ALLIED MISSION LANDS IN BANGKOK

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 210, 5 September 1945, Page 5

ALLIED MISSION LANDS IN BANGKOK

MOVING PRISONERS

Medical Workers Improve

Camp Conditions

N.Z. Press Association—Copyright

Rec. 1.30 p.m.

LONDON, Sept. 4

An Allied military mission arrived to-day at Bangkok, capital and chief port of Siam (Thailand) to arrange evacuation for the Allied prisoners of war.

Deaths among Allied prisoners in Bangkok camps, before the arrival of medical aid averaged 25 a day, says the Associated Press correspondent at Kandy. The majority of the prisoners thus far contacted or evacuated by South-east Asia headquarters are suffering from some disease or malnutrition. Reports from Singapore indicate that beriberi, malaria, tuberculosis and several types of dysentery are prevalent.

According to information reaching South-east Asia headquarters, the Japanese, shortly before the end of the war, when it became obvious that they had lost, began concentrating on prisoners of war at main centres, inaugurating a programme of better treatment.

Admiral Mountbatten's headquarters reports that 330 Indian prisoners of war haVe thus far arrived at Bangkok. Conditions in camps in Siam are improving satisfactorily, due to the wholehearted efforts of British medical personnel, some of whom landed by parachute.