WATER SUPPLY CUT OFF

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 16 February 1942, Page 5

WATER SUPPLY CUT OFF

TOKIO RADIO ANNOUNCEMENT

(Rec. I 1.35 a.m.) New York, Feb. 1 5. Tokio radio states that Japanese headquarters announced that terms were signed for the cessation of hostilities in Singapore on Sunday at 10 p.m. Singapore time. The signing took place at the Ford motor plant at the foot of Bukit Timah hill. The signatures were affixed for Japan by Lieutenant General Yamashita and for the British by Lieutenant-General Percival. The announcement added that the British unconditionally accepted the Japanese terms for the surrender of Singapore at 7.50 p.m. on Sunday, Singapore time. The Domei News Agency stated that the British officer who brought the offer of surrender to Japanese headquarters was a member of the General Staff, Major Wilde. The radio stated that the British offered to surrender after the Japanese had occupied and cut off the city’s water reservoirs, thus leaving the British soldiers and the huge population without means to quench their thirst. Japanese Imperial headquarters claimed that 32 Allied warships and transports were sunk or damaged south of Singapore last week. London, Feb. 14

The Malayan Broadcasting Corporation reported at 5 p.m. on Saturday as follows: "The battle for Singapore raged this morning with undiminished fury. Our troops made counter-attacks and at least at one point succeeded in establishing a new line. This successful action was preceded by a heavy artillery bombardment which knocked out the Japanese positions. The reservoirs are still in our hands. On the east of the island, in the Changi area, our positions are intact and there is heavy artillery fire. "The Johore causeway remains under the fire of our guns. It was rendered impassable on Friday. The Japanese claim that their sappers partly repaired the causeway last night, but it was again under fire this morning, and it believed to have been breached again. There were eight Japanese air raids on the city in the past 24 hours." Tokio radio on Saturday night said the British troops in Singapore were still fiercely resisting. The bulk of the defenders consisted of the fifth British Brigade and the Eleventh Australian Division. The British were carrying out a scorched earth policy, setting tire to some of the most important positions on the island. Tokio radio earlier announced that the British fire breached the Johore causeway for the second time, but that Japanese engineers had repaired it. and Japanese tanks were now crossing the causeway to the island. The radio claimed that the Japanese had made further progress in bitter street fighting after occupying the railway and capturing the Governor-General’s headquarters and other administrative buildings. Japanese armoured units, it said, penetrated the enemy positions 1£ miles north-west of the city limits. The British were concentrating artillery fire from the south of the city on the advancing attackers. NEW ENEMY ATTACKS A Singapore communique issued on Saturday states that during Friday afternoon enemy attacks developed in the Paya Lebar area, and in the west. Both were in considerable strength. On Saturday the enemy maintained his pressure, supporting his attacks with a number of high-level bombing raids by large formations of aircraft, continual shelling by artillery. and low divebombing attacks. His artillery also shelled the town intermittently throughout Friday night and Saturday morning. “Our troops. British, Australian. In-, dian and Malay, are disDUting every attempt to advance further toward the heart of Singapore city,” the communique adds. “In the city itself the civil defence services are making every effort to deal with the damage and the civil casualties caused by the hostile shelling and bombing." Payar Lebar lies about four miles north-east of the northern outskirts of Singapore city.—P.A