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Today – what the British call “Boxing Day” – a special party and tea was arranged by the Catholic Sisters who have charge of our Camp School for the children. It began at 2:30 with games in the dining room, and at 4:00 everyone turned out for a Camp photograph, taken by a Japanese photographer on the tennis court.

It was bitterly cold waiting for him to get us arranged to his satisfaction and his camera adjusted.

Yesterday and today there has been a stiff north-west wind and we have hugged our stoves!!

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What do you think?

This noon one of the American Catholic Sisters appeared at Lois’ room with a tray, bearing a complete lunch and she calmly announced that she was going to feed Lois three meals a day for the next three weeks!!

She wouldn’t let Lois or Nate say a word.

They feel Lois isn’t getting the proper food to nurse the baby, so they are supplying it!

Really, the group of Sisters here are lovely women. They have done much for the kiddies and for the whole Camp.

We are here all together and just trust the Lord that no impressions will be given the children that will be difficult later. These Sisters have the children in school, too, day by day and certainly the standard of pedagogy is higher than they got at home with us!!

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Sonny’s birthday.

I got up at 6:30 to build the fire; made coffee for Marian and me and cocoa for the kids, then they all got in or on Sonny’s bed and he opened his presents.

There was a tie and fountain pen (one of Marian’s) and wool gloves from Mummy and Daddy; a $5.00 bill, gum and candy and pair of knitted gloves from Lois and Nate and their kiddies and notebooks from others.

We ordered a cake from a Russian bakery near by and it came at noon.

The Catholic Sisters had a gallon of ice cream made for us at their home – so at Children’s Supper we had a real party.

I preached at 4:15 and the Lord gave liberty and, I trust, blessing. Nate led the service and I played the piano as usual. At the last minute, Mrs. Reinbrecht was sick and could not come to sing her soprano part in the special duet – so I “pinchhitted” for her – sang her part!!

In the evening after roll-call, Lois and Nate and we two finished off the ice cream and cake with a cup of coffee – the first ice cream we grown-ups have tasted since coming into Camp.

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Played ball at 2 p.m.

The last evening or two Marian and I have been practicing duets for Sunday services, with Miss Clara Sullivan of the Lutheran Mission. She has a lovely voice and it’s lots of fun – even tho’ the piano is terrible! Once in awhile I practice a bit on a violin belonging to one of the American Catholic Sisters.

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Our central living day ’dining room came next for the s sweeping and mopping, and our two bed rooms were set in order before Elden went off to work in the carpenter shop or to pump water, while I chased off to headquarters.

Marian collected bottles and bag, and journeyed to the hospital for the days ’ supply of eggs and milk, paid for by the internees.

When she became strong enough, Lois continued with house work, though the baby took up most of her time.

I moved around in my capacity as a General Affairs Committee member, from canteen to shoe shop to library, putting in a nail here for the ladies in the sewing room, or scrounging a box from the rear of the canteen to make additional shoe shelves for our industrious and capable Flemish Catholic shoe repairers.

Elden served more nobly on the Music Committee.

“ Thus noon came upon us and we consumed weak soup, a little potatoes (rare), a little meat, and a little tsai ” (vegetable) in some sort of gravy, supplemented with baked bread, in the community dining room, with eight hundred others, plus uncounted flies!

The dishes, our own, were washed outside by the faithful ladies, and we returned home for a brief rest.

Elden and I resumed our appointed tasks in the afternoon, returning for tea. Elden ’ s brew of black tea always tasted so good that some friends from different parts of camp came daily at that hour to see us!

Music practice, baseball, or making coal balls out of coal dust and mud took up the rest of the afternoon.

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Conviviality existed throughout the camp.

Over four hundred Roman Catholic priests and nuns left the encampment for Peking.

In the course of time another rumor came true in the arrival of our Chefoo friends to be repatriated. It was so good to see Mr. and Mrs. Andrews, Mrs. Hannah, and Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Taylor again, and to learn from them of Chefoo camp life.

All the rest of the Chefoo internees arrived but two weeks before we left Camp. Most of the Camp turned out on both occasions to welcome their entry through the “ prison ” gates.

Our negro band played welcoming music while the crowd cheered.

Trucks of baggage rolled in, followed by over 340 children and teachers on foot.

An even greater spectacle than the children was old Mr. Herbert H. Taylor (son of J. Hudson Taylor), eightytwo years of age, with bent back and flowing white beard, briskly walking up the incline with the aid of his cane. Here they came: children and old men and women, virtual prisoners of war in a country friendly to them but overrun by an aggressor nation.

Time passed quickly, and some news of world events came over the walls, enabling us to keep above the feeling of being uninformed as to Allied progress toward ultimate victory.



[excerpt] on board m/v Teia Maru

At our third class dining saloon table sat those who made the eating part of life during seasick days somewhat endurable. Most interesting conversations took place.

There were five of us at f irst: Dr. H. Loucks, head of the famous Peking Union Medical College, Professor R. Sailer, Mr Personius, former Marine Radio expert, a Roman Catholic priest a very pleasant fellow, but one utterly unconscious of the stench produced by his pipe, and myself.

En route to Hong Kong, we traveled over very peaceful waters and felt we were at last out of the reach of military tyrants though still in the clutches of their boor representatives.

Almost half of the passengers were missionaries, Protestant and Roman Catholic. Greek New Testaments, English and Hebrew Bibles, and Latin prayer books were visible in the hands of devoted students all over the ship all of the time.

From remarks overheard it made a certain class of people feel much out of place.

On the boat deck aft, replacing a gun which evidently was there in former days, there stood on the concrete emplacement a large white cross on a high frame. This was illuminated at night and in its brilliant glow each evening many missionaries and other Christians gathered to sing choruses and hymns to the praise of the glory of God.

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Looking out past the long breakwater at 6 p.m. – far out over a wide expanse of the Indian Ocean the heavens once more declared the glory of God in a sunset brilliant with red and gold.

An Indian dhow with full sails to the wind clearly silhouetted against that beautiful background, declared man’s freedom to enjoy God’s glory.

I wondered if anyone on that large dhow knew the world’s Saviour, or if the darkness of Catholicism through the ages from Xavier’s day in this section of India permitted no light of Truth to shine.

Then it happened, the Gripsholm came in sight!...and word passed around brought most of the fifteen hundred repatriates, it seemed, to the decks to see her beautiful white outline. Such a contrast to the dirty grey of the Teia Maru.

[further reading] ...

http://www.weihsien-paintings.org/books/HeritageOfFaith/WhippleWWII(web).pdf

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