LUCKY PRISONERS

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 306, 25 September 1945, Page 7

LUCKY PRISONERS

Special Siamese Camp In

Bangkok

(R.N.Z.A.F. Official War Correspondent). SOUTH-EAST ASIA AREA, Sept. 23. Warrant Officer L. A. Barr, of 64 Prices Stareet. Onehunga, Auckland, was one of 32 of the luckiest prisoners in the Japanese war. He lived in a special camp in Bangkok guarded only by Siamese soldiers.

The existence of the camp was not widely known, and. though the Japanese tried often to get the prisoners into their hands, the Siamese refused. So long as the prisoners were discreet in their movements they were allowed considerable latitude. They often crawled through a fence into the British civilian internment camo and enjoyed dancing, concerts and quiz programmes. They played cricket every Sunday. The food was ample. The Siamese authorities held prisoners who came directly into their hands, mainly aircrews shot down when bombing railway targets and oilier Japanese supply lines. Warrant Officer Barr was the pilot of an R.A.F. Liberator shot down while attacking the Bangkok-Chiengmai railway line last October.! He and four others bailed out from the aircraft and were quickly put under guard by civil police. Japanese soldiers arrived with a demand that they be handed over: but while the Siamese police were objecting to this, another R.A.F. bomber came over and the Japanese scattered.

The Siamese hid the prisoners in houses and then smuggled them 350 miles to Bangkok, where they were taken to military headquarters and (lien interned. The Japanese objected, and when more R.A.F. prisoners arrived the Siamese put them in a separate compound next to the civilians, who looked after them very well indeed. They were sent a bottle of rum and a bottle of brandy by Australians, and so long as they did it surreptitiously they were able to visit the civilians every night. Tin’ Siamese consideration was never abused by attempts to go into Bangkok itself, since the prisoners would then have been seized by the Japanese. Prisoners needing medical attention wore taken to Um fully-equipped Bangkok hospital.