FIGHTING FOR JAPS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 91, 17 April 1943, Page 5

FIGHTING FOR JAPS.

Conscripted Chinese In Gang Of Prisoners RECOGNISED BY PRESSMEN Rec. 2 p.m. SYDNEY, this day. The Japanese have conscripted the Chinese to fight for them. Standing with other war correspondents and idly watching a batch of Japanese prisoners, Harold Guard, United Press representative, was recognised by a thin, bedraggled Chinese among the prisoners. Mr. Guard was formerly in Hong Kong and Singapore. "We started to look over the batch of Japanese prisoners brought from Wau," says Mr. Guard, who is now in Australia, "when I heard a greeting, 'Hello, Mr. Guard.' I turned and saw a tattered Chinese grinning widely at me. I recognised him at Chan Chai, who had been, caretaker at the building of the South China Morning Post, a British daily paper in Hong Kong, where I had my office three years ago. Chan told me that after the capitulatoin of Hong Kong .the Japanese impressed thousands of local Chinese into labour corps And sent them to the various Paci-ficwar stations. He was forced to take part in the fighting at Buna and later at Wau. At the latter place he was captured, but he was the happiest prisoner I have ever seen."