DEAD CITY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 October 1943, Page 3

DEAD CITY

SINGAPORE IN JAPANESE HANDS LIMITED USE OF NAVAL BASE. TREATMENT OF PRISONERS. tßy Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) LONDON, October 12. Guerilla bands totalling several hundred men are still fighting in the jungles of the Malayan Peninsula, according to a young Chinese who has arrived in Chungking from Malaya via Thailand, says the "Daily Telegraphs’ Chungking correspondent. This Chinese is the first eye-witness to report on the conditions in Singapore for some time. He said that Singapore was almost a dead city. The only work being carried out was in the defence areas, btu a shortage of cement was hampering the Japanese. The main dry-docks had not been raised when he left, and only destroyers and gunboats were using the repair facilities at the naval base. The British and other foreign women and children were free, but were living precariously. British officers were interned in several of the city s hotels. Many British prisoners were working on new railways in Malaya, and some were employed in sweeping the streets in Singapore. The prisoners’ rations consisted of two bowls of rice gruel daily and a meagre supply of vegetables. The informant was in Bangkok, Thailand, when American bombers raided the city, and he saw many Siamese cheer the planes. Hatred of the Japanese was growing throughout Thailand, he said. The Japanese garrisons at Singapore, Bangkok and elsewhere dressed raggedly, often attired in old British uniforms with British emblems and also British shoes.