British Landing In West Malaya

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 215, 11 September 1945, Page 5

British Landing In West Malaya

HYSTERICAL WELCOME

Japanese Fail To Keep Back Cheering Crowds

N.Z.P.A.—Copyright— Rec. 1 p.m.

„ ... u ,T ~ LONDON, Sept. 10. British and Indian troops have landed on the west coast of Malaya m the area of Port Swettenham aSd PorT Dickson states an official communique. They have not yet contacted the Japanese. The landings were made by the 34thIndian Corps an Indian tank brigade and the Fifth British Parachute Stocky, scowling Japanese guards with fixed bayonets are trying to Jeep back a hysterically-cheering crowd Z IndoChinese and Malays in Kuala Lumpur, capital of the Federated Malay States, which is more than 250 miles ahead of the Iteration forces," says a Daily Mail correspondent, "but it is a hope ess struggle, for it is obvious that nothing is going to stop citizens celebrating the Allied victory.

"The Japanese still control the city. Their staff officers roll round in glittering, high-powered cars, and soldiers still 'chivvy' pedestrians into the gutter with rifle butts. The inhabitants are impatient to see them go."

"The Japanese are, taking advantage of every day's delay to indulge in a last-minute orgy of destruction. They are building great bonfires with looted cloth and useless Japanese currency, and are tipping all the rice they cannot take away into rivers and swamps.

"Less than a quarter of the rubber plantations were worked during the Japanese occupation, and the rest either destroyed or allowed to run to seed. Mile after mile of plantations are clogged or overrun by jungle."