THESE GOT AWAY TOO:

New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 164, 14 August 1942, Page 6

THESE GOT AWAY TOO:

STORIES are being told by those who have arrived in New Zealand: from Malaya. Some escaped from boats that were bombed, others made off in yachts, sampans, rowing boats, lifeboats, anything that they could get. Some were wrecked among the treacherous islands to the south of Singapore. Here is the story of a New Zealander in the Malayan Volunteers who did not intend being a prisoner if he could help it.

E got the order to cease fire at about 4 p.m. but it was not confirmed by the Malayan command so we decided that it was fifth column activity and we detained the captain who brought the order. However, in due*course it was confirmed and, gradually the endless noise really came to an end and the order came through to pile up our arms. Most of the chaps were pretty done and they just went off and slept. I and another bloke had determined to get away if we could rather than be taken prisoners. So we made our way back to the water front. The roads were jammed with 4ll sorts of vehicles. We tried to get a car but either there was no petrol or they were locked or unusable in some way or another. A despatch rider however came along on his bike and gave us both a lift on the back as far as the outskirts. Then we were picked up by a huge truck. The streets in the city were lined with cars, sometimes as many as four deep. At one point there was a fine big car slap across the road. I offered to move it but the truck driver just went slap through it. "The more we smash up the better," he said. Then we worked our way to the yacht harbour, We knew it pretty well before, but it was unrecognisable now. Great warehouses were aflame, the whole steel frames a tangle of red hot iron, The waterfront was just a mass of junk and debris. However we found the harbour at last, different as it now looked. We Set Sail Most of the boats had been taken. We found at last two boats, little fourteenfooters that had been pulléd up oh the side. The seams, as we found out later. were pretty open as the boats had been out of the water for some time; they had no masts, sails, or rudders. It was now midnight and the next four hours were pretty hectic. We fixed up a mast and found the jib of a bigger class boat that we fixed up for a mainsail, lashed on with rope. An oar served for a rudder. At four we were ready to push off and away we went with just the right breeze from the land to take us out. The waters all around had been mined so we did not let down the centreboard although the mines were supposed to be at least six feet below the surface. The boat scraped over something as we left the harbour and we had an uneasy moment, but we decided afterwards that it must have been the funnel of a sunken vessel that we knew was somewhere near there. It -was very still and calm on the water after the last few hectic weeks on land. To the south there was a big glow from some Dutch islands where they had fired the oil. Now and then we heard voices on the water and we lay

still in the bottom of the boat and were careful not to light cigarettes. When daylight came we found the sea dotted with little craft like ourselves making away under sail or oars, Water was pouring in through the opened seams of our boat, but thanks to our tin helmets, which proved excellent for bailing, we kept her from shipping too much. Change to a Lifeboat All that day we sailed south trying to put as much sea as possible between ourselves and Singapore. We had no charts. and wasted some time sailing down an estuary that we thought was the strait that we were looking for. That night we pulled up at an island close to a Malayan village. A Malay offered us the shelter of his veranda and we just fell asleep where we were before he had time to bring us out mattresses and covers. . When we woke we saw the sea clear and calm with just the right amount of breeze. Coming up from the beach the night before we noticed a lifeboat under a Chinese house. This looked to us just the sort of craft that we wanted to take us to Batavia. The Chinaman was friendly; he Nad found it abandoned on the beach and he was delighted to exchange it for our light yacht. So we cut a mast of mangrove and fitted a sail and went up to the village to get supplies. The villagers were at first hostile and shut their doors but they soon came round when they found that we could speak Malay and were prepared to pay for what we took. The Chinaman welcomed us to his table and gave us a good meal and _ then, fitted out with water and supplies, we pushed off again. Frankly, we both enjoyed ourselves enormously. The strain was gone. No more guns and bombs. No more bailing. Though ’planes flew over us they did not worry about small craft like us and the boat got along in fine style. Rowing to Sumatra I can't go into all the details of ow: adventures. We had to change our plans and go to Sumatra as we heard that the Japs were attacking Java and were all over the islands that we had hoped to call at. We fell in with another boat something. like ours with some British soldiers who had set out to row to Sumatra, and row there they did! We offered to cut them a mast and help them with sailing but no! they felt safer rowing, though they knew nothing about using tides, winds, or anything else. We kept with them all the rest of thre way; at least we camped together at night and gave them turns at sailing along with us. Then we had quite a few experiences with rocks and tidal rips. A rip is all (Continued on next page)

Tales Of Escape From Malaya

(Continued from previous page) right when you can see it coming during the day, but at night, when you don’t see it until you are almost on it, it is quite exciting, The sea is pretty prickly with rocks, too. Fortunately we had done a bit of sailing so we knew what to look out for, but we spotted one or two boats that had been wrecked along the coasts of one or other of the islands, We met a Chinese junk with a huge crowd on her, about a hundred and thirty, with just one man aboard who knew a little about navigating. I reckon he did a wonderful job getting her out and keeping her afloat. Abandoned Food Dump We were also very lucky about supplies. About the third day out we were running short of food and cash and were getting worried. We happened to pass fairly close to another yacht and we hailed them and commented on their supplies of tinned stuff, " Oh," they said, "we have just visited the food dump." "What food dump?" we asked. "The Government dump on the island," they replied, and they explained how by chance they had heard that at certain points on the islands there were food dumps in specially marked out places for evacuees from Malaya. We sailed back about eight miles and found the spot and got supplies for three or four days for both boats and, equally valuable, sailing directions through the islands and to the next food dump. We Were Incredibly Lucky On the whole it was just a very pleasant little trip. But the last stretch over to Sumatra offered a bit of excitement, We had arrived on this last island in the evening and we planned to rest that night and the next day and get a Malay to take the lot of us over in his boat the following night. We went up to a Malay village and we got a Malay to prepare a curry to celebrate what was almost the end of our voyage, Well, that Malay did us proud and we had a grand meal, the best of any I’ve ever tasted, and we were just thinking of turning in when we heard that the Japs had landed on this very island and that we had better get away as fast as we could. We did. We had a long walk through deep mud to the beach, and then a hasty push off. We could not sail to the point that we had intended making at Sumatra as the Japs were already there, but instead slipped in unobtrusively up coast and cut across the jungle for six hours or so, We were incredibly lucky. The Japs were well on to Sumatra. Further south Palembang was going up in flames. We might have had another sea voyage in some broken-down craft or other but the day we got to the west coast we were picked up by a British man-of-war and so taken off. It may all sound v adventurous, but my own feeling was that we were safer and more comfortable than those who got away by more normal channels, s 8 * A Woman's Experience a WAS in hospital for my last fortnight in Singapore," said another who escaped, a woman, in an interview. "Those last few days were pretty bad.

The ’planes were zooming overhead almost all the time. The all-clear would be sounding at one end of the city while the alert for a new raid would go at the other end. We patients were told to get under the bed when an alarm sounded and at first we did, all of us that were fit enough, but it was miserabie. I had a boil and I kept on bumping it and I could not decide whether it was better to climb in and out or just stay under the bed and have done with it. The Japs really did seem to respect our Red Cross and though bombs were dropping on all sides we were not hit. One thing I should like to say, the Chinese nurses were just marvellous, They deserved the V.C, They didn’t leave. They didn’t panic. They stayed on without any hesitation or alarm. They knew, as well as we did, that they had everything to lose if Singapore fell, Most of them had been nursing for years and they would lose their jobs, their pensions, everything, and they had nowhere to go. They could not go home, Singapore was their home. That was why some of us hated leaving. We may have seemed foolish to stay on but we wanted to stay and help, It looked like deserting these others to make off to Australia and New Zealand and leave those who could not go. However my husband fetched me and put me on a boat on the Friday before Singapore fell. And I was too sick and miserable to resist, so here I am. As far as I know my husband is still there, The boat was jammed with refugees like myself, and we were attacked for four days, but miraculously we escaped."