BooksBarbecue
Back Railroad of Death
Chapters (40)
  1. FOREWORD
  2. RAILROAD OF DEATH
  3. REFERENCE LIST:
  4. Railroad of Death
  5. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION (1948)
  6. INTRODUCTION
  7. PART ONE: SINGAPORE
  8. CHAPTER 1
  9. CHAPTER 2
  10. CHAPTER 3
  11. CHAPTER 4
  12. CHAPTER 5
  13. PART TWO: RAILROAD OF DEATH
  14. CHAPTER 6
  15. CHAPTER 7
  16. CHAPTER 8
  17. CHAPTER 9
  18. CHAPTER 10
  19. CHAPTER 11
  20. CHAPTER 12
  21. CHAPTER 13
  22. PART THREE: BASE CAMPS AND LIBERATION
  23. CHAPTER 14
  24. CHAPTER 15
  25. CHAPTER 16
  26. CHAPTER 17
  27. CHAPTER 18
  28. CHAPTER 19
  29. CHAPTER 20
  30. APPENDIX ONE:
  31. APPENDIX TWO:
  32. APPENDIX THREE:
  33. APPENDIX FOUR:
  34. APPENDIX FIVE:
  35. APPENDIX SIX:
  36. APPENDIX SEVEN:
  37. APPENDIX EIGHT:
  38. APPENDIX NINE:
  39. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
  40. And The Dawn Came Up Like Thunder

My association with the theatre, which had only been held on to so long because the officers were being forced to work once again, ended with the Christmas Show. This was a pantomime, once again by Carl Bucks, Cinderella, and on Christmas night it was a drunken, raging success with a cast that included all the traditional characters and others added for luck. On the actual Christmas night, Carl directed the entire show himself, for I was in bed with malaria. When I recovered, the theatre personnel had been cut down by the Nips, and without complaint – for six months at any job in P.O.W.-ship was generally enough – I joined the Officers Working Party once again, this time as a hut constructions coolie.

CHAPTER 16

IF YOU read this chapter you will come with me for a ramble in Indonesia. I don’t pretend it’s particularly relevant to the chronology of this book, so if you wish to skip the diversion, turn straight on to Chapter 17. For my own part, it must be recorded for it is a period that influenced me greatly, and I want to introduce you to some very charming and interesting people.

Two events started it. At the end of June, when I was already anticipating leaving the Theatre, a friend of mine said one day in the hut: ‘Let’s learn Malay.’ I looked at him speculatively and said: ‘All right, John. I’ll go and ask Noel Scott.’ Noel was a friend of mine and a member of the Malayan Civil Service who really spoke the language well. He agreed to become our teacher, and we started at 11 o’clock the next morning.