BRUTAL TREATMENT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 28 July 1942, Page 2

BRUTAL TREATMENT

PRISONERS OF JAPAN

BRITISH AND AMERICAN (Rec. 1.55 p.m.) Lundon, July 27. Twelve Britons were driven to suicide by the Japanese alter internment, •says the Lourenco Marques correspondent of “The Times.” They included Mr E. W. Staff, manager of the Hong KongShanghai Bank at Yokohama, Mr L. Sykes, manager of the Chartered Bank at Yokohama, also Mr John Watson, manager of the British Real Estate Interests at Harbin, who was father-in-law of the British Vice-Consul. In addition, Mr K. F. Krugher, marine adjuster, died in prison as a result of exposure, Mr J. A. Hewitt, a missionary, died in an insane asylum after imprisonment. Fourteen British subjects are known to have died at Hong Kong and others face death from malnutrition. Otto Tolischus. formerly of the “New York Times,” says that the fate of officials was enviable compared with that of civilians, scores of whom were thrown into prison, many tortured and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. All American newspapermen, and Miss Phyllis Argali, a London newspaperwoman, were examined with violence. Miss Argali was tied up and her face slapped until the skin broke. The Japanese police said, “All newspapermen are spies because they discover the truth.” Mr Tolischus declares that British and American wounded at Hong Kong and Wake Island were mas. sacred and British women and girls, including war hospital nurses, were raped and slaughtered.—P.A.