Collecting Salt
Ordinary table salt was a precious commodity during those days in ShamShuiPo. Of course, everything that is taken for granted in normal times became scarce and of value to our starved senses.
Sugar and salt ranked first as agents to make the rice and green horror more palatable.Not much could be done about sugar, although now and then a little filtered into the camp and became available by one means or another.
Page 25
Someone realized that sea water contains, among other chemicals, a lot of ordinary NaCl, and although the method we used to extract the salt is by no means original, having been practiced from time immemorial.
Page 26
Page 27
Page 28
So, under whose instructions I cannot now recall, we set to work forming "beds" in the dirt of the vacant space to the west of the main camp buildings.
Page 29
We formed little walls around a "bed" about twenty feet square and swept off as much loose dirt as possible. Then, under Japanese supervision, we bailed water out of the harbour and dumped it in the "beds" and waited for the sun to evaporate it.
Page 30
Page 31
Page 32
Page 33
That worked well, and a thin coating of salt crystals was left behind. It was pure salt, but there were other objects present as well.When we tried to lift the salt off the ground, little balls of mud came with it. It was bothersome, to say the least, to have to pick the mud out of your meager rations of rice. The project was abandoned.
Page 34
Page 35
Page 36
Page 37 After all these years I still marvel at the guiding spirit that kept us alive through all the beatings, starvation, mental stress and disease. Eating mud-filled salt off the parade square could have killed us off with dysentery, or worse. Would I do the same thing again? Perhaps, but a little more carefully.
Page 38
Page 39
Page 40
Knitting Sox
Page 41
After a year or so behind barbed wire, most of our clothes were wearing thin or gone altogether. Somehow or other, I had got hold of a British Army issue wool sweater. Light green in colour, it had been machine knit from the best of wool, but that too was badly worn.
Page 42
Page 43
Page 44
I had no sox at all, so I decided to rip out what was left of the sleeves of the sweater and knit the yarn into a pair of sox. Great idea, but there were a few problems to overcome.
Page 45
Page 46
First, the sleeves had a seam from wrist to armpit, with the result that the yarn came out in pieces from six to ten inches long.
Page 47
Page 48
Another problem was, what to use for knitting needles. As a boy, I had often watched Mother knit sox and mittens, so I had a faint idea of how to go about it. The needles had to be found.
Page 49
Page 50
I solved the problem by getting some pieces of barbed wire (there was lots of that!) twisting the barbs out of it, straightening the wire, cutting four pieces about eight inches long, and sharpening the points on the concrete floor.
Photo Gallery

Click Here To Go To Part One
Home
The wire had been "galvanized", and in the straightening process, bits of the protective metal flaked off, leaving a rough surface on the needles. That didn't make for smooth knitting.
Then I had to learn how to knit. I got no encouragement from my friends, who thought that I was slightly off kilter. Perhaps I was! Anyway, I persevered, and eventually devised a way to make sticthes.

Click Here
To Go To
Part Two
Home
Then I was faced with the problem of the short pieces of yarn. These had to be spliced together every ten or twelve stitches, something else I had learned on my way to becoming master of the craft!
How to turn the heel? That too, I overcame after much head scratching and bad advice from my tormentors. Then, "take off" the toe.
Finally, a pair of wool sox! Wool, no less, a little small, and with legs only about six inches long measuring from the heel. I wish I had them now. I would put them in a frame!
Links
Please mail me
Please View My Guestbook
Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1