THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 1947.
THE ARMY OF THE JUNGLE HOLE
U
■Final Instalment
ΤΟ
FAREWELL
SHANGRI-LA
NTIL, you've tried to walk
from Brunel Bay to our hole in the jungle head- quarters ni Bateo, you just wouldn't believe there could be 10 many mountains arranged parallel to each other and at
line to our right-angles march.
of
Our show was made considerably worse by a peculine native custom, When a hill tribesman dies, there is first of all big party nad fest a week later to celebrate his depar ture. For the next year, his family will be busy collecting rice, cattle, and gifts to bave a much bigger party.
The guests may run into a couple of thousand.
The climax THE drinking of rice wine may last a week. The climax of the binge is that everyone climbs one of this local peaks and cuts a clearing or ride for 20 or 30 yards along the top of it
This is the dour for the man's spirit to proceed to the afler-life.
The bigger the party, the more the guests feel obliged to malte 4 bigger door on a bigger and better peal.
And it is common fonn for the ordinary Jungle tracks afterwards to go through these doors when they cross the range. So, a nice flat bit
of track doesn't interest a hillman.
can
by TOM HARRISSON
A final instalment of Tom Harrisson's story of war against the Japanese in the Borneo jungle.
natches of ground on a track and both sides of It are suwn' with these needles of pales.
Nothing shows, but the pressure of the foot drives the spike into the fustep.
Of course, we evacuated the whole population and all food supplies ahead of every Jop column,
So, the farther they got in, the less And they had not food they had. the nave knowledge to live off the jungle.
Neverthless, I must pay my tribute to their amazing endurance and stamina.
One column of 800 curried on for more than four months, making on average of only two miles a day, and losing, a nan a mille, and at the end of it 40 were still in fighting
condition.
We made it easy for any column in their first stretch away from the coast. It was better to let them get
in.....
Our own airfield
On the other hand, we didn't want
N
army could live at case for ever.
And by now we had our own pri- vate airfeld.
And these chaps are so long in the them to get very fur in cuse they leg and powerful In the thigh. they starled interfering with our own
or more p Party 8015, or
the supply nes, 'radle network, or the meuntath without worrying, wonderfully rich and fertile valleys Se pot pretty uned to it in well, and we the Sun grilu uplaids, where an ended up by ma
making two doors for my friend squadron-Leader Graham Pockleigh, DFC, RAAF, and Major Ben Ellis, British
ish parachutist with over 100 jumps, both of whom were lost when the plane
we which dropped our original party in March was shot down by the fapy a few minuter Inter on its way home
Only I selected the few highest and previously uncilmbed mountains in Central Borneo for these two doors. That made cren my native friends think twicet
Suicide rate
We had never imagined when we dropped in that an airfield would be
possibility.
#1
But soon after we got in we heard nows of a number of Amerleun air men shot down in the interior.
We collected 11 and the question was: What to do with the chaps? They were in a shocking state, with malaria, tores, dysentery and nerves, As it was impossible to walks them out, the only thing was to By them So I decided to build an air-
vut.
beld,
THE short-legged Japy, who had to
I had one man to spare for the carry all their own kit, took tor- rible punishment on the mountains. Job Australian Private Grimths-a
You are doing very well. hero if wonderful chap, you can march five miles a day.
After about 50 miles the odd Jap began to commit suicide. After 100, the stelde rate was roughly ene a day.
Of course, we helped them to feel that way, ably assisted the leeches, the rain and a few special tricks.
In most places in Borneo the leeches ure a menace. They get worse as you go in. If you are in good shape, the loss of blood doesn't matter much.
When you begin to weaken it makes a difference,
Borneo rain is nobody's business. Up in the interlor tableland it falls over 200 inches a year, and all the year round.
It generally comes on about three o'clocs in the afternoon, if you are wise you start marching at rst daylight and start building your Jungle-leaf shelters for camp by 2,30. (We never used tents or any other unneccsary equkiment.).
"Creeper' bridges
UDDENLY unaccountably, every
The native labour supply was un- limited, but no one had the slightest idea of law to set about I
With
# little frantic radio signalling I got a Yanls Catalina to drop some buckets and spades.
Unfortunately, the barefoot natives refused to use the spades. They cleared the area with fire and sticks, hands, home-made hoes, and their feet.
The men did the shovelling and fattening, the women carried away the muck. 'As usual, it rained every day, and our embryo alefeld turned into duckpond.
soon
The combined Australian inillative of Griffiths and bull-dog stupidity of Harrisson determined to place on top of the rich mud a runway of bamboo,
HUN
In seven days
LJUNDREDS of natives cut down the biggest bamboos, which were sliced into strips.
The bamboo was so clastic and strong that It never really sank into the mud.
atrip
In seven days we had a ready. So two gallant Aussie pilots of an Austercraft flight, led by Flight-Lieutenant Cheyney, of Syd- ney, made the hazardous Journey over unmapped and unbroken coun- try. They got in all right.
ite and I decided to try the first experimental take-off.
After tearing through a number of rice fields and teaping a 15ft. bank. we learned the hard way that the runway wasn't long enough,
There had been an error in de coding the radio signal telling us the minimum length.
Twenty-four hours later we had laid another 70 yards of bamboo.
Now,
with shuttle service to Yanks. we flew out the Labuan. And we were able to go down and consult with the regular army peo ple, or even go out for the night for a party.
One
In particular, one large refused to surrender.
column
After a month they ran out of salt. Then they heard that there
was some salt away in the uplands So they started making for our air- field
In their rear
DY this time I was around in their BY
rear, with Major Rex Blow, an Australian who had escaped from a Jap P.o.W. cnrp in North Borneo, become a much decorated merith lender in the Philippines, and new came along with me for the fun of 11, the war being otherwise over.
Paul Bartram commandect the forces from the Shangri-la end. The Australian paratroop officers had all
Paul knew gone home.
nothing about soldlering,
I sametimes think, ofter what I've seen in Borneo, that the less you know about it the better.
Be that as it may, when the mọ- ment came, Paul stopped the Japs absolutely dead with some of the nierst, if most chaotic, plcers of military tacties I have seen or heard
of.
What was left of this Jap column finally gave up on October 31, 1945. exutily four miles from the airfield.
During the war no Jap had been
able to get within 50 miles!. It took the peace to reaily shake us up in our Shangri-In,
Tho wor was strictly over now. There were 350 sick Japs on ou?" hands, about as far from elvilisation or the nearest military policeman as anyone could be; there was plenty of work left in the interior.
As I had been the first person to drop in, I thought I might as well be the last person to come out.
Brave and true
CO, from November 1945 to July It made a big psychologient dif-1046 I remained in the lonely and beautiful mountains evacuating Japs, ference.
3ins, disarming guerillas and clearing up R.A.A.F. 1ype, f
Oxford, tcol Flight-Lieutenant Paul Bertram, an the mess Englishman from charge of the airfield and Shangri- la headquarters.
Perhaps I didn't appreciate how lucky I was. At least, not until I hit the coast and the first newspaper The place began to become a per- hit me. fect tourist resori, with brasshals Up there, we had never heard of week-end of the UNO or Emie Bevin, we innocently coming up for
the war there cool mountain air and the strong rice thought that after
would
be, peace In Europe ay in The fertile valleys teemed with Borneo.
Now I can look back and think of cattle, buffalo, pigs, goats, fowls, fruit and vegetables.
the way those, people risked every- The natives grew excellent tobacco thing to fight for the white man and themselves were generous and against the Jap. hospitable.
wine.
By the time the war ended in August we were ready to go home. or to sit in Shangri-la.
Unfortunately, some Japs thought differently.
I hope the British and Dutch Governments will ever forget that In Botnco, as in Burms, it was the hill tribes, the so-called backward and uncivilised peoples, who proved the truest and the bravest citizens.
FOUR RACES
RIVALRY
BACKGROUND TO SOUTH AFRICA
stream and river on your track A
would be in raging food. These
by Peter Stursberg
SOUTH AFRICAN humorist treated to obtain one ounce of gold. Such methods would not be pro-
plenty of both.
and
once described the Orange itable without cheap labour floods can make progress impossible. Free State as having more cheap power, but South Africa has
We, always had secret caches of land and less scenery than any food, and often knew special ways other part of the world.
Of course, he was pulling his
round dificult ridges or fords.
Better than that, the hill people
are wizarda at bridge building. countrymen's collective leg, and Working with a very tough sort of the King and Queen. will see vine
or creeper, they can quickly from their train window wild sling suspension bridge from one river bank to another."
mountains and rivers and lush, tropicul verdure and pleasant farmlands as well as the barren veldt.
The crossing is not recommended for those who get nervous when they hear the word Dakotu.
But it's a lot better than fording a flood or crossing a crocodile.
Everyone in the interior was on our side.
the Japs hot as mest of the areas
But they will be truck by the large, empty spaces, as they must have been when they travelled pernas Canada.
to cross were unmap- ped, they usually ended up having no idea where they were.
Mostly they were trying to make for places hundreds of miles away where they believed there were Jap miles, garrisons intact.
More than half the population obtains its living either directly or Indirectly from this industry, 80 that South Africa cannot be regard ed as a pastoral land.
It was the discovery of gold which brought about the first violent change in the country and ended the "republle of farmers." The in- flux of "outlanders" into the Orange
Free State and the Transvaal after the hidden treasure troves of the Band led to the Boer War,
Now the rise of the factories on
IN
SMUTS
Regarded abroad as a great ́statesman.
the veldt may lead to another vio- which set up, the South Africa of tent upheaval with the same bitter to-day, social consequences, only this time There is still friction between the Instead of British struggling
the Afrikanders. with British and, Boer it will be Europeans against the Boers are now called, but the
Its half-million square miles are four times the size of Great Britain. and the distance between its two most important cities. Capetown the natives. and Juhannesburg. is o thousand
which the crack "Union CAPE SQUABELE Express" train does in just under 30
A reller map of South Africa has THE thousands of natives been likened
to
Д
dinner-plate
turned face down. The hinterland plants are bound to insist on their Indian population.
rights in time.
0.000
1
ងច
real struggle Is between the Europeans and the non-Europeans. This was brought out at the recent meeting of the Uniled Nations In To make sure they never got hours,
being New York, when South Africa was there, we obliged them by making
drawn into the mass production criticised for its treatment of its phoney trucks.
Long before the column approach-
The Indians amount to a quarter ed, a gung of
of tribesmen would start is a great plateau rising to
For years the British and. Dulch, of million of South Africa's from a village and cut an entirely
sca-level and making squabbled over the Cape, which its population.. feel above
Tho real problem now track slightly in the Wrong Johannesburg one
highest discoverers of the
called the Cope of facing the two million Europeans direction, going off into the worst cities in the world. (it is also one Storms and which later sentimental in the country is the eight million possible country for three or four of the youngest, as it is only sixty settlers changed to the Cape of natives.. days, ending nowherd.
-years old.)
Good Hope,
Although the Boers slaughtered Other trucks out of the village
Finally they settled in a business- Dingaan's Zuius as the, Canadians would be confused and cbscured.
like manner during the Peace of slaughtered the ited Indians, con- Anyway, It's very dificult to find
Parts in 1814. The British bought tact with the while man in South your way out of a Villege If you THE Royal Family arrived at the Cape Colony from the Dutch for Africa did not lead to the end of don't know, because there are scores end of the summer, for the £0,000,000.
; the natives as it did in Canada. On of buffalo and wood-gathering tralis. sensons are in reverse town there, in all directions.
and found the weather fairly, warm Act emancipating the slaves
It all began in 1835, when the the contrary, the native population. bgs doubled in the last forty upset although not too hot.
the independent Boer farmerz
yeurs. 80
THE TRAGEDY
leader,
main
RICH GOLD LAND
And there's no such thing as a
road in
The soft climate it seldom goes much that 10,000 of them started on the Interior, All tracks
below fifty degrees in the winter
are the same width-a squeeze,
South African Field-Marshal Jan is now the Orange Free, State, und, Christian Smuts, is regarded abroad The war has affected the economy the Transvaal.
on a great statesman, acd rightly
In most parts of the Union-matures by rendre which wilt le what THE Veremble
founding a new nation in
young
On all tracks plenty of obstacles were provided. A team of natives people you can tell a 200ft, jungle tree in a few minutes.
It will probably take the best part of an hour to cut a way round..
And If you are really clever you can fall one big tree on a alopo nudi it will start a landslide,
"CANDIDUS” ON WORLDPOLITICS
Momentous
Policy Decisions
stage of international poli URING the last month, the
ties has revealed fast-moving scenes which have given food for profound thought for most. of us.
In spite of the earlier promises of the power of the United Nations in settling international dis-, putes without again resorting to war," it has become ali too patent that the very term "United" fa a misnomer; and it is equally clear that Rusula is largely to blame.
The strong and dromatic lend taken by Amerlea leaves no room for doubt
which ns to
nation is responsible for the discord
which exists in the Council. of UNO, and the chain of American nh- nouncements and netions, taken in chronological order in sh short space of time, is surely enlighten- Ing.
E
ARLY in the month, MacArthur advocated. "a quick and early peace with Japan," and although "economic stability" is as good n reason us any other one rather sus- pects the sudden urgency,
About the same time, the United States rejected Russia's plan for the control of atomle energy, but an- nounced its intention of spending $400,000,000 in the further develop- ment of such energy for 1917/8. Shortly afterwards, An American senator asked: "Can America afford to give Russia the opportunity to extend its Influence Into Greece and Turkey and gain control of the Dar- danelles?"
The belief that the senator was "inspired"
the confirmed by momentous announcement made bỳ President Truman which quickly followed, appealing to Congress to assist Grecce and
to the Turkey extent of $400,000,000. Sald the President: "The peoples of a num ber of countries of the world
have totalitarian recently had
regimes forced
upon them against their A very good reason, pre- will sumably, for the United States 10- ing over the United Nations Organi- sation, and Indicating in no uncer- tain manner its lack of faith in UNO and its determination to check the sprend of an Individuatistic doctrine which has already caused trouble in almost every corner of the world.
.
•
IN reporting Truman's speech, Lon-
don commentators stated: "The gloves were off in Washington and Moscow today (March 12) when the most forthright pronouncements of
of the postwar President Ilarry Truman and Mr Ernest Bevin chal- lenged the Soviet Union on its rela- ilons in Eastern Europe and Ger-
Me un her policy--and 'one
01
cannot belleve that it is bluff... America discussed the question ald to Hungary and troops for Greece and equipment to Turkey. The British Parliament
granted £19,000,000 to Greece (without taking a vote) in order "to help keep that country's forces to main- tain order."Against whom? Do not Jet us delude ourselves. Aguinsi Russla and Communism!
As recently as March 10, the U.S. Ambassadors to Greece and Turkey were recalled for consultations, Why?
As the result of America's Inter- vention, Turkish spokesmen told the United Press that "....the peace- loving Turkish nation, which is deeply attached to democratic ideals, is ready to defend independence against aggression." Still later, and all within the
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Labour Government Safe
For Many Months To Come
By LAWRENCE MEREDITH - (Unlied Press Staff Correspondent)
Britain's Labour Government is safe for at least 18. months from attack by the Conservative Party, which be. lieves no crisis serious enough to overthrow its opponents will arise in that time, a consensus of Tory leadership.
shows. framework of the American decision, the U.S. sent a lask force to Greek and Turkish
Conservative leaders believe upper classes realise what a com waters, including the strategie Dar- their first opportunity to over. plete social revolution the last cleo- dondelles, while the State Depart throw Prime Minister Clement has the bit of power in its teeth, and tion precipitated. The Labour Party ment called for speed on the Presl Attlee's giverment will come there is no Tory rein strong enough dent's
programme to halt the spread of Communism.
In the Far East, only when the results of the to dislodge it."" $600,000,000 have been voted for nationalisation of transport be- economic assistance in Korea by the come evident. They believe this
U.S., an American spokesman stated: “In
•
recent
100
Conservatives
Second Chanco and in connection with this, bill, now before the House of. During week-ends spent in Eng- land's "black country"the area Korea, as nowhere else in the world, Commons, will cause a greater from Birmingham to Derby--it was the U.S. and the Soviet Union face strangulation of industry than evident that almost without excep each other directly."
the present fuel and power tion workers in England's industrial crisis.
heart were willing to give the Labour UCH 13 'the review of
Conservatives in Parliament will Government a "scrond chance," on events. The strength of pur-make no 100 percent attacks against the theory that "the country really posé behind American policy, which the Government for 18 months belongs to us now."
to
The rift among obviously has British backing, can- two years, when they expect, the na-
Is not be ignored. It is realised that tionalisation of transport to bring growing in the belief among younger in Europe, Russia supports a strong "chaotic result.”
members that Churchill is not offer- Germany, and this fact in itself is
Conservatives are not prepared for ing effective opposition in Parlia
They ridicule his “punch stirely significant.
the Sifting
momentous facts a general election now and will not ment.
he for
a year and a half to to pulling attack on the Government during the fuel debate, and there is which emerge from a close study of
Their machinery years.
for the present-day international situs nation-wide campaign was allowed sub-rosa talk of a "deal" not to hit tion, it is impossible to escape the to get rusty when the Labourites hard as long as the Labour Party view that America, at all costa, 1s piled up determined to check the spread of
their heavy Commons forgoes the nationalisation of Iron and steel. Her majority 19 months ago. Further- the Communistle doctrine.
Young
Conservatives complain Hermore, suffered
Conservatives own great
'country has
are not sure that Churchill, as the party loader,
to enough from the infiltration of Com-they have properly qualified men
out" polities in which, like a cricket munistic agents, and she realises form a Cabinet to take the country relies on 19th Century "in and match, each party after ita- turm, fri that the time has come to Indicate way from Socialiar.
Feeling Against Churchill in nú uncertain terms that sho
power concedes the other an innings. There is à ̈ growing split in the not going to allow her own precious. conception of Liberty to be shatter-Conservative Party against the " Out-Planning The Planners ed by a doctrine diametrically op: leadership of Winston Churchill, Many of them-including Anthony posed to her ideals and the Ideals of which was glossed over at the party Eden, according to reports believe American. convention at Blackpool last autumn the only way the Conservatives can evary. Liberty-loving Britain and America stand or fall but still exists.
return to power is by "out-planning" together when it comes to the ques- This speculation is based on the the planners of Seclailam by; a plan tion of asserting once and for all opinion of some of the foremost which would assist - privato-oWODY. their determination to champion the Conservative leaders, and comes as ship in eliminating the prescut "eco- cause of Peace and Liberty, No the world's_newspapers_talic of the nomle wastelande nation has over endeavoured by fair "tottering Labour Government be For the past few months a number means or foul to. foit its particular | cause of the econome e Conservatives have been meeting with Liberals
crisis. It also
also of widely known younger Conserva ideals upon Russia and · it is now comes at time when
given by the United States, Russia of municipal bye-elections last No known as the "Augustank, has will not be allowed to feist hier own vember showed that the Party had branches throughout Britain. modo of mass control upon liberty-
gained
1,000,000 votes from the other is headed by Capt. Peter Labourites over the previous city
city Thorneycroft
and
loading And so the scenes
Liberais, Lady Juliet Rhys-Williama dinal act will reveal the future
Some International relations and, above the Labourites may stay in office for groups, ilave
with Thomey- all decide whether freedom of many years
croft Goldblatt and Lady - Rhys- aniions and individuals shall be pre- One widely known Tory said: Williams as vice-presidenta of the served.
"Fow people among the middle and newly-constituted Augustana.
gold mining still. ranks high of all kinds poured into their has to agree to actions which, would I evident that, thanks to the load | tive central offoe sialma! that realt and Independents. One such group..
Bamboo traps the world's gold, about £100,000,000 At the end of the nineteenth cen-
of South Africa as it has done that However, the world 'would not so, for he has been one of the of anany other countries. Factories leave these simple propio stone. architects of the United Nations... have sprung up on the veldt, and not even in the depths of Africa, "And yet in his own country be. manufacturing now takes first place and foreigners und adventurers In the national income, although
now be warmly approved by Senator land after the wealth that was Bilbo and others of his illc in the The Dominion produces a
a third I of buried in it..
Southern States of America.
n... year, but it does not "get. fury the inevitable war began, and Liberal in South Africa. As one of
this wealth cally.
the Boars fought hard to proserve them has expressed it: "Wo, dare Although very great, the gold thele way of life, and so impressed not advance too fast, wa dare not deposits are low grade and quite all liberal-minded Englishmen that, advocate racial equality, otherwise often more than live tons of apa few years after, the war ended, we'll put in office oven blacker re- have to be mined and crushed and they were given the Act of Union, actionarica than, wo have now, but
TRIBESMEN are also Ingenious trappers Favourite trap is a camouflaged pit will bamboo spikes: In fact, the use of tiny, dagger sharp, hamboos of common.Whole
iwo
But that is the tragedy of the loving nations. change. The talloting. Me loaders believe and David Got Theso twa
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of
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