DEFENDERS SURROUNDED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 February 1942, Page 3

DEFENDERS SURROUNDED

IN CITY AND CENTRE OF ISLAND After Week of Battle Against Overwhelming Odds SUMATRA NOW BEING INVADED IN FORCE DUTCH DEVASTATING RICH OIL TERRITORY LONDON, February 15. IN A BROADCAST SPEECH, THE BRITISH PRIME MINISTER, MR.’WINSTON CHURCHILL, SAID HE WAS SPEAKING UNDER THE SHADOW OF A HEAVY AND FAR-REACHING MILITARY DEFEAT—THE FALL OF SINGAPORE. IT WAS, MR CHURCHILL SAID, A BRITISH AND IMPERIAL DEFEAT. The Japanese tonight claimed that Singapore had surrendered. London has had not direct news from the island today. A communique issued by Japanese Imperial Headquarters states that the British forces in Singapore surrendered this evening, at 7 o’clock, Singapore time. The Domei Agency states that the British forces surrendered after being surrounded in Singapore City and in the centre of the island. The Japanese agency states that the terms of surrender were signed by Lieutenant-General Percival and the Japanese Commander-in-Chief.

The Japanese began their attack on Singapore Island last Sunday (February 8). During the past week British, Australian, Indian and Malay forces have been fighting a desperate battle against overwhelming odds, pounded continually by dive- ' bombers and heavy artillery, and have been forced back by this tremendous weight of metal. Yesterday it became known that Japanese forces had infiltrated into Singapore City. There is grave news also from Sumatra. Enemy landings are now in progress on the eastern coast of that island, threatening the great oil centre of Palembang, which lies 30 miles inland. Dutch planes attacked enemy transports, three of which received direct hits. The Dutch have begun the destruction of all the oil refineries and installations around Palembang. It is stated that this is >the greatest voluntary destruction of material wealth in world history, greater even than the Russian destruction of the Dnieper Dam. In the opening stages of the enemy attack on Sumatra the

Dutch rounded up and wiped out many enemy parachutists. BURMA AND THE PHILIPPINES In Burma there have been no further attacks on the Salween River front, but heavy fighting is reported at a point on the Moulmein-Rangoon Railway 20 miles west of Paan and at another place. Both sides are said to have suffered relatively heavy casualties. The Japanese are regrouping against General MacArthur’s forces in Luzon. Meantime fighting in the Philippines is restricted to minor local encounters. On his return from the North-West Provinces in India, General Chiang Kai-shek said that what he had seen had impressed him tremendously. A Chinese newspaper says the United Nations should not be discouraged by the present situation in the Pacific. It says this resembles the position in China when the Japanese captured Nanking and that if this did not daunt the Chinese then, no loss in the Pacific should now daunt Britain and the United States. i;