THRONGED STREETS

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 61, 10 September 1945, Page 5

THRONGED STREETS

SINGAPORE CELEBRATIONS

LONDON, September 8

"Face-conscious Singapore savoured the full flavour of victory as the city's once-arrogant Japanese masters were ordered into pick-and-shovel parties and the guns of a British destroyer ruled single-handed over the hulks of two Japanese cruisers which were battered in the battle of the Coral Sea," says a correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain. The British avowedly intend to impress the population with the fact that ihe Japanese are under-dogs now and henceforth.

Looting, which is. believed to have been encouraged by the departing Japanese, is the most acute problem at present. The people of Singapore for the first time really celebrated their liberation last night when thousands of Chinese and Malays thronged the streets, in which flags flew from every window, says the Exchange Telegraph agency's correspondent. Some of the biggest signs read "God Bless the Allies" and "Three Cheers for the British."

Chinese erected an effigy of General Itagaki hanging from a gallows bearing the sign, "I do not know what surrender means." .

CURRENCY CHANGE-OVER

Singapore's business life is at present chaotic because of the changeover from Japanese invasion currency to the Singapore dollar, and all buying and selling is practically at a standstill. Shopkeepers are holding their stocks because the buyers have only spurious Japanese notes as a means of exchange.

British Ministry of Supply experts have ordered a round-up of all available stocks of Malayan latex for immediate shipment to the Allies. Preliminary investigations indicate that the Japanese cut away thousands of acres of rubber trees to make way for military roads and production of food.

Singapore naval base should be fully operational within a few weeks, says Reuters correspondent. Apart from the damage by Allied bombing, the equipment is in good condition. All Japanese warships have been formally handed over, but their diminished crews are remaining aboard. At present only one ship, the destroyer Kamikaze, is in operational condition. Two 10,000-ton cruisers, the Takao and Myoko, have damaged sterns.

British forces have moved into Johore behind the withdrawing Japanese. The enemy has been allowed to keep some weapons for self-defence against guerrillas.

Admiral Mountbatten has issued a proclamation taking away Siam's wartime territorial gains. He named territories which formed part of Malaya and which were granted by the Japanese to Siam including the four northern unfederated States —Kcdah, Kelatan, Trenggnnu, and Perak.