UNDER DURESS?

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20862, 14 August 1942, Page 3

UNDER DURESS?

TOKIO BROADCASTS CAPTIVE AUSTRALIAN WIFE RECOGNISES VOICE (Special Australian Correspondent.) (9.30 a.m.) SYDNEY, Aug. 14. A former Sydney radio announcer, who was taken prisoner after the fighting in Malaya, is believed to be broadcasting English news commentaries from Tokio. He is Captain Charles Cousens, formerly chief announcer at station 2GB, Sydney. Military investigators believe that the broadcasts are being made under duress. Mrs. Cousens has identified the voice as that of her husband, and the identification had been confirmed by other investigators. She describes the broadcasts as “terrible and tragic.” Former broadcasting associates of Captain Cousens describe his voice as “colourless, fiat and sick,” and quite different from his normal broadcasting voice. They believe that he has been tortured or confronted with evidence of Japanese atrocities and, hoping that he might be able to ease the lot of his fellow prisoners, has at last consented to go on the air. Captain Cousens, -who comes from an English military family, was a graduate of Sandhurst Military College and saw service in Khyber Pass, where he was decorated. His father holds the rank of colonel. One brother is interned in Turkey, another is missing after Royal Air Force operations, and a third is on service in Abyssinia. The Minister of Information, Mr. W. D. Ashley, said that investigations had indicated that Captain Cousens was broadcasting direct from Tokio. Investigators were of the opinion that the broadcasts were being made under duress. His voice had been heard on the air several times during the past fortnight at 9.15 p.m. New Zealand time and again at 12.15 a.m.