OVER 100,000 MEN ASHORE Rec. 11.45 a.m. SINGAPORE, Sept. 12.

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 64, 13 September 1945, Page 7

OVER 100,000 MEN ASHORE Rec. 11.45 a.m. SINGAPORE, Sept. 12.

More than 100,000 Allied troops have been landed at Singapore, Admiral Mountbatten disclosed at the ceremony at which he accepted the formal surrender of the Japanese forces in South-east Asia.

Admiral Mountbatten read an Order of the Day in which he said that civil governments will be established in the French and Dutch colonies as soon as possible. Referring to Japanese prisoners, Admiral Mountbatten said that many of them had little desire to continue the fight and were only too thankful it was over. This kind of prisoner must be treated humanely.

"I will not tolerate any case of taking it out on tlie Japanese if they are prepared to be co-operative," he said. "It may even be necessary to protect them, perhaps by separating1 them from fanatics among their own countrymen. It is possible that there will be hopeless cases who will commit suicide if they are prevented from behaving arrogantly and insultingly, because these are people who probably can never be re-educated,"

Admiral Mountbatten disclosed that the invasion of Singapore, known as Operation Zipper, had been scheduled to occur on September 9. The recent landings were carried out as bloodless exercises at approximately the same points north-west of the city where invasion was intended. The defences were found to be almost negligible, consisting of a single barbed-wire fence and a few emplacements. "We could have gone ashore with half a dozen casualties," he said. "The original invasion plans called for seven divisions, and also paratroops and commandos, under a naval bombardment."