JAPANESE ELUDED

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24370, 4 September 1942, Page 3

JAPANESE ELUDED

AUSTRALIANS' ORDEAL ESCAPE FROM EAST INDIES (Special Australian Correspondent) (Reed. 5.15 p.m.) SYDNEY, Sept. 3 After 60 clays' grim hide-and-seek with the Japanese in the jungles of the Netherlands East Indies a party of Australians have reached safety. Several of the original band died of sickness, exhaustion or starvation, but about '.iO have readied Australia. All lhe men spent some time in hospital on their arrival in Australia. "Food was the vital question, but the natives gave us rice, corn and eggs, so lor the first three weeks we got along reasonably well," said a member of the party. "Then sickness and hungermade inroads on our toiling band. .Malaria and stomach trouble spread, possibly because of the foul water we were compelled to drink. "The food situation grow steadily worse," ho said, "and the change from the dry to the wet season made conditions oven more trying. The Japanese kept hunting for us, but friendly natives told us where the enemy search parties were. However we suspect other natives of telling the enemy where we were. For 150 consecutive meals we had rice only and precious Itttle of that. All of us'lost weight, some of us as much as four stone. Toward the end of the journey even the .slightest exertion would bring on a fresh bout of malaria. "When men died," he continued, "we scraped shallow graves with our steel helmets, it was a strange thing that as our sufferings increased, so the men organised themselves into religious groups for prayer. We had our services every Sunday." FIRMS TAKEN OVER ACTION IN BRAZIL (7.1 o p.m.) RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept. 2 The Government of Brazil has taken over 29 companies, including three steamship lines, an aeroplane factory and coal mines. Brazil's biggest shipyards, gas and electric power plants were all previously owned by the late Enrique Lage, who bequeathed them all to his wife, a former i'talian singer. Her request for Brazilian citizenship was recently rejected. The Government said that as the State was at war the Lage organisations were of great value to the defence of the nation. SUBVERSIVE EDUCATION INQUIRY IN ARGENTINA (Reed. 7.15 p.m.) BUEXOS AIRES. Sept. 2 The existence of German schools in Argentina operating under the direction of the Nazi Government was reported by the congressional committee investigating subversive influences. It said the schools were under the control of diplomatic representatives from Berlin u-ho were accredited to the Argentine Government. The supervising and teaching personnel were selected in Germany !,ll(! llu ' textbooks edited in Germany The character of the teachil,rr was Contrary to Argentine laws. The committee recommended that attention should also be given to Italian schools. MEXICAN DEFENCE MOVE MEXICO CITY, Sept. '2 President Comacho of Mexico has appointed ex-President Cardenas as Minister of National Defence. I his is the first move toward large-scale expansion of the army, navy and air iorce. 30 YEARS FOR SPY ,Bf«l. fi.Bft .<■"'•> XEVYOHK. Sept. 2 Herbert Bahr was sentenced to .30 rears' imprisonment for conspiring to 'serve Germany a* a spy. Bahr formerly resided in Buffalo and turned Nazi sD v After winning a scholarship at Hanover he returned from Germany on the diplomatic exchange liner Drottmghobn.