VIOLENCE ABATING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27572, 14 December 1950, Page 7

VIOLENCE ABATING

Riots In Singapore FOURTEEN DEATHS NZPA—Copyright Rec. 11.20 p.m. SINGAPORE, Dec. 13. Fourteen people have been killed in the Singapore riots, according to official figures released today. They comprise five Europeans (one unidentified), three Malays, two Eurasians, two Chinese and one Indian. In addition to the dusk-to-dawn curfew, a daylight, curfew was imposed today in the Geylang area, which has been a Hotbed of trouble in the last two days. Police today made a house-to-house check there. Riot-racjked Singapore was taking on a workaday air again today, although troops and police are still being called out to handle minor outbreaks of violence. Most Government offices were opened for business, banks were operating, private firms were getting back into their stride, and car parks, deserted yesterday, were filling up. The port, paralysed since Monday afternoon, was starting to move again. Europeans, however, mostly stayed in their houses. Hundreds of European men and women have been stranded since Monday afternoon in clubs, hotels and friends’ houses. Some were starting to trickle back home today. Mosque Raided The police today removed their boot s and socks before raiding a huge Sultan mosque which Moslem rioters had been using as their headquarters. Three hundred Moslems, who had raced into the sanctuary of the mosque when the police and troops charged them, were ordered to leave. In the mosque the police found a rifle, a pile of sticks, clubs and bricks. Troops have now thrown a cordon around the mosque, but genuine worshippers are being allowed into the mosque at prayer time . The police started an extensive round-up of undesirable elements in the Moslem community this morning. At noon 52 arrests had been made, bringing the total arrests to more than 100. The municipal councillor, Mr' Pat .Johnson, who was previously reported dead, was identified in hospital today. He is in a critical condition. Timothy Crowley, of Liverpool, an employee of the Air Ministry in Singapore, was battered to death by rioters on Monday night. He had been married to a Liverpool girl in Singapore only last week. In a special broadcast, Mr W. L. Blythe, the Colonial Secretary, said yesterday that the Government was prepared to use all the force necessary to see that law and order prevailed in Singapore. If further support was required to quell the riots in the colony, more troops would be sent for. he said. Flight to Holland Little Bertha Hertogh, the innocent cause of the upsurge of racial and religious fanaticism that swept Singapore was down away with her mother yesterday while furious Moslems rioted east and west of the airport, burning and bashing. Earlier the Supreme Court had dismissed the appeal by the Moslem woman, Che Aminah, for custody of the child, who had been left in her care by the child’s parents at the time of the Japanese occupation, and had subsequently been reared as a Moslem. The mobs did not know that their Nadra. as they called Bertha, was being taken to Holland—away from the Moslem influence. They went on pelting cars with bricks and raising roadblocks across the city streets with barrels and burnt-out vehicles. Secret Departure

The plan which resulted in Eertha and her mother getting away without the Moslems knowing was a closelyguarded secret. Late on Monday night Mrs Hertogh and Bertha were taken t.o St John’s Island, a quarantine station three miles south of Singapore Harbour. There was no scheduled KLM service leaving Singapore for Holland yesterday, but the authorities wanted the Hertoghs out of Singapore as soon as possible and arrangements were made for the KLM plane which was flying from Jakarta to Bangkok on its wav to Holland to make a special landing for them at Singapore. Yesterday afternoon Bertha and Mrs Hertogh were taken by a police launch the seven miles to Kallang airport, which borders the harbour at the southern end. The plane was waiting and 10 minutes later they were on their way to Holland.