UNTRUE STORIES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 225, 22 September 1945, Page 5

UNTRUE STORIES

TWO NEW ZEALANDERS ASTONISHED ACOOI STS OF TREATMENT BY JAVANKSE M ERE VI KONO. (P.A.) Auckland, Sept. 21. Astonis.ed at stor es which had been published about them :n Australian newspapers, ard which had been sent by cable for publication in New Zealand, has been expressed by two New’ Zealanders who returned from Singapore this week, after being prisoners of the Japanese. They are: Sergeant S. W. Peers, of Papakura, who was reported to have been nearly buried while in a state of coma, and Private M. A. Brennan, who was stated 1o have had his wrists broken and set back to front. Sergeant Peers stated, when interviewed, that he was not unconscious w hen he had cholera, and there was no truth in the Australian cable message that h? said he was being lowered into a grave when he rallied. II s statement was that he saw other prisoners heaping up logs on which his body was to bo burned when he died. A former construction engineer for a -mining company in Pahang. Private Brennan sa : d he was absolutely astounded at the report that the Japanese had broken his wrists and set them with the hands facing th? wrong way. He denied that he had made such a statement to any newspaperman in Austral a He thought the same story had been published in Australia with an Australian as the victim, and it appeared that it had been issued again with Brennan's name, as he was on his way to New Zealand.