MISSION OF MERCY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25964, 3 October 1945, Page 4

MISSION OF MERCY

CLYDE AIRMAN AT SINGAPORE PRISONER-OF-WAR TRANSPORT In a letter to his parents at Clyde, Flight Lieutenant Jack Davidson, D.F.C., corroborates the recent reports of the atrocities perpetrated by the Japanese on prisoners at Singapore. Flight Lieutenant Davidson left with the first relief planes*from New Zealand, and is in charge of the despatch of the unfortunate prisoners. On his arrival at Singapore Flight Lieutenant Davidson made inquiries for Mr H. K. Mclntyre, who is his uncle and the son of the late Rev. I. K. Mclntyre, at one time of St. Stephen’s Church, Dunedin. Mr Mclntyre, who seems to have incurred the displeasure of the Japanese by his attention to other prisoners, was confined in the camp at Sime road, and suffered cruel tortures. He had been sent to India before Flight Lieutenant Davidson arrived. Mr Mclntyre s brother-in-law, Mr Penseller, died in the camp as the result of cruelty and privation. „ ~ , .• , Flight Lieutenant Davidson has had previous experience of Singapore. He left New Zealand in 1941 for that station, and later had to retire from Kuantan in a hurry after being bombed out by the Japanese. He was with a mixed lot of Empire airmen, and all of them got away in one plane, arriving at Singapore just before the British warships were sunk. From Singapore they had again to make a hurried departure. **