HUNTED FROM EAST INDIES

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 289, 4 September 1942, Page 5

HUNTED FROM EAST INDIES

Australians Get Home

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.)

(Received September 3, 9.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, September 3.

After 60 days of grim hide-and-seek with the Japanese in the jungles of the Netherlands East Indies, a party of Australians have reached safety. Several of the original band died of sickness and from exhaustion and starvation, but about 30 reached Australia. All the men have spent some time iu hospital on their arrival here. “Food was a vital question, but the natives gave us rice, corn, and eggs, so for the first three weeks we got along reasonably well,” said a member of the party. “Then sickness and hunger made inroads on our toiling band. Malaria and stomach trouble spread, possibly because of the foul water we were compelled to drink. The situation grew steadily worse, and the change from the dry to the wet season made conditions even more trying. “The Japanese kept hunting for us, but friendly natives informed us of the whereabouts of the enemy’s search parties. However, we suspect other natives of telling the enemy of our whereabouts. For 150 consecutive meals we had rice only, and precious little at that. All of us lost weight, some as much as four stone, and toward the end even the slightest exertion would bring on a fresh bout of malaria. When men died we scraped shallow graves with our steel helmets.

“It was a strange thing that, as their sufferings increased, so the men organized themselves info religious groups for prayer. We had our services every Sunday.”