FALL OF SINGAPORE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 March 1942, Page 3

FALL OF SINGAPORE

REPORTS TO THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT INFORMATION TO BE GIVEN TO COMMONS. STATEMENT BY MR EDEN. LONDON, March 26. In the House of Commons the Foreign Secretary (Mr Eden) stated that the Government hopes before long to have information about the fall of Singapore from Major-General Bennett and ,other sources. When this information had been received, he said, it would be given to the House. BENNETT’S REPORT FORWARDED TO WAR OFFICE. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, March 25. A message from Sydney states that Major-General Gordon Bennett, who made a dramatic escape from Singapore Island after its surrender, has now completed his eagerly-awaited report on the Malayan campaign. The report, which is said to be 15.000 words long, is being forwarded immediately to the War Office in London.

INQUIRY SOUGHT

DEBATE IN THE LORDS. CHARGES BY MISSING COLONEL. LONDON, March 25. Lord Addison moved in the House of Lords a resolution that his Majesty be asked to appoint a Royal to inquire into the defences of Singapore. “We have to search our annals for an event that has been so shocking to the public mind as the loss of Singapore,” Lord Addison said. He read extracts from a letter from a colonel who commanded a Scottish regiment, who fought in Malaya and who is reported missing, believed dead. The letter said. “As soon as we arrived it was patent that the military were still behaving as though it were peace time —not much work on Saturdays and none on Sundays if you could help it. Dozens of staff officers at headquarters were arguing about which forms they should use for particular returns. “The training was stultified because the greatest care had to be taken not to enter the rubber estates. A general ticked me off because two of my trucks went into young rubber trees in spite of the fact that there are no manoeuvrable grounds other than that covered by rubber.” The letter told how a plan was prepared for occupying Singora (in south Thailand), to which enemy transports were seen stealing. “The British force was assembled behind the border, but, it being a neutral country which our Intelligence Service believed friendly but found later to be hand-in-glove with the Japanese, permission to advance had to be obtained from Home. “For three days we waited for the instructions—just a nice time for the Japanese to land a division uninter-.-rupted and begin to advance.” The Colonial Secretary, Lord Cranborne, in reply, said that the material facts for a full-dress inquiry were not available at present. The reports from Malaya were incomplete and the information was fragmentary.