RETURNING HOME

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 84, 10 April 1945, Page 5

RETURNING HOME

MANILA INTERNEES New Zealanders Among Party To Reach Sydney N.Z. Press Association —Copyright Rec. 1 p.m. SYDNEY, this day. More than 300 - former Manila internees arrived in Sydney by tram from Townsville and Brisbane to-day. They included 16 New Zealanders (nine adults and seven children), as well as 53 Australians, 183 from the United Kingdom, 59 Dutch, four Americans and one Pole. The New Zealanders, most of whom are being accommodated in Sydney by friends, will return to the Dominion within a few days. Thev are: Mr. and, Mrs. Atkinson and three children (Auckland), -Mr. and Mrs. H. Blechynden and three children (Nelson), Mr. and Mrs. H. Spencer Rowley (Southland), Mr. and Mrs. John M. Sanson and one child, and Mr. Calvert H. Moore. The youngest of the New Zealanders is three years old. The Australian Red Cross has taken charge of the ex-internees since they arrived at T o wnsville from Manila. The task is the biggest ever undertaken by the Red Cross in Australia. During their stay in Sydney most of these people will stay in private homes, but a nartv of 120 will leave to-day for the Blue Mountains, where the Red Cross has taken over an hotel for their accommodation. On arrival in Brisbane yesterday, where they were greeted by tne Commonwealth Minister of the Interior, Senator Collmgs, the evacuees particularly the women and children, were dressed in a <*t ranee motley of clothes. None SS e haS°a„\ the chiton were mostly without shoes. However, essential clothing was Provided n Brisbane and a further distribution will be made in Sydney. Orgy of Murder and Brutality "You can believe all the Japanese atrocity stories," declared former Manila internees, when interviewe in Sydney by the N.Z.P.A. speciaj correspondent. They described the OTHY of murder and brutality which swlpt -Manila, When the Amencans began their invasion no white person of any nationalitywassafe from the Japanese. When the m ternees were liberated by tne Americans they found that many of Mends of neutral countries and even Germans had been killed by the retreating enemy troops. The internees were told that the Tananese had intended to massacre all captives before leaving Manila, but General Mac Arthur's liberating forces had been too. quick for them. Members of Christian religiou.. orders in the Philippines received especially brutal treatment. An Australian Roman Catholic priest Father Sexton, who, since 1936, haa been in the Philippines with missionaries of the Redemptorist Order, said that more than 100 priests from neutral and even Axis countries were killed by the Japanese, m Manila. Fifteen de la Salle teaching brothers were bayoneted to death in then college by Japanese soldiers. Thirteen of them were German and the other two Irish. . Three Spanish priests were be- : headed a few days after the Amen- '■ cans began their attack on Manila Another released Catholic priest was told how 20 priests were sent intc an air raid shelter in Manila and the Japanese then threw in petro] and grenades.

Systematic Starvation When the American invasion of the Philippines opened the Japanese began the systematic starvation of internees. The rice ration was reduced to two small handfuls a day. In their extremity the internees ate dogs and cats. Some died of starvation. To obtain extra rice for their children many women internees sold their jewellery to the Japanese. Some even bartered their wedding rings for a little extra food. . All the women in the party which arrived in Sydney yesterday were very suntanned from long hours spent in the outdoors, trying to coax a few vegetables to grow or collecting bark and weeds to make "soup." Still pitifully thin, most of the internees said that they had put on up to 151b in weight in the few weeks since their release. Over 500 British internees from Santo Tomas camp in Manila have left for England, via America, writes a correspondent at Manila, quoted by British Official Wireless. Among them are 110 children and 100 stretcher cases, who are travelling in hospital ships.