Diary/notebook of Herbert Stanley Geldard - Part 4
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were put to work & received a small
meal of rice at midday
Plenty of tea was available always
and after TAKAO a desert spoonful
of sugar was received every 3rd day.
Health Few did not suffer more
diarrhea during 5 weeks & 2 days
on board, & in 20 cases the cases
were very severe.
18 men were victims of severe Beri
Beri and at least 700 showed slight
signs of the disease such as swollen
ankles and numbness of the
legs and fingers, etc.
Work During 17 days as Takao
men worked alternate days at
unloading bauxite from the hold
and afterwards at loading rice.
Hours to work were 1900-1200
1300-1600 hrs. On the intervening
days they were taken ashore by lighter
for carrying work at an oil store
a coal yard or a navy warehouse.
For this work they received 15 sen. NCO's
and 10 sen, privates, per day.
While the work on board was
constant & hard & the heat in the
hold stifling, it was easy ashore.
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the market was prohibited, buying &
selling continued in much the [[?]]
style receipt that seller produced illicit
was surreptitiously from coat pockets,
xx haversacks, or inside of shirts.
The Black Market was mixed blessing,
it provided food that would otherwise
not have been unobtainable & thereby
saved many men from sickness, probably
saved their lives. Against this [[?]]
the toll:-
(a) Af it operated agst Jse orders, as no soldier
was allowed to go outside the wire or converse
with natives.
(b) only the soldiers who possessed money to
(c) fictitious prices were asked (a tin
of bully beef worth 40¢ in S'pore was
sold for $4.50 to $2.00)
(d) official buying C'tie for Hospitals were
hampered, they got fewer food & paid
higher prices thro' the illicit competition.
an [[?]] 18 an order was promulgated that
the Jse would severely deal with any soldier
caught outside the wire & send him to 5 hour
under arrest, CO's would be held
personally resp. It will be seen that
the Black Market operations took
big risks (or in most Cases they paid other
to take risks for them), for which they
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Food The food was hopelessly
inadequate during the voyage and
the low nutrition was resp.
for many cases of Beri Beri and
general weakness. xxxx Those who
didn't show visible signs of Beri
Beri were living on the verge of
ill health before the trip ended.
two meals were served each day
consisting of rice and barley (mixed in the
proportion of 2 to 1) with a soup - about
2 cup fulls of the former and 1 of the latter.
The soup varied between a green
(type of cabbage) onion and M & V, it
was weak & contained little food value.
In the case of M & V 36 tins were used
per meal (for 1000 men) equalling 1 tin to 28,
or at the ratio of 1 tin a man per fortnight.
Despite may complaints nothing was
done till TAKAO (Formosa) was reached
in the 10th day when permission was
granted for Beri Beri cases to be paraded
before the port medical officers. xxxxxx 17 days
afterwards the meals were improved
by the addition of more vegetables in
the soup, particularly onion and a
" smell" of pork to wit 3/10 of an oz. per man.
A few days after TAKAO men
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they were entitled to food profit Canteens
had been promised but were mot
uncertain. The market was
popular with the men, so that it
was not surprising that the Powers
That Be (Div. HQ) didn't take much
trouble to suppress it, despite the fact
that orders were issued to that effect.
On 8 June $9800 were paid over by
Jse for camp upkeep, which gave
men some spending money & as xxx
a Canteen was established soon after
with stocks of tinned fish, bully
beef, eggs, peanuts, tinned milk, tongues &
dates at S'pore prices the need of the black
market was over & price alone
limited their activities considerably.
It can be said that the black market
operations were not entirely resp. for the
rise in prices, as several [[?]] & some
individuals contributed their quota towards
the trouble by offering purchasing at what
ever price was asked by the native vendors.
furthering surprisingly Jse pickets mostly often helped
rather that hindered xxxx trying activities.
Before the Cantee was opened
meals on 6 days a week were mostly as
follows, (on the 7th the fare was
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we could do.
After 3 days in port we
sailed from Singapore feeling
liked pricked balloons x
Guards took up commanding
positions with fixed bayonets
but as there were only 16 of
them it would seem that little
trouble was anticipated. These
guard were friendly throughout
the voyage & there were no
incidents.
The scene on deck was resembled
a Donnybrook Farm or Petticoat
Lane of a Sunday morning. It
was almost impossible to move
around & definitely impossible to
find a clean place or article on
which to sit. To relieve the
congestion & also to give the ships
staff and our cooks an opportunity to
work & sort themselves out finally
as it were, each hold was restricted
to 6 hrs on deck each day, our hold no. 4
had 11 to 1 pm, 3 to 5pm, 7 to 9.
When not on deck we read
books, play cards, slept or just
did anything to pass the time away.
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considerably brightened by aprox. 203
meat; after cutting away the bone etc.
one's portion was visible only by means
of a magnifying glass)
[[?]] x meals BKft ground rice
Tiffin rice (boiled) & Cooked greens
(usually a kind of weed that grew wild)
Supper boiled rice & rice bread,
pasties or flapjacks when
flour allowed it.
After the Canteen opened it was possible to
add dates, peanuts & occasionally tinned
food, but nothing could be done in a
"big" as a private got 70¢ = 1/9d a week
& preferred to spend most of it on
cigarettes in preference to food. as the
issue of 10 p. wk was negligible.
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Each man was allowed 1 gall
of water per day for drinking
& washing eating utensils,
clothes or the body. As no bowls
were supplied we were apparently
not expected to wash. on a
few occasions a seawater
hose was put into action
when out of harbour.
As for latrines - one can't
give a true picture of the life
on board the "luxurious"
"Fukai Maru" without touching
on them—, in the best "circles"
meaning camps, engineers
in their wisdom allot a
latrine to 10 men, probably
whoever laid out the conveniences
on the Fukai reckoned that
with less food the ratio should
be greater & allotted 3 to
200 men. To make matters worse
the majority got diarrhea & some
dysentery, 1 with the result
that the lack of latrines was a
serious & distressing problem
more especially the stank
to high heaven despite anything
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Hospitals ? Australias very finest operated at [[Salawang?]]
Proceeding later to Robert Banks.
About a week after capitulation a
start was made to move Hospitals &
C.C.S's from S/pore to Changi, on arrival
the 10 & 13th A G H's & the CCS were amalgamated
& occupied some 4 large barrack bldgs
in the Roberts Hosp. area with the Rth
Hospitals. No sooner were they estab.
than the epidemic of dysentery broke out
& every bed was filled. By Mar 23rd, 480
cases cluttered the Hospital, filling every
available space, there which worked under
shocking conditions, & difficulties.
Latrine cooking, x cleaning & washing
arrang'ts were inadequate, the staff of
orderlies was untrained in the work
[[?]] carried out by the Nurses, the Doctors were
overtimes, the wards stank to High Heaven,
flies crawled over everything, the patients
couldn't stomach dry rice & literally starved,
& no Epsom Salts was available Epsom
salts!! hated by everyone, but a God send
to a man in the grip of dysentery. But
from Mar 23rd the number cases
decreased rapidly & by Apl 6 the figure
was 267, May 15th, 110; June 94 & Aug 63. tho'
not before 28 deaths had occurred from
dysentery or its effects.
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while those on the top platform
were a little better off, but
could not stand up erect.
The middle part of the hold,
that directly under the opening
was stacked with bags of rice
so that movement was very
restricted.
Fresh air reached the hold by
way of the hatches, a small
stairway, 2 flues and a
forced air system which
worked about 6 hrs a day.
At all times the atmosphere
was hot and stuffy, and almost
unbearably so when lying
in port and on frequent
occasions when the hatches
were put on to protect the hold
of [[against?]] rain.
No ∧very heavy weather was
experienced during the trip,
for which our must be thankful
as the sides of the deck were
taken up by kitchens, latrines,
& store houses, & little space
was unused available either
for sightseeing or ∧victims of
mal de mer.
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As Dysentery decreased other ailments
increased & by August the toll,
patients had were being treated:-
Beri Beri 54, Malaria 20, Dengue 58.
many cases had of course been
treated & discharged in the meantime.
Cemetery. By Aug 9th 45 men died at
Changi: from Battle Casualties 9,
accidents 3, Dysentery & after effects 28
Malaria 2, Blackwater fever 1, Beri 1,
Typhus 1. They were buried in a
pretty little cemetery cut out of a
grove of coconut trees. Each grave
was carefully attended to & a concrete
cross placed at the head on which was
stamped the name of the departed; No
tropical storms will erase those names.
Access to better food improved the
lot of Hospital patients tremendously
& to insure that patients got the food
the G.OC decreed that every man at Changi
donated 1/10th of his pay to a fund for the
purchasing of extras.
It is ∧only fair to say that the Jse were perturbed
over the outbreak of dysentery
medical staff to the Hospitals at various
times to investigate. Incidentally
their soldiers suffered considerably
from it in S'pore.
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of transporting 1400 men on
this 3800 ton vessel.
Here it will be explained that
the A.I.F. party attached to C force
consisted of 6 officers, 34 NCO's,
52 privates and a Red Cross Rep.,
Mr Phillips. The balance of the
force was made of bth tps
from various units, the largest
composite group being 350 officers
& men of the 2nd Loyals regular
inf Bn
It was indeed fortunate for
those left aboard that the party
of 400 had departed; as it was
conditions were worse than
those on "Alfmark" & we
were destined to endure
them for 5 long weeks.
The A.I.F. party found itself
in D hold with 108 Loyals. This
was a small hold 20 yds x 15 yds,
it had 2 tiers of built round the
hatches, covered with thin straw
matting on which each man
had a space 6 ft x 2 ft to lie
occupy. Those on the bottom tier
were able to sit up only,
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The toll figures are satisfying as they
show a comparison over the first 100 days
between Rth & Aust. Hospitals which are
very favourable -
admissions, Beri Dysentrery Deaths
Rth 40% 1.5% 22% .6%
Aust 27% .7% 13% .25
Discipline etc.
The early days at Changi were not easy
ones for D.H.Q, men were despondent, &
listless, they didn't know their position in
the scheme of things. Was Jack as food as his master? would ∧AIF officers have any
control over them or were they shorn of
their powers?. The immediate repercussion
was a slackening of discipline, a
begruding acquiescence to orders & a
[[?]] xxxxxxx outlook on the inevitable
whatever it might be.
When the Jse Administrator issued
instructions & that cases of insubordination
would be harshly dealt with if sent
to them, the G.O.C AIF had no small
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we xxxxx lay around xxx tired
& hungry. Confined to the ship
till 20 C in the afternoon when
a 2nd meal of meal of rice and fish
was served by this time we
were famished. It was at
this meal the Gov't of Singapore
and N.E.I. (Java) were seen in a
rural queue with plate and using
like everyone else & filing past
the kitchen for their rations.
Representing, with General Percival,
the Bth Govt. Dutch Govt. & Bth
Army Resp. angered us
to see these men treated in
such a beggarly fashion.
The next we saw of H.E. was
when he left the ship some
hours later with the gallant
400 special party (H & B parties) leaving our
C party ("C") 1000 souls in
possession. It would seem
that better counsel prevailed
& the Japanese saw the impossibility
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task before him up to this time men
refused to pay any respect eve to their
General, but by gradual persuasion &
calling on the mens' self-respect, the
tide turned & after some 3 to 4 weeks.
normality returned & with it a better
outlook. Furthermore, whereas men blamed officers,
Junior off'rs blamed senior offrs & junior formations
blamed senior formations for the tragic end to the
battle of Malaya & their subsequent incarceration, sounder
reason began to prevail & it was realized that the fault
lay with higher authority outside of Malaya's province.
Much work had to be done in the
camp such as salt water and food
fatigues. Ration parties pushed trailers
over a mile of 10 men pushing & hauling
a loaded trailer up the hills at Changi
will be remembered forever.
Other parties cut & carried wood,
some cleared drains, cut grass, filled
shell holes, - there was always lots to do.
[*repairing shell bombed
houses & making them habitable*]
All this was left D.H.Q. the Jse Admin
drove over the camp occasionally but
in the main left the running of it
entirely to A I F. H.Q., each day a liaison
officer went to Changi Gaol (Jse HQ) to receive
orders & report progress of made. Things
ran so smoothly that only the ∧occasional guards &
barbed wire were the visible signs
of a P.O.W. camp.
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4
split into 4, and ordered to descend
into 4 holds a realization came
to me that this [[?]] of 3800
tons the "Fukai Maru" whose
decks were covered with winches,
hatches & ropes so that
scarcely enough space was
left for a few hundred men
to stand about, was to be
our home for the next 3 or
4 weeks.
As Surprise & [[?]] rations
were soon followed by hunger.
We had breakfast at 6 o'c,
lunched on some rice cakes
brought from camp & by
5 o'c began to feel the strain.
But a meal was in on its way.
Organisation was difficult
owing to the cramped conditions,
patience was called for, we must
"endure" (a favourite
Japanese expression as we were
to find out) and we did endure
till 1 o'c in the morning when a
meal of rice was served.
Aug 17th was not a bright day
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News from the outside world was sorely
missed, within letters nor papers were
received up till Aug 9 (when left).
Many rumours ran the length & breadth
of the camp daily but outside of
the Jse controlled S'pore Times no
never reached us (or did it?).
Following Reading the victorious achievements
of the Jse Army, Navy & Air force, as told
in the S'pore Times, was conducive to
despondency, more especially as an
attack on Australia looked imminent.
Since the early days we xxxx learned to
add & take off noughts from data
supplied & arr. at a move probable
conclusion (Example... ).
On 19 June permission was granted
to write a postcard. Though only 5 lines could
be written, we sent the cards off with a fervent
prayer that they would reach their destination
& allay xxxxxx any fears about our safety.
Talking about an attack on Australia,
on two occasions the Jse endeavoured
to get information, firstly when our
G.I. was directed to write a thesis on the
defense of Australia, probable displacement
of troops for vulnerable points etc &
secondly, when several men who had
knowledgeable information of Darwin &
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Retiring to the original room, it
was pleasing to recover ones
boots, clothes & the little
[[?]] bags with valuables
& money surprisingly correct.
Getting into some semblance
of order, progress was made
along the wharf & eventually
the head of the column xxxx
climbed the gangway & entered
a small tramp steamer,
dirty unpretentious & uninviting
Not that this caused any worry
for doubtlessly this tub would
soon transport us to the
luxurious liner of our dreams.
As the cavalcade continued to
merge into the "tub" one saw
the Gov. Sir Shenton Thomas, the
Generals and following them a
xxxxx retinue of retainers with
sufficient red braid to drape
the Queen Mary from stem to stern.
No further encouragement was
needed, our ship would soon
move off & we'd board the
pukka transport. But when
the party, totalling 1400, was
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N. Territory roads were told to report
to Jse HQ. There they were interrogated
but as one said, couldn't give any
information that was not shown contained in a
map which was displayed, promising
a mass of detail. They, by the way,
was at first nonplussed by the order &
proposed to refuse to write anything &
take the consequences. However, on taking
counsel with the G.oc it he did so as
it was possible to write a perfectly worthless
& inocuous article.
Some attempts were made to escape
2 men being successful in reaching
Sumatra. On another occasion 4 men
attempted to row across the Strait to
Jahore but were detected & sent back
to S'pore. There the party split - 2 returning
to camp & 2 going north by foot. The latter
were caught attempting to cross the
Causeway, and shot. And at another
time the Jse notified HQ that 6 men caught
outside the wire, were shot. It is
suspected that these men were on black
market activities rather than attempting
to escape.
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The Japanese conveyed the parties
in 3 ton trucks from Changi, to
the wharf putting 50 men into
a truck, certainly a little crowded
when compared with the standard
"20 men to a truck" as set out
out in our military handbooks
& very crowded in actuality.
Arriving at the wharf all &
sundry were "debursed" in the
proximity of a "delousing" ship
into which we filed, removed
our clothing xxxx slipped watches
& other valuables into little
bags & proceeded to the bathing
room where one was immersed
in water to the ears & stayed
"put" for some minutes while
the debugging or delousing
admixtures did their stuff.
From this room one advanced
in much the same way as
sheep along a race, towards
a room covered with
straw mats where in true
oriental style we sat cross
legged for ½ an hour while
our clothes were fumigated.
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Tokio time was observed at Changi;
as this was 1½ hours ahead of S'pore
time we rose early, & found ourselves
eating the 6 o'c meal at 4.30 pm
when it was a — hot. The hours
observed were Reveille & Roll call
0800 hrs, lights out 2100 hrs.
Many things were done to answer
& occupy the mens time profitably.
An education scheme was launched
with classes in Accountancy, Law,
Mathematics , Drawing, English etc.
lectures were given on travel, and
educational subjects, & military campaigns
Debates, Quiz Contests, & sing songs were
conducted regularly while the
A.I.F. Concert party with 16 performances
& an orchestra of 10, supported by
John Wood, Smithy & a very rickety
harmonium, gave 3 or 4 performances
a week in the Camp & hospital.
[*DONT BE HARD*]
{What about a word of Red+ concert party at
{Roberts Hospital, also distribution of 10 cigs or {tobacco
{per patient per week for 13 weeks after capitulation.
{also issue of toiletries & clothing and games to sick. {Plus Red+ food brought into salary by them and
{confiscated by AIF for Hospital food. RP
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