TIMOR REFUGEES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 July 1943, Page 4

TIMOR REFUGEES

BROUGHT TO AUSTRALIAN BY WARSHIPS.

ESCAPE FROM JAPANESE SAVAGES.

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.20 p.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. Five hundred Portuguese subjects, including Government officials, priests, nuns and native Timorese, have been taken off Timor in Allied warships and brought to Australia. The warships audaciously risked air attacks to make their way to the Timor rendezvous where the refugees were waiting to be picked up. Monsignor Jaime Goulart, Apostolic Administrator of Timor, said: “We are neutral, but the Japanese do not observe the international rules of warfare. They are savages. At first they left us alone, but this lasted only for a short time. Soon they were robbing us and driving us from our homes.” With a community of priests and nuns, Monsignor Goulart stayed at Dilli the capital of Portuguese Timor, as long as possible, but the party was soon forced to escape to the hills to avoid the Japanese. Some of the rescued priests have now boon attached to Australian monasteries, while some of the officials have been found employed by the Commonwealth Government. The natives have been settled in a camp where they will live according to their customs for the duration of the war. They are growing their own food.