"Food was scarce because of the striet_ rationing system enforced by} the German authorities. 'Prices were so high we could hardly buy what! we needed and the rations were very' small so that we would have been really very badly off if we did not have the provisions we brought from "The fixed dally allowance of food, the boatswain said, "was half a pound Jof rice for each person, and that is not enough.
"At night the ship was never alowed {o show a light and the very fewest possible lamps were burned, perhaps because of oil shortage oF fear of night raids by the British air force.
"Our food supplies from Shanghat soon ran out and we bean 10 grow ome of the Chinese sailors were very unhappy when the British began to raid the port, though no bombs: were dropped on Hamburi at first Later the British bombers did enor mous damage to the docks, many warehouses "and some factories on the river," the boatswain declared.
We were 700 in that collier, battered down in darkness, not even a torch to show. We were filthy, nails, hair, all full of coal dust. 'They had time to clean the ship after di charging the coal. 'Then just as we reached' the Spanish coast we had trouble with a valve and had to leave the convoy (French) to anchor near the last French port to repair, then start off on our own,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.