Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Tuesday 11 September 1945, page 1


TELLING PRISONERS THE NEWS

Colonel R. R. Marsh (of Mel-bourne), who is in charge of the advance party of the Australian P.O.W. Reception Group, will

return to Australia shortly to arrange final details for the

arrival home of the men returning from here by ship.

Brigadier J. E Lloyd has arrived to take charge of the full team.

Lieut Colonel Cyril Fortune. of the 2-14th A. G. H is in charge of the urgent medical and Red Cross team.

Between their release and their return to Australia prisoners of war

who have been cut off from the outside world for more than three years will have the opportunity to catch up on events. Special pamphlets and books tracing the course of the war are being distributed and Colonel Marsh has brought with him numerous home town newspapers.    

He has even obtained the file of one newspaper. which includes every edition since the men left Australia for Malaya.

(Australian Associated Press)

Singapore Radio says Changi in-ternment camp received 1,250,000 let-

ters the last three and a half years of which 200,000 were never delivered because the addressee were already dead.

First Three Nurses

MELBOURNE Monday — Three

R.A.A.F nurses went to Singapore , with the patatroops. They are Senior Sister Margaret Braid of Perth; Sister Margaret Wroe of Brisbane and Sister Helen Cleary, of Peterborough

(SA)

Sisters Braid and Wroe have com-peted more than 800 flying hours on air evacuation work.

The first R.A.A.F plane to touch down at Kalang aerodrome was piloted by Squadron Leader Ron Corn-foot of Toorak (Vic) Flying-Officer. Con Wright of Brisbane was the first member of the Australian contingent to step on to the airfield. In 1942 Wright then serving with the A.I.F in Singapore was lucky to escape from the Japanese.

The Australian Tribal class de-stroyer HMAS Warramunga has re-turned to Tokyo Bay from Hama-matsu with 120 British and American prisoners of war the Navy announced

to-day.

Warramunga H.M.A.S Bataan and two Royal Navv destroyers have been detatched from the Australian Squad-ron in Tokyo Bay to search for and bring in P.O.W.s from prison camps along the coast of Japan for transport to central collection camps.

First indication that there may be Australian prisoners of war in the islands adjoining Timor was gained on Saturday by a low-flying Catalina of the R.A.A.F. The prisoners were sighted at a barge staging point on Loblem Island, about 150 miles west of Timor, and appeared to be wearing

slouch hats.

In response to a message from the Catalina the prisoners formed up a rough V formation on a part of the beach screened from the Japanese. They also held their arms aloft in a V sign.

The crew of the Catalina estimated

Plea For Names

The Government was urged yesterday to speed the release of names of prisoners and internees freed from the Japanese.

The hon. secretary of the Prisoners of War Relatives Association, Mr. Sydney Smith, said he saw no reason why names should not be cabled, instead of lists being flown to Australia.

The special correspondent of Australian Associated Press in Singapore cabled that, although their were 5,000 liberated Aus-tralians in one camp alone, he was limited to one 500-word message to-day.  

Jack Percival. "Herald" cor-respondent in Japan reported that prisoners' names were not released until 24 hours after official messages of their release had been sent.

Latest Names and State-ment by Army Minister

Page 3.

that there were at least 20 prisoners with a party of about 300 Japanese. They appeared well-fed and healthy. They danced and waved excitedly as the plane flew low overhead.

On Sunday another Catalina left Darwin carrying food, medical supplies, and comforts, but it failed to locate the prisoners. Four barge-loads of   Japanese, numbering about 200, had left the staging point since the previ-ous day, and it is thought they took the prisoners with them.