In the first place we were warned that any attempt to escape would be punished by shooting if we were caught, and with no appeal. Secondly, there’s no doubt that in the early days even our friends thought that ‘we’d had it’; the news from Europe was very bleak, and to expect in those early days that a Malay or Chinese should take the responsibility of helping in an escape attempt was quite unreasonable, and all such help, if discovered, was also punishable by death.

And then, where were to escape to? The whole of Indonesia was in Nip hands; their fleets not only ruled the Pacific, but up to the Coral Island and Midway battles, they had strong and apparently successful fleets in the Indian Ocean. Their Air Force was the only one ever heard or seen in the S.W. Pacific. So, then, it was only really possible to attempt to go to two countries – India or Australia; and such an attempt was pure suicide. How could one consider fuelling, purchasing and equipping a boat to cross the seas to 2,000 mile distant Australia, when the difficult, hazardous waters were patrolled by the Nip navy; when supplies would be doubtful in the extreme; and when such a boat would have cost tens of thousands of dollars?

And India? Well, India would have meant nearly 2,000 miles of jungle travel, for obviously the rail and roads were out of the question. I’m convinced that even a Malayan who spoke first-rate Malay and knew the whole country, would have had 1,000-1 odds against getting half way. An Asiatic fearful of the responsibility of having seen a white man in his district; a reward from the Nips; jungle ulcers and malaria; food, each of these were vast difficulties in themselves. Then, should you have reached the Thai border, you would have another people to cope with, another language, hundreds more miles of jungle, tens of thousands of Nip troops, and still have all Burma before you! No, escape was lunacy.

Yet people did have the magnificent courage and stupidity to attempt it, and the following story may illustrate the difficulties. Four Malayans, planters and so on, decided to try and escape up country, overland. They had their Malay contact in a kampong outside whose duty was to provide food and a canoe to paddle over the Strait and land them in Johore. On the night of their chosen day, these four met their Malay in his boat on the water’s edge. He was very late in coming, which didn’t help their nerves, but eventually arrived with part of their ordered food. His charge was high – but so was his risk. It was 500 dollars. They clambered on board, and soon reached the other side in safety. They were carrying far to heavy kit – tinned food, rice, blanket, mosquito-netting, etc., probably 50 lbs in all, and 2,000 miles to go.