A.I.F. GENERAL'S ESCAPE

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24740, 4 December 1945, Page 5

A.I.F. GENERAL'S ESCAPE

Singapore Inquiry

SENIOR OFFICERS’ EVIDENCE (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 12.10 a.m.) SYDNEY, Dec 3. In order to hear the evidence of two termer senior officers of the Bth Australian Diyision, who are too ill to leave hospital, the inquiry into the escape from Singapore of LieutenantGeneral Gordon Bennett was continued to-day in a room at the military hospital in Sydney, ■ rm? he firs , l witness was Colonel J, A. l nyer, who was General Bennett's senior staff officer. He was wheeled 1 - i to the room on a trolley. Giving evidence from his bed, T £ yer said that on February 1942, General Bennett issued an order that every man should stay at his post. Witness expressed the view mat from that moment every member oi the A.I.F. in Singapore was legally and moraHy bound to stay at his post until taken captive. Colonel Thyer said that the order was never rescinded. The cease fire message came through between the time General Bennett went to the signal unit, about 6 p.m, and 7.30 p.m., and was just a bald statement that there would be “cease fire" at 8.30 pm. • Witness said the last time he saw General Bennett was about 6 p.m. or “ . P-JJ- going towards the signal unit. He (witness) was told about naif an hour after the “cease fire” by one of the officers that General Bennett had left. Colonel Thyer continued: “General Bennett at no time told me that he was going to escape, and he left no instructions about what to do.” “Duty of Officers" Witness said he went to his room wnere two or three other officers joined him. They said they had contemplated escaping, but would now stay with him. Witness, in thanking s *nd: “It is the duty of every officer to stay with his men until he is forcibly removed from them, and then, and not until then, does it become his duty to escape/' Witness said that on the following morning General Perclval (the British G.0.C.) telephoned and asked to speak to General Bennett. General Perciya! sounded very annoyed when told that it was thought that General Bennett had escaped. Half an hour Jster an order arrived from General Percival promoting Brigadier C. A. Callaghan 'to the rank -of majorgeneral and appointing him to the command of the A.I.F. in Malaya. Major-General Cecil Arthur Callaghan entered the courtroom unaided, and wearing a carpet slipper on his right foot. He said he was appointed G.O.C. the Bth Division by General Percival. At a conference' at divisional headquarters the commanding officers had been informed that the troops were to remain intact, that any Japanese attacks were to be resisted, and that officefs were to remain with their troops. . Mr W. R. Dovey, K.C., who is assisting the Commissioner, read a document signed by Gei.eral Percival recommending the promotion of MajorGeneral Callaghan to G.O.C. because General Bennett had “voluntarily and without permission relinquished the command of the A.I.F. on February 15, 1942, the date on which the capitulation of the British forces in Malaya took place/’ The document covered Major-Gene-ral pallaghan’s duties, and added: “He did splendid work in holding the A.I.F. together and maintaining thgir morale at a high standard. He displayed exceptional powers of leadership under most trying conditions.” _Mr B. Clancy. K.C. (who renresents General Bennett), submitted that the first clause of the document was hearsay evidence and should riot be admissible. Mr Justice 'Ligertwood said it referred to what he had to inauire into. The commission adjourned to Melbourne on Wednesday SINKING OF H.M.S. EXETER STORY OF BATTLE OFF JAVA GALLANT FIGHT AGAINST GREAT ODDS (Rec. 5.5 p.m.) LONDON, Dec. 2. The full story of how the British cruiser Exeter, with two escorting destroyers, H.M.S. Encounter and the U.S.S. Pope, went down fighting four Japanese heavy cruisers and five destroyers off the Java coast on March 1. 1942, was brought back from a Japanese prison camp by the commanding officer, Captain O. L. Gordon, who hid the records from the Japanese in a tube of shaving cream. The Exeter was badly damaged in action. on February 27 and put in to Sourabaya, but there was no time for proper repairs. She sailed again at dark on February 28, with six of her eight boilers out of action, accompanied by the Encounter and the Pope. An enerny force early the next morning began to down on the already crippled cruiser and her two destroyers. A little later a, large enemy destroyer appeared ahead, and almost immediately afterwards two other cruisers and more destrovers came in view. The engineering staff managed partially to repair the boilers and the Exeter, at 26 knots, with the Pope and Encounter on each side, steamed into action. The cruiser had only 20 per cent, of her main armament and ammunition •remaining after the previous battle. The destroyers tried to ward off the enemy by firing torpedoes and by screening the Exeter with smoke. One enemy cruiser was hit by a torpedo from the Pope and other ships were hit by gunfire from all three Allied vessels. One enemy destroyer dropped out of iine, but the end was not far off. The Exeter received a vital hit in “A” boiler room. The main engines stopped and all power in the ship failed. She was being straddled and hit by the enemy cruisers, and orders were given to sink her and abandon ship. She sank about 11.50 a.m. The Encounter was sunk shortly afterwards, but the Pope remained at hand until the end and managed to escape in a rain squall, only to be sunk an hour later following an attack by Japanese bombers. H.M.S. Exeter took'part in the first naval action of the war, the battle of the River Plate, in December, 1939. The New Zealand cruiser Achilles and the cruiser Ajax also were in this engagement. AMERY UNLIKELY TO BE EXECUTED LONDON, December 2. The execution of John Amery has been provisionally fixed for December 19, but the execution may not take place, because Amery is in. the last stages of tuberculosis. It is not customary in Britain to execute a dying man, and prison doctors confirm that the disease has so developed that Amery’s life can be measured by months. The Home Secretary reviews every death sentence and it is within his province to advise the Kirtg to reprieve. even without a petition or outside pressure. It is reported that the doctors ’ limit Amery’s life to nine months at the most. Indian Congress Election Candidate. —Reuter’s Bombay correspondent says that the All-India Congress Party has decided to invite Captain Nawaz Khan, one oi the three officers of the Indian National Army now being tried before a court-martial in New Delhi, to contest the election in the Punjab.for the Provincial Assembly. The Congress working committee will consider this and other nominations from the Indian ’National Army.—London, December 2.