In September the I.J.A. gave us a sudden foretaste of the methods they could use against us to achieve their own ends. They brought out a form that every prisoner was told to sign. In the first place it promised not to try to escape, and secondly to obey implicitly all and any orders given by the I.J.A. Of course this was refused, and we explained how, under our Military Law as well as under all International Law, such an assurance could never be given, and should never be asked. A second demand met a second refusal, and the Nips would not accept it and said that we must take the consequences.

In the small hours of the following morning, all P.O.W.s in the Changi area were instructed to move into Selarang Barracks by 11 o’clock that day. These Barracks were about a mile and a quarter down the road, and consisted of about six blocks built round an asphalt parade ground and suitable to hold one battalion of about 850 men. Into that area, about 200 by 250 yards, we must now move about 17,000 persons, many of them sick, with all their cooking and other utensils. We would stay in Selarang until we signed.

Before the move started, though, the senior Lieutenant Colonels were called to Changi goal, where they were forced to witness the cold-blooded shooting of four P.O.W.s who had been caught attempting to escape. The leader of the party, a massive Australian, offered to take all the responsibility and pleaded that his associates should be excused. This was refused. When the Indian officers fired under a Japanese officer’s orders, they were so nervous that the Australian was the only one hit, and that in the knee. It took several rounds to finish off a man that a decent race would have respected as a soldier trying to do his duty. This was typical terror tactics, and it must have set a sombre mood for our seniors as they journeyed to Selarang.