Island fortress now a resort

Press, 26 February 1980, Page 19

Island fortress now a resort

By

NAYLOR HILLARY,

of ‘■‘The Press” editorial stall’ |

Half a kilometre offshore from the business hear*, of Singapore, along the island’s southern waterfront, lies the island of Sentosa. In Malay the name means tranquillity and the hillocky little island remained for many years an undisturbed haven of sunny beaches and shallow lagoons. But Sentosa could not escape its vital location close to the centre of the booming city. To defend Singapore from the sea the British Navy built forts and installed guns there. When the Japanese invaded Singapore from the north, from the Malay peninsula in 1941, the guns on Sentosa, pointing out to sea against an enemy that never came,

hardly had a chance to fire a shot in anger before Singapore was overrun. Today Fort ’ Siloso, at the western end of Sentosa Island, still has many of the concrete bunkers and gun platforms built 50 years ago. Some of the old naval guns are still in place. Others, including guns captured from the Japanese and a'2s-pounder of the type once very familiar to New Zealand soldiers, have been installed round the fort. For Siloso, on tranquil Sentosa, has become an outdoor artillery museum where visitors can scramble oyer the guns and the ammunition stores, the direction-find-ing towers and the deep command bunkers, all _in the shimmering sunshine of a tropical holiday island.

Ten years ago the Singapore Government set out to develop Sentosa as a resort — for its own citizens as well as tourists. It has become a favourite place to get away from the traffic and noise, and crowds of people, in central Singapore city. Sentosa now offers such sports as golf, canoeing,

swimming and skating. Visitors can stay in comfortable resort chalets or camp under the trees be* side the South China Sea. As well as the fort Sentosa also boasts a maritime museum with a varied collection of native craf-t', displays of thes

workings of the modern port of Singapore, and samples of the gear — ancient and modern — used by fishermen round Singapore and the Malay Peninsula. Getting to Sentosa is almost as much fun as being there. Open ferry

boats run from Jardine Steps, on the main Singapore waterfront, across to -the island, skirting the fabulous range of ships tied up in Keppel Harbour or lying off-shore being unloaded by lighters. Alternatively, visitors can take the spectacular

cable car which runs from Mt Faber on Singapore Island, passes through a tower station on the waterfront, and swings ou*J 70 metres above the inner harbour .to the Sentosa terminus. For those who remember the grim days of the Second World War when Singapore was occupied by the Japanese for three years and a half, Sentosa has a special attraction. In the old military headquarters near the fort and the guns, life-size wax figures re-enact the signing of the surrender of the Japanese occupation troops to the British on September 12, 1945. The original ceremony took place in the Singapore City Hall about three kilometres away in the centre of the city. On Sentosa 27 figures, including Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander in South-East Asia, and General Itagaki, leader of the Japanese surrender delegation, show that historic occasion. Visitors are given a taped commentary on the event in several languages, including English. It makes a solemn intrusion into life on 289 hectares of green tropical island where monkeys and squirrels still play in small patches of jungle, and where visitors, whether they have come for an hour or for several days, can enjoy -the relaxed life of pampered castaways.