JAVA SEA BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 July 1942, Page 3

JAVA SEA BATTLE

AUSTRALIAN & AMERICAN SURVIVORS FROM PERTH & HOUSTON. PRISONERS IN JAPANESE HANDS. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 1. Survivors from the Australian cruiser Perth and from the American cruiser Houston, sunk in the Battle of the Java Sea, are prisoners of war at Serang and Sumatra, in the East Indies. This was stated in a broadcast from a Jap-anese-controlled station by an AustraL ian, Mr Rohan Rivett, son of Sir David and Lady Rivett, Melbourne. Japanese sailors from the destroyer which picked up about 300 survivors from the Perth paid tribute to the wonderful fight put up by both the Perth and the Houston, said Rivett. About 1000 prisoners, mostly Americans and Australians, had recently been moved from Serang to Batavia. Many had been sick and most of them had now . been completely restored io health. Mr Rivett was one of a number of Australians who escaped from Singapore and found their way to Java, where natives took them prisoners and handed them over to the Japanese then in possession of the island. The Japanese allowed the prisoners to hold class- ( es in various subjects to keep them ’ occupied, he said. The cruiser Perth was for some time on the Mediterranean Station and evacuated hundreds of New Zealanders from Crete to Egypt.