That was probably the best day anyone ever had, and never had I seen so many people so kindly and friendlily disposed towards us.

The other parties that went over to Johore Bahru were only really interesting for the long ride crossing the causeway, and possibly ransacking the tens of thousands of charred tins of pineapple in the old burnt out factories to try and find a few good ones. On one journey the Nips collected several hundred – or rather we did for them – and gave us about nine or ten tins a head commission. On that journey, also, you used to pass the Memorial on the Johore road, built to commemorate the spot from which I.J.A. soldiers left to invade the island of Singapore itself.

So far in Bukit Timah the Signals officers had not managed to get hold of a wireless, though later on the C.O. was to receive the news each morning from our own concealed set; and as there was no official news at the end of the third or fourth month there started a new and wonderful crop of rumours that were implicitly believed by 80 per cent of the Mess. The phoney news distributor, who came each morning to visit us, was a rather queer Australian doctor. He told us that the war in Europe was drawing to a close, and daily brought us in reports as to the exact positions of the British and Russian armies in Germany. When the armies had almost overlapped, and peace was certain within 24 hours, the Mess was agog. But the following morning the doctor didn’t turn up and we never saw him in the Mess again. It was a great pity, for it went without saying that landings had already been made in Java and Sumatra, and people had hoped to be free within a few weeks. This was all in June 1942!

Running parallel to these rumours there were reports of current Japanese bloodiness. There was an unconfirmed story of three prisoners found in Singapore being shot for attempted escape. The Nips didn’t only shoot at you if they saw you escaping, but you were shot after you were caught. Then there was the true story of the boat escaping from Singapore soon after the capitulation, filled with troops and nurses who were attempting to reach Sumatra, and were intercepted by a Nip patrol boat. They were all taken to a nearby island, and the men were marched inland. Presently came the crackle of machine gun fire. . . . The women, then, were told to march into the sea, and as they marched they were machine gunned down into the water. The Nips left without further investigation.