ENGINEER’S ESCAPE

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23537, 15 January 1942, Page 4

ENGINEER’S ESCAPE

FLIGHT FROM THAILAND Given only an hour in which to j pack up and leave West Thailand j when hostililicj broke out m the Pa—cific, a Dunedin engineer, Mr D. M. ! Christie, who ha.; been engaged in tin-dredging at Krasom, Thailand, ior the last two years, reached Singapore after an adventurous journey, in company with several others from the j Krasom settlement, he had to travel by launch to tiie coast, and camp on | the beach before being picked up by I a rescue ship. The parly lost all | their belongings except the few clothes they were able to bring away. "It is now 10 days since the storm broke,” he wrote in a letter to friends in Dunedin, "and those days will certainly never be forgotten by those ot us who had to flee from Thailand. I was in Bhuket when I heard the news that Japan had struck m the Pacific, and I rushed home to Krasom, but found things more or less normal. I actually went to work at 3 p.m.. but at 4.30 the dredge manager arrived and told us that we had to clear out by G o’clock. That meant about one hour to pack our bags, and the result is that I have lost practically everything—only a few treasured possessions were pushed into the odd corners of the one suitcase I took out. Searched Five Times "I saved all my photographs, but apart from that I packed only a few clothes and filled up the rest of the case with food and tobacco. I even forgot to take blankets, but was fortunately able to borrow one. We lett the mine just as soon as we wore ready, and wont to Pangnga to pick up a launch. The Thais seemed to be trying their best to delay us, and wo were searched no fewer than five times by the police before we were allowed to board the launch. For a time things looked sticky, but eventually we got away and travelled down the river to the coast, where we camped on the beach for the night. Others joined us. and in the morning a ship arrived to pick us up. We had to swim out to the lifeboats. "The ship then went to another place and took some more people on beard. There was 112 of us on the siiip, and wo had to sleep on the decks on the way to Singapore. We saw a number of aeroplanes, but they wore flying too higli for us to identify them, and we were not bombed. "All except one of the Krasom crowd got away safely, but those on

the east coast, in the Yala area, were hemmed in, and as far as is known not many got away. Nothing has been heard of several Dunedin families who were living in that district. Altogether it. was a pretty anxious time, particularly as we did not know which way the Thais were going to turn. All I have said about them in the past has come true, and they have played the double-crossing part we expected. “We are all out of jobs at the moment, but there is no chance of us getting home, and wc are here for the duration. Three of us have joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force. We were accepted as our knowledge of Malay will be of use.”