War memories too much

Press, 17 January 1986, Page 6

War memories too much

NZPA-AAP Sydney A Sydney councillor has resigned because his council jtas agreed to enter discussions on sponsoring a Japanese town as its sister city. Councillor Rowley MacMahon, aged 67, of the Hawkesbury Shire Council, was a prisoner of the Japanese during World War n. He said yesterday he was not a racist, but he considered the council’s decision a personal affront. “I’ve seen my mates murdered in front of my eyes

and all sorts of atrocities committed on fellow prisoners and women,” Mr MacMahon said.

“The words ‘Lest we forget’ have a deep and profound meaning for me and to many thousands of others,” he said.

Mr MacMahon served with the Eighth Division of the Australian Army, which was ordered to lay down its arms in Singapore by the British High Command and became prisoners of war in 1942. The council had voted to

meet a delegation from the Japanese town of Tamba, 400 km south of Tokyo, and discuss the possibilty of a sister-city agreement Mr MacMahon said his resignation was a “solid and meaningful” protest against the council, because it was spending ratepayers funds inappropriately. “They should be spending money on roadworks and other important things instead of an arrangement like this which will have no particular benefit to the ratepayers,” he

The president of Hawkesbury Shire Council, Councillor Geoff Michael, said the matter was “simply one of a councillor resigning over a matter he didn’t agree with.”

“A lot of people have been prisoners of war but not everyone dwells on it,” he said.

“We should be forgiving and forgetting, not thinking about things that happened 40 to 45 years ago, Mr Michael said.