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walked away immediately. I hope he was suitably ashamed to see us treated like this.
10th May 1915. In the afternoon of the 1st of May, the American consul and vice consul visited the camp, ostensibly on orders from his [their] government, to assess conditions here and possibly listen to complaints. Our Singapore people were away on forced labour this afternoon and to make sure that we older, non-working [people] wouldn’t be able to lodge any complaints with the consul, we were taken on a 2-hour walk by a sergeant and 2 soldiers. So the authorities do have scruples after all! The Commander’s ploy didn’t work, however, because some comrades still left in the camp did manage to tell the consul about our removal and listed the general complaints. They said the consul took lots of notes and we’ll just have to wait and see what comes of it. We Singapore people thought it appropriate to ask for another visit by the consul since we had not been given a chance to talk to him.
[Note in margin:] A few days ago most of the captains, officers and engineers of the merchant ships were transferred to another camp, further inland in Berrima.