ATROCITIES IN SIAM

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 79, 1 October 1945, Page 7

ATROCITIES IN SIAM

IDENTIFICATIONS BY FORMER

PRISONERS

NEW YORK, September 29

More than 30 Japanese officers on the administration staff of prison camps in Siam were identified yesterday as perpetrators of atrocities or as responsible for maladministration resulting in thousands of deaths of British, Australian, and Dutch persons. Former prisoners made the identification. In the first sifting, arrested suspects among whom were 50 Japanese held near Bangkok, were viewed in a lineup by six selected groups of prisoners. The accusations ranged from withholding food and medical supplies to actual killings. Three lists were drawn up during the screening, a black list for definite charges, a white list for those identified as consistently humane and helpful to prisoners, and a third list for unidentified persons ,or against whom there were no specific charges. Major R. C Leming, a former prisoner who before the war was a judge of the Siamese Court of Appeals, is now directing the screening procedure. He said that only those against whom there were probable charges would be detained. Former prisoners would remain at Bangkok to testify at the trials. The British War Secretary, Mr. Lawson, speaking at a Press conference in Singapore, said that Britain would see justice meted out to Japanese war criminals, "even if they were of the most exalted status." "Though I have heard a good deal about the cruelties practised,'.1 he said, "the facts come as a shock when you meet the persons concerned." Punishment of the guilty would be as expeditious as possible.