ESCAPE TO JAVA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 February 1942, Page 4

ESCAPE TO JAVA

AFTER FALL OF SINGAPORE GENERAL BENNETT & PARTY. AN ADVENTUROUS VOYAGE. aSILiF-V-v" ■ • (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.20 a.m.) RUGBY, February 26. A thrilling account of the escape from Singapore of Major-General Bennett (Commander of the A.1.F.) and his party has been given to agency correspondents in Batavia by members of the General's staff. A staff officer said it was on Thursday morning that a group of air officers first felt that the fall of Singapore was inevitable. They decided that if escape were possible they would “have a crack” at it and take General Bennett with them. For two days they unsuccessfully searched for a launch. On! the Sunday after the capitulation they agreed that the only way to escape was to go north through the Japanese lines, past the mainland of Johore, and work their way to Batu Pahat, where they hoped to find a boat to take them to Sumatra. Their plan was to take with them provisions for two weeks and to lie up for two days after passing through the Japanese lines, before attempting to cross to the mainland. On. Sunday evening the party picked up General Bennett, and a Chinese guide named John, who spoke English, Chinese and Malay. John took a poor view of the attempt to get to Batu Pahat and told them he had a friend who owned a boat and would be willing to take the party to Sumatra. Plans were changed and the party went by motor-boat to the house of John’s friend. The house, however, was a heap of rubble and there was no friend and no boat. A police-sergeant told the party that some small boats were moored some way out to sea. and Lieutenant Gordon Walker, taking off his uniform, swam out to them, boarded a large sampan and rowed back to the shore. The party got aboard and made their way as best they could to the harbour. It was now midnight. They bumped into a large ocean-going junk, in which were six British Army officers. The Chinese owner of the junk had been smoking opium and was quite “dead to the world.” It was two o’clock in the morning when, with a hundred dollars in his pocket, he agreed to sail. At dawn the junk was only half a mile from the fortified island of Blakang Mati, which was already in the hands of the Japanese. On Monday the junk slowly made its way through the many tiny islands south of Singapore. Food became scarce and water was rationed.

After four days the junk reached Sumatra, where the Chinese owner refused to go further. During this time their only means of navigation had been a page from an atlas showing the South-West Pacific on a scale of 240 miles to one inch. A R.A.F. launch appeared and took them on board, and after two and a half days’ travel, during which they had to contend with the engine stopping several times and twice ran aground, the party reached Jambi, where the Dutch gave them every help, providing them with food and clothing and giving them a motorcar to take them to Pedang, here they were picked up by a flying-boat and taken to Batavia, where they arrived on Wednesday.