Then, outside the hospital was the Blue Camp, all the members of which would have been in hospital under normal conditions, 80 per cent of them, apart from anything else having malaria. But they were at least able to rest and, though some light fatigues such as vegetable peeling fell to their lot, they had nothing heavy to do. The first time I reported malaria to our doctor, Dudley Brown, a close friend of Ginger, I had no difficulty in getting quinine and ‘bed-down’. Immediately in front of me was a very lazy, exceptionally husky Canadian. As he stood before the doctor, who sat obliquely to the queue on a low stool and listened to the complaints, he said ‘Well, Doc, I’ve got malaria and beri-beri. And I hate to say it, Doc, but I’m suffering from complete exhaustion and general debility.’ Dudley’s eye ran slowly up the huge body standing over him, took in the strong calves, the huge pot-belly and the fat face; then he smiled very nicely and said quietly, ‘O.K. buddy – bed down!’ Even the Canadian was surprised! But though it was possible for sick men to rest up in Chungkai, medically speaking, due to chronic lack of equipment and drugs, the hospital was in a very bad way and men would continue to die daily.

The so-called ‘Japan Parties’, who were standing by in Chungkai at that moment, numbered several thousand of the fittest men, who had all been medically examined and issued with Battle Dress and other kit for a colder climate. It was thought at the time that perhaps all except the heavy sick would sooner or later go to Japan, and the four of us considered the ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ of volunteering early. As yet, Chungkai with its dirty, stale smell of having been too long lived in, had little attraction for us, and though we knew that the way prisoners were sent on transports to Japan was far worse than the way meat would be shipped to England from the Argentine, the nub of the problem was this: ‘if you’ve got to go, go now – because in another six months or a year there’s probably more than an even chance of being torpedoed by one of your own submarines.’ While we hesitated, our minds were made up for us. Only one officer, absolutely fit, to 150 troops, was needed, and the first batch left Chungkai en route to an unknown port towards the end of March.