JAPS IN MALAYA

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 74, 25 September 1945, Page 7

JAPS IN MALAYA

TO BE DUMPED ON LONELY ISLANDS

LONDON, September 23. General Dempsey, commander of the 14th Army, proposes to evacuate 80,000 Japanese from Malaya to lonely islands, mostly uninhabited, where they will be marooned, probably for at least two years, says the "Daily Mail's" Singapore correspondent. General Dempsey said in an interview: "The first job I tackled was the means of getting rid of these people altogether from Malaya. I have just completed plans for shipping the whole bally lot to the Rhio group of Dutch islands south of Singapore. They will be dumped on the beaches and left there. I am allowing them 16oz of rice a day, which should reduce their waist-lines a little.

"The Japanese will be able to start a brave new world for themselves, but will be unable to harm anyone outside. They will be completely marooned, without an army, money, or any of the loot they took into the concentration areas from Singapore. I am giving them shovels, gardening tools, and vegetable seeds. They can dig or starve. Each month we will dump their rice ration on the beaches."

The work of transhipping the Japanese to the islands will begin almost immediately in sampans.