Bennett’s Escape Not Justified, Judge Finds

Northern Advocate, 5 January 1946, Page 5

Bennett’s Escape Not Justified, Judge Finds

SYDNEY. Jan. 4

Having regard to the terms of the capitulation, Lieutenant-General Gordon Bennett was not justified in relinquishing the command of the Australian Division and leaving Singapore. This finding was given by Mr Justice Ligertwood in his report to the Commonwelath Government.

His Honor said he thought General Bennett’s duty was to have remained in command of thfr A.I.F. until the surrender was complete. Other findings were:

At the time General Bennett left Singapore he was not a prisoner of war in the sense of being a soldier who was under a duty to escape.

He was in the position of a soldier whose commanding officer had agreed to surrender him and to submit him to directions which woidd have made him a prisoner of war. NO PERMISSION Mr Justice Ligertwood said that in relinquishing his command and leaving Singapore, General Bennett did not have the permission of any competent authority who could give him such permission. The British general officer commanding (Lieutenant-General A. E. Percival) could not do so because he signed the capitulation, under which he had agreed that General Bennett, as one of the troops under his command, would be surrendered. Even the Australian Government could not have given him such permission. because it was within the competence of General Percival to agree that General Bennett, as one of such troops, would be surrendered, and the capitulation bound the Australian Government as much as it did General Percival. NO REFLECTION ON COURAGE Discussing General Bennett’s reasons and motives for leaving Singapore, some of the judge's findings were:— "(1) He genuinely believed Australia was in peril and that it was of vital importance to the safety of the country that he should return to take a leading part in its defence. “<2) He genuinely, but in nay opinion mistakenly, believed that immediately upon the cessation of hostilities the whole of the British forces on Singapore Island had been surrendered to the Japanese, and that he was a prisoner of war under duty to escape if he could.

"The escape was a hazardous enterprise. and involved no reflection on General Bennett’s personal courage.”