BISHOP'S ORDEAL

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 74, 25 September 1945, Page 9

BISHOP'S ORDEAL

CHANGI CAMP STORY

SURVIVOR IN WELLINGTON

Tortured by the Japanese Gestapo for 12 months in an endeavour to make him reveal the source of a consitterable sum of money smuggled to mm in Changi Camp, Singapore, for prisoner relief, the Bishop of Singapore came triumphantly through his ordeal and when liberated by Admiral Mountbatten's forces had still n°t i *>etra^^ the sympathisers outside the camp who had supplied the funds. his story was told in Wellington by a former internee in the same camp,, mi. E. J. Leahy, a former engineer in a Malayan tin concession, who is now recuperating with relatives in tne city. When a sudden raid Avas made on the camp by Japanese Gestapo men who suspected the presence ot .Dptn the money and three radio. receiving sets, owing to information given them by spies in the camp, the Bishop had in his possession 160,000 Mrlayan dollars smuggled in to him, and /200.0UU dollars of » amp funds which- were^o have been distributed among the 4UUU internees the next day to enable them to buy food. He was among 50 or bu internees, including a few women, wno were whisked from the camp in the surprise raid and taken into bmg^ pore for interrogation. Less than nail of these people survived the ordeal ot torture, which in some cases extended over the next 12 months. Hauled from their beds at daybreak, the prisoners expected ]ust another routine roll-call, which the Japanese were in the habit of having at irregular intervals, but when they saw, mixed among the soldiers, the motleygarbed Japanese they had learned to recognise as Gestapo men, they realised that something more serious was afoot. They later found that the Japanese had machine-guns trained on the compound and a force pf troops outside in case their actions led the prisoners to mutiny. . That they were well served with information from spies inside the camp was proved by the fact that they immediately called out between 50 and 60 names, including the Bishop and at least one of the men who had been disseminating news received through a cunningly-concealed radio receiver. It; was later learned that the Japanese were afraid that the prisoners also had transmitters, although actually their resources never extended so far. TWELVE MONTHS OF TORTURE.

"The camp pool was one of over 300,000 Malay dollars," said Mr. Leahy, "mainly smuggled into the camp by Chinese sympathisers, despite the considerable risks they took in doing so. The Japanese took this and the Bishop with it, and we who were left in the camp didn't know what had happened to him for 12 months. We found afterwards, however, that they had inflicted upon him all the atrocity and torture he could stand over a period of 12 months. He put up a marvellous performance, and they got nothing from him about the source of the money. If they had it would have meant a mass lopping of heads among the Chinese, who had behaved very well toward the British. .'.. . "The Bishop came through it all, but he is a very sick man today, suffering from the after-effects of his treatment. He's a regular happy-go-lucky chap and he reckons he'll be all right. He s getting his weight back now." Of the other men who were removed from the camp, one had a radio receiver Which he had concealed in a stool he carried about with him all the time. Two or three days later he came back under escort and silently pointed to his stool which had been left behind. He was then taken away again. * * ~-,.•■, _> Meantime the Japanese had divided all the other prisoners into sections and conducted an intensive search of the three V.oors of the Changi Camp building, constructed for 600 and now holding! 4000 people. Their search was most thorough and ruthless, and they seized all papers and carted away lorry loads of material which seemed in the least suspicious. During the whole of the rest of their internment the remaining prisoners saw the selected men come back to camp one by one, mainly to die of the effects of their treatment and "interrogation," Sometimes the enemy miscalculated their endurance and the men died before they could be shipped back to the Sime Road camp, to Avhich the civilian internees had been transferred to make room for 12,000 service prisoners at Changi; At least 50 per cent, of the men taken away did not survive their treatment in the Gestapo interrogation cells in Singapore, and most of the leading men of the camp, including Mr. Fraser, assistant to Sir Shenton Thomas, died. Others who did return to the crowded hospitals at the camp refused to talk of their experiences, having apparently been threatened with punishment if they did so, but it was later learned that they had suffered indescribable tortures. Two were still under "interrogation" when the capitulation came. The crowning irony of the affair of the confiscated money came after the capitulation when the whole amount now valueless because of inflation, was returned by the Japanese. CONDITIONS DETERIORATE. Meantime, in the Sime Road Camp bashings increased and the internees, who had not previously had to work, were given a ration cut and told that they must grow vegetables, using their own money to buy garden tools. Workers got a meagre ration. Non-workers, including all the old men, got only half of this amount, and beriberi, pellagra, and dysentery were rife; the 150 doctors in the camp could do very little without supplies and although the Japanese were known to have quantities of medical stores they refused to release any. British internees were placed in charge of various sections of the camp and work, and had the painful duty of cutting their fellows' rations when they were too ill for work, because it was never known when a Jap checkup would be made. Then the call came for strong men to "volunteer" for tunnelling and road work on either side of the camp, obviously for defence purposes. "Volunteering" in Japanese idiom always had the unspoken threat "or else!" tacked on to the end of the request, but these men did receive an extra 200 grammes (about 7oz) of rice and tapioca, more ■ than the total ration of the other prisoners. They got other little indtice- ; ments to good work, such as extra tobacco if they could pay for it, and a . little food oil that the ordinary gardening worker did not yet. They still got bashed, however. Then came August 15 of this year, [ when after a pretty little speech by [ the Japanese the prisoners were given double rations. Rumours had been flying about, as is the way in all prison camps, and the internees had heard that Germany had capitulated but were not sure. Then the commanding general of the Singapore camps made another pretty little speech to the effect that the Japanese 3 did not want to be too unfriendly to j the British and Americans, and that ! there was a chance of coming to ! terms. He emphasised, however, what . a powerful nation Japan was, and 1 seemed to be trying to give the lm- . pression that it was Japan that had ? won the war. ; NO CELEBRATION. n The prisoners listened blank-faced. > They had gone through so much that I they were not going to take the risk y in the last few weeks of their durance I to fray Japanese tempers to the point where they might run amok. So there ii were no cheers and no grins. Less t terrible insults to the Japanese than a broad grin had merited unmerciful f beatings—hospital case beatings— ? before now. i, Two paratroopers dropped into the !, camp and took, over its running, ;, leaving the guards armed and telling »• the prisoners to give them no provocation. Soon after that the .rush of - supplies started. Food, clothing, and i. medical comforts were rushed into the c camp in every conceivable way and !- for the first time since nearly 1942 the ** internees saw meat and other incred- : ible luxuries. The first supplies to d arrive were a pound and a halt ol butter each, and it was eaten before anything arrived to spread it on. An issue of -a pound of cheese went the y same way, and 4000 men and women „ started in to eat in an effort to nd I themselves of three and a half years 8 of hunger. Weight increased speedily , -Mr Leahy at Bst is now three more • ctrvnp r>n tlie way to his normal 15— [ r Ind jaded spiS rose with a rush. - Sailors on H.M.S. Sussex went with- •: fStheir bread to bake specurt supplies for the camp, and Lady J. nomas

hoisted the Union Jack as the Rising Sun came sullenly down after nearly four years of the oppression it stood for. CHINESE LOYALTY. "I should like to congratulate the native population of Singapore, and particularly the Chinese, for their attitude during- the occupation," said Mr. Leahy. "The Chinese and the others took considerable risks to alleviate our suffering. There is no record of the numbers who were murdered for giving this help, but it runs into thousands, and still they did it. They would give us anything they could in the way of food or news, despite the fact that they were strictly rationed themselves, and would rarely accept any payment for it.. The good they did is inestimable, and I think some special recognition should be made of their work when the people congregate in Singapore again." The attitude of some of the Indians, however, was not so good, Mr. Leahy said. They were forced into service as guards from the ranks of the police and other organisations, and turned out about fifty-fifty in their behaviour. Some did as much for the prisoners as was possible Under the eyes of the "Japanese, while others were only top eager to carry out, and even exceed, the most brutal orders.