LEFT TO DROWN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 December 1942, Page 3

LEFT TO DROWN

BRITISH AND CANADIAN WAR PRISONERS IN TORPEDOED JAPANESE SHIP. MANY MACHINE-GUNNED IN WATER. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, December 22. The Japanese left hundreds of prisoners of .war from Hong Kong to drown when a prison ship which was bound for Shanghai was torpedoed off the China coast. Several Japanese ships cruised round the doomed vessel, machinegunning prisoners as they jumped overboard.

The gruesome story has been related by survivors to a United Press correspondent in China, Robert Martin. “The identity of the survivors cannot be revealed,” says the correspondent, “but the accuracy of their story is unquestionable.

“Aboard the prison ship were 1500 British and Canadian prisoners of wav, ragged, diseased and starving after nine months in close confinement in Hong Kong, where appalling sanitary, medical and. food conditions prevailed, causing many deaths and rendering hundreds almost walking skeletons. “All the prisoners were placed below decks with barely room to lie down. Nevertheless, they brightened up because the food that was served on the first day was better than at Hong Kong. On the second day they heard shoutjng on the deck. The ship shuddered, but continued to move. “Then the nightmare began. The Japanese closed all the hatches and covered them with tarpaulins,, leaving no air inlets. Hour by hour the hold became more unbearable and several men died. On the next morning the ship seemed to be settling, and there was no sound on deck. The stronger of the men succeeded in forcing a hatch, and they discovered that the prison ship was being towed but that no Japanese were left on board.

“Then the Japanese cast off the tow line and the prison ship lurched and foundered. The prisoners, though they lacked lifebelts, jumped overboard amid machine-gun fire from several Japanese vessels. Some of 'the vessels continued to fire at the swimming prisoners, many of whom were so weak that they drowned immediately. The Japanese picked up some of the prisoners, but did not lower boats, and consequently only a few hundred were rescued. “Other survivors swam ashore, where Chinese fishermen fed and clothed them. After hiding for several days because puppet troops were searching for them, small groups began a long trek to reach free China.” EVIDENCE OF SURVIVORS. The Chungking correspondent of the Associated Press . of America says that the British Embassy there has released the story of the experiences of Warrant Officers J. C. Fallance, W. C. Johnstone, and A. J. W. Evans, of the British-American Tobacco Company, who said that they and British naval and military .officers of the Hong Kong garrison were crammed into the hold without provision for the sick, though many of the prisoners . were suffering from dysentery, beriberi, and diphtheria. The ship left Hong Kong on September 29, and was torpedoed on October 1. They corroborated the United Press story. After, being in. the water for three hours, Fallance, Johnstone and Evans were picked up by a Chinese fisherman, who landed them on an island. Altogether, 200 prisoners reached the island, but on the next morning a Japanese destroyer appeared and forced the majority to surrender. The trio hid successfully and eventually reached free China. They are now on their way to India.' The British Embassy .in Chungking quoted a Japanese news dispatch from Hong Kong indicating that more than half of the 1816 English and Canadian prisoners aboard the 'prison transport went down with the ship, and that 900 survivors were taken to Moji, in southwestern Japan.