations between
staff & services prior to Chas KAPPE'S
lecture this afternoon.
WOODRUFF came over this afternoon &
we walked over to hosp, afterwards
visiting Dr PATON & inspecting his yeast
centre. His counts are only about
50,000 / [[?]]
We then saw Capt MANSFIELD RN.
& went on to Lieut         RNR who
is with 44 Ind Bde. Brig BALLANTINE
was out & I left word for his
staff capt to come over and get
a hat. We are to go over
on Wed next for first lecture.
Today a magnificent wreath arrived
for the funeral of pte L D KELLY who was
accidentally killed while on a working
party. It was sent of the Jap
offr in charge of the party & is
a very decent gesture.
 

 
SUNDAY—June 14th, 1942
Raining heavily this morning. I had an
argument c̄ Lee STAHLE this morning about
the direction of the monsoon & he was
able to prove to me that the change
has been from a NE to SW monsoon.
How far southwards of MALAYA this extends
I do not know.
More Gilbertson stories — this time a
guard of our chaps armed with loaded
rifles were placed on a dump of stores
to prevent Jap soldiers pilfering.
The working parties are regarded as belonging
to the Jap reg't concerned & the comd
on one gp was proud of the work his
AIF tps had done (He removed the
bulldozers before the work was inspected in
order to make the results more impressive)
I went to the opening of the Roman Catholic
chapel c̄ GOC, Geldard, Joe VINCENT & Jan
O'DONNELL this evening & heard a good
address of Padre DOLAN.
I met [[?]] & Brig MAXWELL this
evening on the way home, so walked back
& had a yarn with them.
Rice & a tin of kippers between four
of us provided a good supper, & so
to bed.
Gl HEATH lectured on the MALAYAN campaign
today & was most interesting. He came over
in amb as he has been ill & could not walk
MONDAY—June 15th, 1942
Bill K-H & I hold regular conversations in
Malay every morning now & we are gradually
improving although we have still far to go!
It certainly has the effect of keeping one's
mind & memory active in this enervating
climate.
Great trouble again today about the hops.
It is amazing how trivial things assume
such magnitude.