YOIZUKI STEAMING FOR A CYCLONE

Chronicle (Levin), 9 March 1946, Page 5

YOIZUKI STEAMING FOR A CYCLONE

Press Assn.-

agitatioN for RECALL

By Telegraph

-Copyright

. Received Friday, 9.10 p.m. 0 SVDNBi, March 8. The Japanese destroy er Yoizuia, carrying oNer luOO uapahese and Fox nibsans, which at_ nooii to'-day was ndv mile's north of Brisbane, is stiil th. biggest news item in Austraiia. 'Th. aiternoon papers carry banner. neati nnes stating tnat sne is steaining xnfcc the centfe of a' cycione and is already believed to be in heavy seas. The ship has 440 tons of i'resh water, and fresh meat taken aboard at Sydney was placed in a disconnected refrigcrat or in which the temperature was 8G degrees. The cooking arrangements aro fche vessel's original ecmipment, de signed to feed the normal crew. As the passengers are conhned in makeshii't deckhouses, occitpying the posifcior, origmally taken up by turrets, and as fche only lavatories for the passeuger.: are temporary wooden structures haug over the stern, heavy seas would soon make the lives oi* the repatriates unbearable. The passengers include 15 stretcher cases aiid two women in an advaneed state of pregnaney. ,In a bro'adcasfc from Canberra, Mr. fc'raser, a Labour member, challengeu fche Government when he said: "It is Lnconceivable tliat I should defend fche fcreatmenfc of thdse Formosan women and children. Am I to .be fcold that be catise I am a supporter of the presam Government, 1 niust be silent on thi tsstie? I reject that enfcireiy. I do no propose to deviate from the principles for which the party stands, bitt while 1 remain "a member of Parliament, I will excercise my right and deciare my mina on such issues. ' ' Last night the 75 members of the House of Representatives were invifcecl fco attend a midnight sereening of a newsreel showing the embarkation. Six, all members of the Counfcry Parfcy, attended. Tliey expiessed tneinsslve.. as appailed and sicxeuacl by the sigl'u ancl more than evex- determined tha fche ship S-iould be ordered into por,. tmnxediately. I11 reply to an order by the Feclerx Oabinet, Goinmandcr Araki, of ta destroy er Yoizuxi, sent word by radu that all was well and added that h would answer with his life for th safety of everyone aboard. After a-five-liour debate, th3 N e Sc'uth Wules Lwgislative Assenbly de cidecl to urge the Prime Mixixsosi to us: his infir.euce immediately to have fcn ship reoailed fco BrisAine, pend^g « fiili Livcetx^at.on and r_p.it. The Chief of tho Geuerai Sta.. (Lieut.-General Sturdee) said that he I t'eit that the outcry about the Yoizuk. ! was ' ' more sentimental than sensib.'e, ; and that such conditions were quit: normal by Japanese standards. Tii, ship could, in fact, have carried lo more.