HEROIC STRUGGLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 January 1942, Page 3

HEROIC STRUGGLE

AGAINST HEAVY ODDS PUT UP BY DEFENDERS OF MALAYA. LIMITS ON SCORCHED EARTH POLICY. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 11.5 a.m.) RUGBY, January 7. The fighting in Northern Malaya is described in a despatch published in the ‘'Straits Times” today. The correspondent writes: ‘‘The defenders are putting up a heroic struggle against odds of four or five to one, manfully resisting in dogged rearguard actions in which they compel the enemy to pay a terrible price. The Japanese avoid open country and are keeping to the cover of the jungle, but their losses are nevertheless heavy. British troops have rushed enemy positions in hand to hand fighting. Gurkhas have also raced into action.” The correspondent tells many stories of the heroism of civilians during attacks on towns which have fallen into enemy hands. A Cingalese telephone operator remained at his post alone for 36 hours amid falling bombs. In one town, civilians recognised the danger of looting, while the Japanese were bombing and machine-gunning, and set up their own shop guards, who patrolled with staves and arm-bands. Three days before the Japanese entered the town all warehouses were thrown open for the population to remove food for themselves. The stocks included 100,000 bags of rice, which were thus saved from the Japanese and distributed over wide areas. Although it was wrong from a military viewpoint, water supplies were deliberately left intact, out of humane consideration for the people. Roads and bridges were destroyed and booby traps were laid as the Japanese advanced. Rubber was burned, tin mines flooded and tin dredges sunk or dismantled. JAPANESE RAIDS ON NETHERLANDS INDIES. THREE CIVILIANS KILLED IN AMBON. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 9.35 a.m.) RUGBY, January 7. A Netherlands East Indies communique states: ‘‘Last night eight Japanese flying-boats were trying to attack military objectives in the island of Ambon, in the eastern part of the Archipelago. The enemy dropped twenty bombs and machine-gunned the island. A. civilian guard and a soldier were slightly injured and three civilians were killed. Enemy planes were observed . over various parts of our outer positions.”