BACK FROM SINGAPORE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 89, Issue 227, 25 September 1945, Page 2

BACK FROM SINGAPORE

ARRIVAL OF THIRD PLANE LOAD IN N.Z. (P.A.) Auckland, Sept- 23. The third R.N.Z.A.r. Transport Command aircraft to bring freed personnel from Singapore arrived at Whenuapai on Saturday. There were 16 men in the party, eight of them being surviving members of the crew of tne Union Company’s vessel Hauraki, which was captured by Japanese cruisers in July 1942. The others were civilians including Dr. A. F. Mackay, of Wellington. The names of the party were: Messrs P. J. Goodman (Royal Oak Auckland), J. R. Graham (Newmarket), G. J. Grey (Wellington), E. McKinley (Epsom), J. H. Merritt (Napier), E. Waller (Mangere), L. A. Wigley (Australia), and A Rarotongan named Papbaua, all from Hauraki; Dr. A. F. Mackay Wellington, Messrs F. McEvoy ♦ Dublin) N. M. Clark (Dunedin), T. N. Cummins (Kerikeri), J. P. Edwards (Paeroa), H. W. Hamilton (Christchurch), J. H. S. Jenkins (England), and R. Scott (Mission Bay). As was the case with previous arrivals, the men had made a good recovery since their release from prison camps where they had suffered long hardship, mainly through Jack of I food. All had gained from 20 to 301 b in weight since the end of their internment, during which some had lost up to four stone. The men of the Hauraki had spent, two years at Changl gaol, and 14 months at Sime Road earner Singapore. Dr. Mackay was medical officer for a group of rubber plantations in the Federated Malay States, from 1930 to the Japanese invasion. He was captured at Singapore. He stated that, apart from ordinary routine and face slanpings, he saw no atrocitie-: committed at Changl. or Sime Road. “We had to how to the brutes every time they passed, and if they did not like one’s looks they hit you on th*' face," he said. “Anan from starvation diet and congested conditions in the camps, wo civilians must have hern lucky, as wn escaped the treatment irmtod out elsewhere.” Dr. Mackay said that about 80 doc-

tors were Interned at Singapore, but apart from about half a dozen, who were responsible for the hospital administration, all did coolie work.

The men from the Hauraki said they were fortunate in that all had been placed in the same internment camps, and were never separated. The recuperative powers of the younger members of the parly, said Dr. Mackay, were remarkable. He did not think they would suffer any permanent ill effects from their experience. He had noticed no signs of neurosis. Complete recovery of the older civilians would take longer, and would largely depend on their state of health when taken prisoner, and whether they had suffered illnesses during their internment.