REFUSAL TO RETURN

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 August 1946, Page 8

REFUSAL TO RETURN

REPATRIATION OF UNWILLING KOREANS

NEW ZEALAND GUARD rOFTICtAL NTWS SERVICE]

SENZAKI, August 2.

To safeguard a Japanese crew from attack by 2500 Koreans who are being repatriated against their wish from Japan to Korea, a heavily armed New Zealand guard of 18 men and one officer to-day left Senzaki by a Liberty ship for Korea. The Koreans are all men and women, who, after previous repatriation, were smuggled into Japan by small Japanese fishing craft. Reluctant . to return to their povertystricken country, the Koreans made Ugly threats.of violence and mutiny against the Japanese crew of the repatriation ship. The 19 men, who have been assigned as guards, will be the first New Zealand troops to visit Korea. The crossing to Pusan, the port where the Koreans will be landed, will take 12 hours. For several months the smuggling of repatriated Koreans has been increasing, until now it is estimated that several thousand of them leave Korea for Japan every week. Many of the small smugglers’ craft are arrested. The captains are tried in the civil court, their boats are confiscated and their unlawful passengers returned to Korea. The usual price for the crossing is 1000 yen per person, equal to £2l- in New Zealand currency. Many Koreans are arrested as they come ashore, and many more as they make their way inland.

The main duties of the company from the 22nd Battalion stationed at Senzaki is the repatriation “processing” of incoming Japanese prisoner/ of War and civilians and of Koreans returning to Korea. Occasionally, too, they are responsible for sea and land patrols sent out to capture smuggled goods and smuggled Koreans. This New' Zealand company of 90 men is commanded by Major L. W. Wright, of Napier. The accommodation for those detailed as guards.on the Liberty ship is first-class. 8.C.0.F. rations will be cooked by a New Zealand cook because of cholera in Korea. No leave will be allowed at Pusan. _ Members of the guard are armed with Bren guns, tommy-guns and rifles, but with the New Zealanders aboard it is not expected that there will be any trouble between the Koreans and the Japanese.