OFFICER HELD CAPTIVE

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 228, 25 August 1945, Page 5

OFFICER HELD CAPTIVE

ALLIES DEMAND RELEASE.

(Rec. 9.30 a.m.) RANGOON, Aug. 24 Four Spitfires flew low over Japanese headquarters near Shwegyin at dawn on Monday and dropped leaflets ordering the Japanese to release a Britisli officer whom they Had captured on Sunday, says the Associated Press special correspondent m a delayed despatch. The omcer, who was a member of the guerrillas, visited the Japanese headquarters on his own initiative to try to, arrange a surrender and was promptly taken prisoner. The rest of the party, waiting at a distance, saw tho officer disappear in the direction of the Japanese After the officer failed to return they signalled their headquarters on a portable radio. Leaflets were immediately printed, ordering the instant ielease of the officer unharmed. General Terauchi in a message to Delhi broadcast by the Saigon radio announced that the Japanese surrender envoy General Numata, Chict-ot-Start of the Japanese forces in the southern region will land on Mingaladon airfield, 'Rangoon, on Sunday. Ims is much later than Admiral Mountbatteu named. The Chief-of-Staff of the SouthEast Asia Command (General Browning) is likely to take Numata s surrender.