Let us consider now a typical day’s work for the troops. They had a ‘pap’ rice breakfast and a little green stew, and were actually on the road-making by 09.30. The roads, after one month, were showing up well, and the steam-rollers were busy with the final levelling of the surface. But it was the monotony of the work, and the heat of the sun that caused most of the distress. Already, with excessive dirt and sweat, the men’s shorts and clothing was rotting on them, and they were irreplaceable. Shirts were converted into shorts. Every one was very sunburnt, and though on Singapore Island itself there is no danger of sunstroke, working seven hours a day under an equatorial sun does take a little getting used to. And then the nature of the work was so unvaried. Swinging a changkul or pick, or digging all day was bad enough, but the greatest proportion of people always had to ‘carry earth’ – that is to say, a small shell-shaped wicker basket was loaded up by a shoveller (at least three pairs or carriers to one shoveller) and then they carried the earth to the centre of the road, tipped it up, and went back for more. After the 10,000th journey that did get a little tedious. Food was always carried out to the work, where there was sometimes no shade from the sun, and no shelter from storms. They never came home before 6 o’clock.

Each day there were so-called special parties. We tried to work them on a roster, but really it was a matter of luck. You went out on trucks to fetch in gravel, granite chips or cement, and wherever you went you tried to scrounge food or clothing. In the early days the Nips were very lax, and much was possible. You might end up in Johore, the other side of the Strait, to fetch gravel; and then your object would be either to collect fresh pineapples from the fields for two or three cents each, or perhaps you could pinch a few non-blown blackened tins from one of the many burnt-out pineapple tinning factories. But the Mecca of the special parties was the Empire Docks, with its multitude of Go-Downs, or warehouses, some burnt right down, and some intact. There we had many adventures.