Back In British Hands

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 60, 8 September 1945, Page 7

Back In British Hands

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LONDON, September 7

The Royal Navy has resumed possession, of the Singapore naval base, two days after Admiral Mountbatten's troops began to go ashore on Singapore Island.

The British naval party found the Japanese navy in command at the base. They had used at least part of it since British demolition squads left it three and a half years ago, and latterly SuperFortresses had attacked it frequently.

There was one hitch in the Japanese surrender plans: the Japaiir ese navy refused, as usual, to take orders from the Japanese army so they are having to get their instructions direct from the British naval authorities.

The occupation of the naval base is only one instance of the speed of the taking over. The civil police are extending their control in Singapore, helped by British troops.

Japanese guards, armed with picks and shovels, are clearing up the streets and filling thousands of trenches the Japanese had dug against air-raids. Civilians can move almost anywhere in Singapore Island, and the railways are to begin working soon. In some parts not yet reached the Japanese are still doing guard duty, but the main forces remaining are being concentrated in three areas. They are proving co-operative. They left their dumps of ammunition and their stores. of clothes and medicine untouched. Planes were left standing on the airfield. ' , . Many of the Japanese have already gone from Singapore Island back across the famous causeway which British troops blew up in the retreat of 1942. Only one division has been allowed for ■the time being to keep its rifles. ■ A company of Indian troops has already crossed the causeway to the mainland of Malaya.

A correspondent visited the Japanese headquarters. Japanese officers, with rifles and swords, received him with stern looks, and after a wait he was ushered in to see a Japanese staff colonel. The colonel, through an interpreter, said the Japanese troops had heard all about the atomic bomb. He personally regretted that they were not allowed to make a fight for Singapore, but, like good Japanese soldiers;, he said, they were doing what the Emperor had ordered, and surrendering. Major-General E. C. Mansergh, interim military administrator of Singapore, said that forced Japanese labour parties were being put to work immediately. "I want the public and prisoners of war especially to see the Japanese filling trenches and holes under Japanese officers," he said. "Loot which the Japanese took to Johore will be brought back."