BENNETT INQUIRY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 66, Issue 46, 4 December 1945, Page 3

BENNETT INQUIRY

ESCAPE FROM SINGAPORE STAFF OFFICER’S EVIDENCE (N.Z. Press Association —Copyright.) SYDNEY, Dec. 3. To hear the evidence of two senior Eighth Division officers, who are too ill to leave hospital, the Bennett inquiry was continued to-day in a room at a military hospital.

The first witness was Colonel J. A. Thyer, who was General Gordon Bennett’s senior staff officer. He was wheeled into the room on a trolley, giving evidence from his bed. Colonel Thyer said that on February 15, 1942, General Bennett issued an order that every man should stay at his post. Colonel Thyer expressed the view that from that moment every member of the A.I.F. in Singapore was legally and morally bound to stay at his post until taken captive. Colonel Thyer said that the order was never rescinded. He added that the “cease fire” message came through between the time General Bennett went to the Signal Unit about 6 p.m. and 7.30 p.m., and it was just a bald statement that there would be “cease fire” at 8.30 p.m. Colonel Thyer said the last time he saw General Bennett was about 6 p.m. or 6.30 p.m. going toward the Signal Unit. He (Thyer) was told about half an hour after the “cease fire” by one of the officers that General Bennett had left.

Colonel Thyer continued: “General Bennett at no time told me that he was going to escape and left no instructions about what to do.” Witness said he went to his room where two or three other officers joined him. In thanking them witness said: “it is the duty of every officer to stay with his men until he is forcibly removed from them, and then and not until then does it become his duty to escape.” Witness said that on the following morning General A. E. Percival (G.0.C., Malaya) phoned and asked to speak to General Bennett. General Percival sounded very annoyed when told that it was thought that General Bennett had escaped. Half an hour later an order arrived from General Percival, promoting Brigadier C. Callaghan to the rank of Major-General and appointing him to command the A.I.F. in Malaya. “Officers to Remain” Cecil Arthur Callaghan entered the courtroom unaided, wearing a carpet slipper on his right foot. He said he was appointed G.O.C. of the Eighth Division by General Percival and added that a conference at Divisional Headquarters commanders had been informed that the troops were to remain intact, that any Japanese attacks were to be resisted and that officers were to remain with the troops. Mr W. R. Dovey, K.C. (assisting the Commissioner) read a document signed by General Percival recommending the promotion of General Callaghan to G.O.C. because General Bennett, “voluntarily, and without permission, had relinquished command of the A.I.F. on February 15, 1942, the date on which the capitulation of the British Forces in Malaya took place.” The document covered General Callaghan’s duties and added: “He did splendid work in holding the A.I.F. together and maintaining their morale at a high standard. He displayed exceptional powers of leadership under the most trying conditions.” Mr B. Clancy, K.C. (counsel for General Bennett) submitted that the first clause of the document was heresay evidence and should not be admissible. Mr Justice G. C. Ligertwood (Commissioner) said it referred to what he had to inquire into. The Commission adjourned to Melbourne on Wednesday.