TASK COMPLETED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21852, 24 October 1945, Page 7

TASK COMPLETED

R.N.Z.A.F._DAKOTAS SINGAPORE SERVICE PRISONER EVACUATION (P.A.) AUCKLAND, Oct. 24. The last of the R.N.Z.A.F. Douglas Dakota transport aircraft used to evacuate released internees and prisoners of war from Singapore arrived at Auckland yesterday This was the twelfth flight made to New Zealand since the first plane reached Malaya on September .12, and in the intervening period of about six weeks 158 former prisoners of the Japanese have been flown safely back to their families. The R.N.Z.A.F. personnel who were sent to Singapore to organise the evacuation of internees and prisoners have all been withdrawn. However, an army contact team is still in Malaya to continue such uncompleted tasks as the registration of graves and the listing of dead. This team is working in Malaya, Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Burma, Siam and Indo-China. The only New Zealand internees or prisoners known to be left in the area (from which .the R.N.Z.A.F. drew its passengers for the flights to New Zealand are the very few who desire to stay there for private reasons. They will be brought back by sea when they wish to come. 130,000 Miles of Air Travel By evacuating 158 New Zealanders or the husbands of New Zealanders, the R.N.Z.A.F. has completed a task whose merit cannot be measured by the number of persons rescued. The magnitude of the job is only partly indicated by the fact that it has involved about 130,000 miles of air travel and by the obvious difficulties entailed in finding internees and prisoners who were scattered among the number of camps in .the wide area. In addition to the flights between New Zealand and Singapore, the R.N.Z.A.F. made one trip to Java and one to Bangkok to bring back to Singapore any New Zealanders who had been imprisoned there. At Singapore the R.N.Z.A.F. used a house belonging to a Chinese millionaire, constituting it, as "New Zealand House,” into quarters and mess not only for air force personnel but also for released internees and prisoners. As many of these as possible were accommodated there and all received their meals in its mess, as many as 80 being fed in one day on rations which had been .taken from New Zealand and on food obtained locally. Stores Handed Over Before it withdrew from Singapore .the R.N.Z.A.F. group handed over to recognisated organisations the remainder of its stores of food, clothing and medical supplies. These will be used for the benefit of released prisoners of other nations who have not yet been evacuated. The 12 passenger flights to New Zealand were accomplished without an accident. The only mishaps recorded during the rescue operation were to the first two aircraft which were sent from New Zealand. While they were on the landing field at Morotai, in the Moluccas, during the flight to Singapore they were both hit bv an American aircraft which got out of control while it was being landed. From these two damaged Dakotas one machine has now been made airworthy and will be flown back to New Zealand at the first opportunity. The wreckage of the second plane will be stripped of all the remaining spare parts which can be salvaged. _____