GRUESOME STORY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXIII, Issue 22, 24 December 1942, Page 5

GRUESOME STORY

FIENDISH JAP. CRUELTY,

ANOTHER HELL SHIP. NEW YORK, Dec. 22. The Japanese left hundreds of prisoners of war from Hong Kong to drown when a prison ship which was bound for Shanghai was torpedoed off the China coast. Several Japanese ships cruised round the doomed vessel machinegunning the prisoners as they jumped overboard. The gruesome story has been related by survivors to a United Press correspondent in China, Mr R. Martin. "The identity of the survivors cannot be revealed," says the correspondent, "but the accuracy of their story is unquestionable. "Aboard the prison ship were 1500 British and Canadian prisoners of war, ragged, diseased, and starving after nine months in close confinement in Hong Kong, where appalling sanitary, medical, and food conditions prevailed, causing many deaths and rendering hundreds almost walking skeletons. All the prisoners were placed below decks with barely room to lie down. Nevertheless, they brightened up because the food that was served on the first day was better than at Hong Kong. On the second day they heard shouting on the deck. The ship shuddered, but continued to move. s -

"Then the nightmare began. The Japanese closed all the hatches and covered them with tarpaulins, leaving no air inlets. Hour by hour the hold became more unbearable and several men died. On the next morning the ship seemed to be settling, and there was no sound on deck. The stronger of the men succeeded in forcing a hatch, and they discovered that the prison ship was being towed but that no Japanese were left on board.

SHIP FOUNDERS. "The the Japaneso cast off the tow line and the prison ship lurched and foundered. The prisoners, though they lacked lifebelts, jumped overboard amid machine-gun fire from several Japaneso vessels. Some of the vessels continued to fire at: the swimming prisoners, many of whom -were so weak that they were drowned immediately. The Japanese picked up some of tiie prisoners, but did not lower boats, and consequently only a few hundred were rescued. "Other survivors swam ashore, where Chinese fishermen fed and clothed them. After biding for several days because puppet troops were searching for thorn, small groups began a long trek to reach Free China." The Chungking correspondent of the Associated Press of America says that the British Embassy there has released the story of the experiences of Warrant-Officers J. C. Fallance, W. C. Johnstone, and A. J. W. Evans, of the British-American Tobacco Company, who said that they and British naval and military officers of the Hong Kong garrison were crammed into the hold without provision for the sick, though many of the prisoners were suffering from dvsentery, beriberi, and diphtheria. The ship left Hong Kong on September 29 and was torpedoed on October 1. They corroborated the United Press story.

After being in the water for three hours Fallanco, Johnston, and Evans were picked up by a Chinese fisherman who landed them on an island. Altogether, 200 prisoners reached the island, but on the next morning a Japanese destroyer appeared and forced the majority to surrender. The trio hid successfully and eventually reached Free China. They are now on their way to- India. The British Embassy in Chungking quoted a Japanese news dispatch from Hong Kong indicating that more than half of the 1816 English and Canadian prisoners aboard the prison transport .went down with the ship, and that 900 survivors were taken to Moji, in South-Western Japan.