1954-08-31 — Page 4

THE CHINA MAIL, TUESDAY, AUGUST 31, 1954,

MEN BEARING THE SCARS OF THE DEATH RAILWAY' DISCUSS A QUESTION THAT SEARS. THE "HEART

DO

YOU ATONE

WITH A FIVER?

-or buy forgiveness with flowers?

IAM wants to use the invaluable railway that links Bangkok to Ban- goon-a railway built large- ly by British prisoners of war under Japanese army engineers and guards in 1942 and 1943.

And to salve its conscience. about this rallway (one of the most inhuman atrocities of modern times) it wants to pay compensation to those slaves of the Japanese who built it.

So the Siamese have allocated £170,000 to the British Government for dis- tribution to British Service- men who worked on the Railway of Death.

By RUSSELL BRADDON

Australian author who was A POW of

And the Japs wrote "The Naked Island" about his experiences.

wish to use

that railway, knowing that every sleeper on its entire length cost one human life.)

I am not At to Judge this Toader. People tell me I am

So i went

Queen to bitter, Mary's Hospital at Roehampton and asked the opinion of some of the ex-P.o.W, patients there.

EX PRIVATE GREENALL of the East Surreys, was one of the a group of 23 cut IT by nghting in Malays. They took That amounts to £5 a head, the jungle. Suon only four The question is: Is that fair compensation? And pensation for what?

Con-

For living like animals. dying like flies, and rotting with discuse for almost twe years.

For working under Korean and Japanese guards whos cruelty was fiendish.

For

suffering malarial For attacks in their scores. enduring cholera, beriberi,

survived

"O

These four stepped out of the jungle one day straight in- f a Japanese the arms patrul. They put up their hands. Promptly the Japanese shot them all

Pulle

Murdered

11

with DRIVATE Greenall

right through bl mach and out his back, lived --lived to work on the alway In Stam.

"Five pounds isn't

ulcers, blindness, amputa- he wil

anesthetics, tions without and starvation.

Misery

FOR hearing a Japanese senior officer refuse drugs or food

to alleviate their unnecessary misery by say ing: "No-there are plenty more prisoners of war."

For seeing the Siamese themselves look on, from beginning to end, apparent- ly without pity and certain ly without intervention. (The Siamese, who

now

enough," "but then no amount is enough-specialty in the case of the men who didn't get back. Money." be pointed out, "won't try a child a father."

scooped out afresh each day, he would have lost his leg,

Now he is in hospital recover- Ing from the after-effects of a gangrenous internal infection. Of the Siamese he says: "The eduenied folk weren't bad-but the natives were agin us."

And of the £5 he says: "Look, it's not money you want-that won't ploc

back vou

your health."

EX-PRIVATE COX, of the East

hts Surreys, chruge shoulders. "Somo of the he Stamese were all right," declares. "Most of 'em were a bit crafty, though."

EX-C.S.M. STRACHAN, AN emphatic but stendy-minded Scot from the Gordon High- landers, says: "As compensation it's awful but still, there it 1x." Indeed, there is! And strangely enough none of them

though they are not rich men -showed any enthusiasm for They were not sure the mency that g Foldiers they deserved special compensation

Over and ordinary pensions. above But they were sure of the angle of the Siamese and the Japs.

the

They were sure that no race to buy them- should be able

selves the right to tolerable or perpetrate acts of vielous cruelty over British citizens for a lump sum of £5 a head.

St the

They were sure that the com- pensation

was offered

light, and Judicrously conscience money being paid so unconscionably inadequate, that the British Government should Hot accept Siam's proposal at

all

To accept it as compensation fur Servicemen who became Astatic slaves would be an insult

Those fathers who lost their live on the railway didn't die. they were murdered with the to the Servicemen; to accept it Siamese looking on.

the

10

as adequate penance from Siamese would be an insult EX-PRIVATE SKIPPER, of Britain itself. We are surely the 20l Norfolks, helped build worth more as a race than 50%.

that supported the per person per year. the banks craziest riverside ratiway bridge ever, near a jungle camp call- el Tasan,

On hạ shin, nine inches long

and two inches wide, is a ilvid, black sear. That was a tropical

Flowers

、 ག་ནཾཏཾ

ösa

ATO

THANKS, OLD BOY, I PREFER TO STANDO

A WOMAN HEARS FROM HER DOCTOR

World Copyright by arrangement with the Manchester Guardian,

DREAD WORDS

SHE FIGHTS

BACK....AND LIVES.. .AND TRIUMPHS

I Prayed:

Oh, Please

God, Let Me Get Well

By BABE

ZAHARIAS

three times U.S. Women's Open Golf champion, an interview with RONALD SINGLETON

in

"BABE" DIDRIKSON ZAHARIAS (say it Za-Harris), the world's leading woman golfer, was told at 41: "You have cancer." That was 15 months ago. In July she won the U.S. Woman's Open Golf Championship for the third time. Now she tells her story, the story of a woman who drilled herself with prayor and

to

over

sickness—as and hope faith

triumph rigorously as she had trained to be champion. of many sports. to box, to pitch at baseball, to win the Javelin throw, and the 80-metra hurdles race at the Olympics....It is a story of courage and conquest, with

a message for everyone who has over said: "I am afraid."

I remembered beating a tough young man at boxing (1 boxed him on condition

Lite was

90

ALWAYS planned to the

WAB discase. It

11 these things they were sure.

I remembered football, physical wrestle, and every They are

seemed not bitter men;

get a physical check-up o'clock; I had

thing in the past to be in ice-skating, and bowling. ulet, and in the absence of any but they were soldiers and they

only the preliminary bout. but there were too many hospital at noon. drs) if he badn't bad it are proud of it. As 1 left one

the £5, tournaments in my diary. with

"Forpri serad clean

spoon, shouted: n

I said "Okay." I smiled, Aussie--see if you can get us I once suffered excruciating seme flowers. It's the only thing pain-it was foolish not to but it was painful to do In this place we really need." see a doctor. When I did even that.

The whole world fell apart. For some time I did not know what to do, or say, or think.

CHINESE

CREEDS

and

CUSTOMS

by

V. R. BURKHARDT

ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR IDEAL GUT

FOR FRIENDS Abroad FOURTH IMPRESSION

$18.00

-POST OFFICES +

cancer.

doctor It would be nice to think the go, the

was quiet Government would take them al after an examination. their word. It would be nice to see our Government say to the Japanese (who paid off their crimes with £15 head) and to the Slamere (with their offer want to be sure.. of £5): "To hett with your money. Send the victima of this railway flowers instead,

I said: "I have [Tell me so." He said: "We

smeli

Somehow, where bestiality Is concerned, blossoms sweeter than pence,

"

And then: serious... you may never play any sport again."

I played...

"It is very DURING eight days' pre- paration for my opera- tion in my hometown of Beaumont, Texas (it was May 1958), I lay in bed and looked out of the window.

I did not cry. They said I had the worst form of

RENE MacCOLL WRITES FROM CHINA TO HIS AUNT MILLICENT

THE

POSTMARK

IS HANGCHOW

Hangchow, Sunday. Ying, which means, "Wave- like Willows Hear the

Dear Auntie,

good; it was though something had sprung upon me and decreed he wouldn't pull his punches. "You are to lose it, lose it all.” I floored him once in the three rounds!)

I remembered (ahl how

clearly and wonderfully it all came back just as though

I pray

PRAYED. I prayed along and with my husband. I God. Jet me me fil-make

I was living it all again!) prayed "Please. how I'd pitched a baseball got well. Make innings for the St Louis me able to play golf again." Cardinals against Brooklyn! I never asked in order that

I remembered holding my own against leading tennis

stars.

I

might win.

I just wanted a fairway, and the fresh air, Rome clubs. It was sport and It was also life.... I could see the little fruit

In the operating theatre a kind blossom-lined street called I remembered wearing nun said: "You'll be fine!". Sabina Pass. It was the pants (they chaffed me and same little street in which I called me "Lucky Pants"),It was when I put my feet on played barefoot when I was annd a Scottish cardigan the floor for the Arst time after

operation, with my hus eight, nine, 10, and 11. when I won the British band's arm supporting me,

The same white fence was. championship.

Women's Amateur · golf that I knew I had won through.

there; the same wido gate-

It was as though I had been given a second chance.

I

post which I'd jumped after And I remembered the balancing my way along the hours and hours of swim- fence.

ming with my husband There were children play. George, an ex-wrestler. ing there, skipping and splashing in a nearby brook, As & matter of fact just as I had done. There Auntle, my hotel is called

was one little girl I used to

THE Chinese have a pro- Golden Orioles,"

verb, "Above is Heaven, but below is Hangchow."

Guilty?

the

Everything from that momont onwards took on a totally new meaning. Even the Blossom in Sabina Pass was lovelier, Life was to be fuller and hap pier, and I had an overwhelming desire to share it with all other sufferers,

The doctor said: "You may

So it is to Hangchow that "Sweet Airs Out of the see a lot. In those eight AND here I was, back in Attlee and his splendid team Cool West," and I would say days I went back over the Техав, where it all watch other people play golf." have come today after a this title is as close to fact years of memories-ohl so started .. I felt some- Sonn I was playing, carefully special train journey from as those "Marine View" sharp and clear. Shanghat to recuperate and places you sometimes atay *** collect varlegated thoughts by the coast.

child.

wonderful!"

how guilty. I asked my at first. self what was it that had There were ED many crept up on me like this? George said: "Babe, you're for their joint report on. Well, Auntie, last night in to laugh as I recollected how memories--sometimes I used their great Chinese venture. Shanghai was a high old

I saw so many of the past Now I feel better than ever. I Attlee and his team went time. We got taken to the must have looked as a years, in procession, all the did in my whole life. 1 am

French for a trip tonight over the one-time

Club,

winning, and the very thrill speak of God now-it's "Great Weat Lake" in what which is now a strictly cul-

I remember of battling with a fine though we know Him botter. looked like a super-gondola, tural club, closing on the

opponent on the links. worked by smiling girls. dot of eleven.

REMEMBERED my first Wasn't this also a trial and basketball rigout. It was a task for me?

Attlee is only the last of Everyone danced, hands a long line of travellers to high and chasseed right and sail on the Weat Lake, left, to a radiogram, with Auntie, because Marco Polo ten for refreshments. sang its praises.

Don't think, Auntle, I've You recall that Swiss forgotten your Chinese Auramer when you went on stampe, but the fact is that lake excursions? Well, the in the new People's Republic Great West Lake is like the stampa ara without gura, that, except pagodas sprout, which entalla work with the everywhere and the roofs gum pot. As far as I am of the villae turn up at the concerned, that's the sticky edges like, a tennis racquet limit. left out in heavy dow,"

KOWLOON

The first- "place Attlee's party saw was - Lin Wen

All the best

Your nephew,

trials, training, playing longer. My

hitting a golf ball bolter and

husband and I

Have faith'

on the basketball court that I guess I'm tough by na- I was first known. I made ture. I had a

HERE is moro' meaning in life Way of T the all-American girls' team figuratively

now. And I want to tell gritting my everybody: Have faith--in God, three times 1:

teeth and setting my jaw in doctors, and in yourself, I remembered

give way to emotion, the 1982 and I had always come Never Olympics in the blazing sun through. I had done this Above all, have the will to night,

And always- Pray of Los Angeles when I won with all kinds of sport. I

had always won through.........: have played golt 10 years; the 80-metre hurdles race.

years--want

I remembered when I was With affliction, also? to play in Ireland and Ecotland

(and the

South nérlés)7) (She is going t to only 19 and I won the Throughout the day, Olympis' Javelin 'throw, and night, alone, with my hus-

ritain next your for the first when people said I was an-band Georg

world tour.) BEA

miour thing dianged, because a prayer

espert at discus, shot putt, silent: T was, playing, some hirt Jump, and printing kind of terribly too!

Paris NewsletterTMTM

DRINK KILLED MORE

From

Stephen Coulter

A

S a matter of fact, drink has killed moro Frenchmen In the last seven years than the war in Indo-China. All told, about 92,000 men-haif of them from metropolitan Franco-- died in the war. Over the period, excessive drinking wiped out more |than 100,000 at home,

same

מת

French experts have at lost realised that morailslie preach- ing about over-drinising has no effect. They are now showing that for more men die between the

and 45 than ages of 40 women-and only because they drink too much,

Alcoholism is now a pational tragedy in France.

A curious thing is that most victims come from

the northern part of the country-Brittany and the areas near the Channel where they drink cider and calvados. This won't surprice any visitor who has watched Narmandy peasants downing their tots of calvados Arewaler

5 a.m.

HOW

cultured,

for breakfast at

RARE CROOK

TOW many crocks are really start chaps intelligent,

well sensitive, educated? Judging by the films, would think most were. The report

French of the Prison Commission shown that

one

eight out of ten criminals in gaol have had only the mort rudimentary schooling, many are totally illiterate and three- quarters

mentally balanced in some way;

The

crook' is

in

Arc

legendary

France

un-

gentleman a very rare bird- Only anyway. about one in 200 has had any thing like a decent education.

A LITTLE TIP

I

PASS on with pleasure the following advice to tourists who want to get out of a hotel tho last minuto booking at

when they have found

thing better or cheaper.

say to where

GOTIC-

You

clerk

the reception you have booked: "I suppose it's all right if I bring my three dogs?"

If the hotel isn't entirely anti-dog be will probably nak what kind they are.

You say "Two St Bernards and a Danish mastiff."

by chance this doesn't

A

work, you give him the works. You say: "You won't mind my cooking their food in the room

on a because they're

special diet? I promise I'll be careful not to scorch the wall"

This

nover been one hoa known to fail.

QUIETER TOWN Police are staggered at the success of Operation Jericho - the ban on sounding car horns in Paris. Hardly foot

has been heard since August 1 — perhaps because each one costa 22 chillings a time in Anes. Only one taxidriver has so far been caught-blowing a toy trumpet. SCREECH SCENE SCREECH of brakes in the rue Marbout the other day and I was looking at a nasty little crack-up between a and a motor-scooter. Then helmet ridiol and the unity saw that the girl in the crash

the scooter Odile

car

was

gent wearing homburg and stiff collar was Alec Guinness. They were shooting a scene of their new film "To Paris with Love." BREAD QUEUES DRITISH housewives visiting D Paris are just now flinching at a familiar wartime aight- queues outside bakers shops, Most of the bakers in Paris have closed down for a month's holiday and people in the city dally tramp to the have a

men nenrost one open and a longish

Every year somebody says this system of mass close-down must be changed, but it never | is..

Incidentally, In comparison with the sober British names for loaves, the French have some fancy ones including a string, a ward and a bastard.

POCKET CARTOON

by OSBERT LANCASTER