THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH, SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1947.
EIGHT MEN DROPPED FROM THE SKIES, AND SO BEGAN THE STORY OF
ARMY
HOLE
THE
JUNGLE
How the wild tribes of Borneo were organised to drive out the Japs By TOM HARRISON
BORNEO IR
the second
largest island in the world,
and practically the whole of it
is mountainous jungle.
The mountains go up to 13,000 feet, and the jungle is generally over 200 ft. fall.
There, in the heart of the jungle. took place the ly large-scale operation out which no une inst yet written, partly because I'm the bly one of the three officers In charge who is in circulation.
Major Bill Soction, 42. fately governor of Borstal, and a gollant
English gentleman, is busy being the chief of police
Sarawak.
very
in
Major Toby Carter, 37, tall, tough,
but gentle to look at, a New Zen-?
laud oil surveyer, is too busy help-
ing sort out the meas in which the. Lawal, B.E.M.; chief of Barco Jans left the Dorneo oilfields.
A$
Hidden land
1
S the three of us came to con- trol an area as large as Ireland, and to kill Japs at the ratio of 100 for every one of our own losses, fect it is up to mexto tell the story of that strange jungle collaboration between English, New Zealand. Australian, and Dutch parachutists, along with
thousands of native peoples, es
head-hunter tribes,
Malays and Chinese, Javanese and Sikhs even in the end some Jap deserters.. It all started in a little hole in the
jungle right in the centre of Borneo,
at a place called Barco, which in native dialect means "the Plain of
Wind
We were only able to And that hole in the jungle because of 1932,
In 1932 I was leader of the Ox- ford University Expedition to Sara
wak. We got a good way inland, but much further inland Wo saw grout mountain
ranges which the natives called Tamabo.
And we heard that behind them lay a sort of Shangri-la-a great rich, fertile plain, abounding in cattle, rice and tobacco, and in- hablled by a tribe called Kelabits.
All of us ached to get up into that
mysterious hinterland.
But it would have taken
travel, with all sorts
-uf
dificulties.
it...
months
-
The
show
WON urgent. So six Liberatora of the Royal Australian Air Force were now put at our din- posal.
t This made the whole difference.
We fell incomparably Enfer with the Aussies, and with these special planes we were able really to con centrate on Anding our hole.
We find it
the fourth attempt we succeed-
ed in spotting a stall open plain approximately the right position -the hole!
Drifting nervously down through
the damp cloud, the rat things we saw below us were two red going for their lives,
deer
Within a few seconds....squetch! The plain proved to be that parachu- tists dream, a nice wet, soft bor
Memwhile where were the other four? No sign of them drifting anywhere around
ilad they gone home because they hadn't been able to see the hole, in the jungle through cloud?
Worse still, our radio and other slores, which had been dropped in special containers, were equally Inst to view.
While my four were still puzzling about what had happened to the others there appeared three tall, dark figures wearing loincloths and with Joapard teeth in their cars, wading through the swamp. and waving (of all things) a while flag.
They were friendly. We judged
this b by interminable handshakes and.
caresses we could not speak to them and they could not speak to us.
They led us through the swamp car to an open grassland plain, then to the native long-house, which learned, to our amazement, netually was the place where had originally meant to land at, Barco,
Village ou poles
We
RAREO. like any Kelabit village, Dis simply one long house, bullt 15 ft. off the ground on poles, with palm-leat roof and beautiful hond- mude plank walls and floors,
It is divided lengthways down the middle. One half is the verandah. Bachelors and visitors sleep here,
In the other half, ench family
is
that the
Hves around its own fireplace." the families.
There are no partitions between
Everything h Kelab life Unfortunately, in these early fights, carried on in public. We never we always enme over much too early could teach these prople, In the morning not realising that in white man liked a little privacy. To the Interior daily routine of cloud rising
of Borneo there is a them the very idea of privacy didn't
from even exist. the valleys.
There were 57 people living In Barco,
All went mad when they That Orst time we saw the hole Saw LLS, clearly, the weather clouded over
None of them had seen more than before we could prepare to jump.
three or four white men before. But now we knew the show was Some had never seen one. definitely practical.
disappeared into the thin mountain Pessimism and nervous tension
oir.
the
of supply We took two Liberators on We had 10 forget next flight that was to send us into
the island.
In 1941 Japan occupied
Borneo
In the leading one were Warrant-
Without exception they were de lighted to see a white man back finished. They had thought the British were
First faint sign
and by 1944 the powers that be were Officer Tredrea, a medical orderly WE were only the first faint and |
begining to take a revived interest in the land.
singes
and superb soldier from South Australin, Star-Sergeant Bower and intelligence and native Screenn! Sunderson, a a specialist
in who, within three months, was to language, become the uncrowned king of the Limbang River in Sarawak and to control a lurge personal army of his
W
The Americans and Australians had cleared New Guines, and were working up towards the Philippines. Mountbatten was building up for the big push through Burma. Bornco, with its three tremendous oilfields and its controlling position in the South China Sea, was on
obvious 071. stepping-stone in the next
I went along with these boys.. of the great pincers movement on
The other plane was led by my Japan.
second in cominand, Captain Erle Ed- But what was happening in meodes. the
most experienced Borneo On the Intelligence map parachutist I could find in Australia. the whole of the country was biank. With Eric went # strapping Alur headquarters began to look Cussche, dort, cruely but everywhere for people who
a short, chunkily built piece of liquid dynamite, called Sergeant them help
Au in the blank. So one day I had one of those Jack Barcle; and the party's funny mysterious Interviews in a half-lt man and
operator, hotel of
could
within a few days I found myself going through a course at "subver- sive" training.
of the Embankment, And Sergeant dlo
Next thing I knew, I was being whirled across the world Priority One, in a plane to Australia. There I met Carter and Sochon.
The plain beyond
THE
Unculty was to And Bry place in Borneo where we could elther land a plane or drop by pora- chute.
I remembered those mighty Tamabo ronges
und the stories cf
the plain behind.
If it really existed, that would be Ideal,
At this stage (latish '44) the Americans look Moratal, a small island between Bomico and Now Guines.
A Libérator could fly from Mora- tai to Central Borneo, spare hak on hour for a look round, and get binck to base in
In 12 hours' flying over Jap- held area.
So I found myself hiking my way up the south-west Pacific along with an RAAF llalson officer, solid, rosy- faced Squadron-Leader Frank Cook, of Sydney.
most
with
We had to fly with the American 13th US Army Air Force.
These have boys had the marvellous maps of Horneo, every detall filled in by some guy in Washington who deserves the Fullt- zer Prize for imaginative journalism.,
Desperate
TULEY even elevated the highest mountain, Kinabalu (“The-Block Widow''), an extra 6,000 ft. to the 20,000 line.
However, as American planes ab- pear to ho to dy by instinct, they fortunately Imored the maps, glor to get me le forward in the bom bardier's look-out, and tell them which way to point the plane,
But wo couldn't and that hole in the jingle, even though we showed unspeakable heroism in flying with these Americans.
By this time things were getting -slightly desperata,
On March morning we got over our hole in the jungle.
We could see glimpses of the plain, below through the cloud,
The four of us in the drst plane shot through a camera hatch.
Insignificant sign of return. thing. They knew what to
By helping us they risked every- expect from the Japanese, who had already parachutists or shot-down airmen."
warned everyone against
assisting
But there was no question about
These simple pagan people guaranteed the success of our opern-. tion within the first hour.
Whole
The chief of Bareo, an elderly man named Lawai, seni his young men as runners to gather in the surrounding population.
By next day there were hundreds, and within a fortnight deleguous representing 100,000 naves had travelled. pledging support for. hundred miles around.
The King has since awarded Lawal the British Empire Medal. He Is probably the only man in the world holding this decoration who cúnnot read, write or lack at 12 photograph the right way up.
THE DARK MIRROR
PALESTINE
ERRORIST
OF THE
SINGAPORE
UMATR
200 Hikes
E A
BRUNE
BAY
ORITISH NORTH BORNE
ARAWAK
BO
THE HOLE IN THE JUNGLE
assistance to Allied GHQ in been planning dardlings,
Meanwhile the tour then in, the glyo second plane when hath dropped miles away in the jungle. niso found their way to the village, thanks to Edmeades Jungle skill Il' is by no means unknown for even a native to get lost within half 1 mile of a village, and to
wander pround for days until starvation kilis him,
The wireless was found, too, and sel up. Soun Bower and Hallam were tapping out the good news on a portable set to Darwin, a thousand miles away in Australia. Quickly I organised native spies to radiate In all directions.
Our big trouble was the immense distances that had to be covered.
But these people are wonderful travellers and runners, even by night.
Secret agents
TAVERY secret agent had a relay system of runners attiched to him, to whip back the information.
to come up from the coast at Brunel Even then It took five to six days Bay, one of the areas that most in terested the Australian Army, and another week to come up from the east coast, where landings were also planned.
The Bor people trek wonder- fully to spying, but we had to worry in case someone was caught and tortured, or split on us for re- ward.
Within a month something like n quarter of a million of the inhabi- tants of Borneo must have known we were there.
It seemed hopeless to keepi our secret, Yet the people not only kept our secret for the fortnight; they kept it right up until the Allied landings in June 1945.
So well did they keep it that the them Japs never know what hit when we attacked from the rear in June.
We had only eight weapons be- tween us when we landed, "And the Keinbits were longing for us to have a crack at the Japs.
For centuries they had been head- hunters, and the chance of a spot of legal head-hunting was too good to be missed.
We had to organise some sort of native guerilla army. We hadn't any rifles, and anyway they did not know how to use them.
So we grabbed the next best thing -blowpipes. These were
the
naives' own weapons, and very effective and horrible ones.
Later on we were able to set up wireless stations all along behind the coastlines and around Japanese posts, Including one within a mile of Japanese General Headquarters. We managed to pin-point the main Jap We begin to organise a
positions in the Brunel sector sum- ciently to direct air attacks and to
"Candidus"
NEXT WEEK
blow-pipe army.
on Income Tax:
BURDEN WILL FALL ON A MINORITY
"AST Wednesday's bolt from the blue that Income Tax is to be imposed at once naturally came as a shock, and the more one ponders the more of wonders who made the decision, and upon what advice. It is not a question of
wishing dodge taxation as far as Britian- tunals are concerned, for they can "take it as
as philosophically as the people of Britain. It is the undeni ble tret that someone has cher put the glass to the blind eye, or wil- fully disregarded the advice, or re- fused to seek the advice, of those who, by reasons of muny years spent In the Fur East, know that the tax
BY LOW
ANTI
EMITISM
will not be truly universal for the simple reason that the majority of Hongkong's population will evade it, It will be interesting to learn whe- ther advice was sought; whether the unofficials were consulted or not. It is pleaded that this tax is needed to rehabilitate the Colony's finances. A tax for such a necessary purpose must be one calculated to cover the community as a whole, and hot a minority from whom the collection happens to be simplicity itself.
Surely there are ways and means of spreading the cost of financial re- hablitation evenly. Sales tax, pro- At tax, poli tux, luxury tax, In-
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43 Fronch Bank Bldg., Hongkong
creased rates and taxes, harbour dues WHITE HORSE WHISKY
hese would secure universal cover-
these
axc. although crocodiles' tears would doubtless be wrung from the over- whelming section of the Chinese
who are past masters in their res
responsibilities.
itles. There number of Chinese course. men of integrity and standing who
The
are, of
Senior Whisky
will
of
maintain above,
come within the scheme
things, but they, as
Pare
very much in the minority.
As soon as a restaurant or meals tax was imposed, ivho complained? That form was
Was not
easy to dodge. There
will
be no protest from the overwhelming majority of the Chil- SCHO
in the matter of income tax, because no form of
more easily dodged venue can be Autocratic decisions are not plea- sant, and bearing in mind the vell of DOCTOCY which has been employed
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WHO is to blame for the sudden shorloge of coal in the Colonyt Some place the responsibility at the door of Government, and others blame the Gas Company. It is hard to belleve that any commercial con-
1.
Tal. 30311,
DDT DANGERS
corn, especially a public utility com- --An" average-sized person would pany, would be so short-sighted as have to swallow a large spoonful of
VET'S NEW FACE
Ex-Bombardier Archie Parish, 25, sweating out "missions to tho to overlook the necessity of building DDT, from 20 to 40 grams, to become Hospital in Los Angeles just as he operating room at Sawtelis Veterans these days violently polsoned, in the opinion endured bombing missions in
An
at the
at Los
4
tha
Moro
When his plane was hit and he was wounded in 1943 over now forgotten 'Japanese-föld. island, It started Archie on three years of plastic surgery, 720
up adequate reserves in the q uncertainty.
of Dr Frederick Creseltelll, asso-South Pacide until he got hit. insufficiency of coal might well inte professor of zoology mean the disruption of the Colony's University of California lifo from many points of view. beating, ferries, trams, hos-
Angoles. pital
factories and many other
necessities might be brought to a stop, and as yet there
no assuranes that they will not The publie is entitled to know who is responsible, and to be given as surance that every possible step to being taken to remove the threat which at prosent exists,
(Contianed on Page 197
ค
"When administered In sufficient dosea to monkey, DDT causes marked toxid
an.animal
such as effects as shown by the develops every three weeks, Archle soon will With one operation scheduled ment of a continuous violent trem mive now lips, nose, eye and chenks or, an inability to co-ordinate move- Between times, he attends an aire. ments and, eventually a series of craft Instrument school under the periodic convulsions" he said. "Dogs, G... bill. While a patient In the cats, rats and rabbits show some hopital be studies what similar symptoms."
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automotive