24.8.45. Very heavy rain & general typhoon conditions. Stanley party cancelled. Will unfortunately be certain to spoil the minesweeping & parachute supplies programme. Porridge & sugar breakfast, tiffin of rice greens & oil. Meat came in today – not from Japs but from an Indian contractor Abbas Khan with whom we are in touch. So had rice & meat stew for tea. A little butter came in from the same source. Japs supply root veg every day now which is welcome enough. Got a chit from Ann Rogers – quite cheerful. Wireless news very confusing – meeting in London re the future of Hong Kong; our assertion that we don’t intend to give it up. Seem to be new dates all the time for the final signing in Japan. Really beginning to seem as though it may be weeks before we are relieved. Many are getting quite impatient, which I think may be very natural, but also very unjustified. We do long to see the fleet all the same. It is amusing to watch our “staff” getting on with the organisation – a very stumbling affair. It is to begin with quite shameful the way the officers on the whole have stopped all work such as wood chopping, veg cleaning, bean picking etc. Very promptly & contentedly, as of right, this has been handed over to the men in the other camp, chaps who for years have been out for very long hours daily on Japanese working parties. One would have thought they had earned a little leisure. It appears that Major Boxer, Dixon & Commander Craven who were taken out from Argyle Street at the time of the wireless incident didn't do quite so badly after all. Boxer went quite fat, & strangely for the whole time he was in Stanley Jail he was permitted to listen in to Japanese wireless news every day. When it was discovered that their pay was reduced by so much a month for “keep”, they were then put on to Japanese ration scales which included pork & other things we never saw. You never quite fathom the Japanese mind. Well – roll on release.