ENEMY CUTS WATER SUPPLY

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24201, 17 February 1942, Page 5

ENEMY CUTS WATER SUPPLY

AXIS REPORTS EVACUATION OF TROOPS

By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received February 16, 11.35 p.m.) LONDON, February 16 The fall of Singapore was announced by the Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, in the course of a radio broadcast last night.. Tokio states that the Japanese forces entered Singapore City at eight o'clock this morning, local time. While there is no information in London concerning the Allied forces surrendered, the Domei (Japanese) news agency states that they consisted of 15,000 United Kingdom troops, 13,000 Australians, and 32,000 Indians, a total of 60,000 troops. A message from Batavia states that all the Australian nurses left the island before the surrender. The Tokio radio says the British offered to surrender after the Japanese had occupied and cut off the water reservoirs of the city, thus leaving the British soldiers and the huge population of the city no means to quench their thirst. It is also stated in Tokio that the defenders surrendered after the city had been surrounded by the Japanese forces. The Berlin radio, quoting the Tokio newspaper Asahi, says the largest part of the British and Australian forces obviously left Singapore last Friday for Sumatra. Over 30 ships, all of more than 1000 tons, also a 10,000-ton cruiser, anchored at Singapore on Friday night, had all gone by Saturday morning. This report says that only Chinese andl Malayans remain in Singapore. An official announcement from Tokio, however, says that under the terms of the surrender 1000 British soldiers retain their arms so as to maintain order until the Japanese completely occupy the city. The sequence of the surrender process, according to the Tokio radio, was as follows:—Sunday, 2.30 p.m. (Singapore time): Japanese Army headquarters received a British offer of surrender. 5.30 p.m.: Conference of British and Japanese military leaders to discuss details of surrender terms. 7 p.m.: Terms signed under which hostilities were to cease at 10 p.m. 7.50 p.m.: Japanese headquarters announced that the British had unconditionally accepted the Japanese terms. The Tokio radio also said that the signing took place at the Ford motor plant at the foot of Bukit Timah Hill. The signature was affixed for the Japanese by Lieutenant-General Yamashita and for the British by Lieutenant-General A. E. Percival, General Officer commanding the British forces in Malaya. The British officer who took the offer of surrender to the Japanese headquarters was Major Wilde, a member of the General Staff. Japanese pressure is reported to be increasing at the New Guinea end of the Japanese line in the south-west Pacific.