SAFE IN SUMATRA

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20825, 2 July 1942, Page 5

SAFE IN SUMATRA

ALLIED NAVAL MEN JAVA SEA VICTIMS BROADCAST MESSAGE (By Telegraph—Press Assn .--Copyright.) (N.Z.E.F. Official War Correspondent.) (3 p.m.) SYDNEY, July 1. Survivors from the Australian cruiser Perth and from the American cruiser Houston, which were sunk in the Java Sea Battle, are prisoners of war at Serang, Sumatra. This was stated in a broadcast from a Japanese-controlled station by an Australian, Mr. Rohan Rivett, a son of Sir David and Lady Rivett, of Melbourne. Japanese sailors from a destroyer which picked up about 300 survivors from the Perth paid a tribute to the wonderful fight put up by both the Perth and the Houston, said Mr. Rivett. About 10,000 prisoners, mostly Americans and Australians, recently had been moved from Serang to Batavia. Many had been sick, but most of. them had now been completely restored to health. Mr. Rivett was one of a number of Australians who escaped from Singapore and found their way to Java, where the natives took them prisoners and handed them over to the Japanese then in possession of the island. The Japanese allowed the prisoners to hold classes in various subjects to keep them occupied, he said. The cruiser Perth was for some time on the Mediterranean station and evacuated hundreds of New Zealanders from Crete to Egypt,....