大象传媒

In normal times the estate must have been a rather lovely place - ferns large and small grew all along the river banks and at the foot of many trees - some were pink tipped almost a coral colour - others were blue and green like shot silk. I had never seen blue ferns efore. I used to like arranging them in half coconut shells - but latterly I picked them for funerals - and I shall always connect ferns with dear friends who have gone. The coffins were very rough boxes made of boards that did not even join together properly - we used to cover the coffin tops with ferns to make them look more decent and fill in the gaps.

Down in our part of the camp there was not enough sunlight for many flowers to grow - the only flowers that grew in profusion were some pale mauve wild sweet peas - these were very pretty. Mrs Rover told us they were good to eat so we tried them fried and in a sauce made of sago flour and and water. We caled them mock mushrooms but actually they did not taste of anything. we ate the young fern tops as if they were asparagud! We tried various other weeds - some were quite palatable and helped to fill us up - we used to make soup every morning, we took it in turns and produced all sorts of concoctions - fortunately someone generally had pepper or chillies or ginger to help give it some flavour.

I have never seen such beautiful butterflies or so many varieties - some were very large - others tiny. Some looked like autumn leaves falling - others were blue -black with orange velvet bodies. The most common were deep blue and purple - there was one variety , pale green and black which was very pretty. A large number of dragon flies could be seen down by the river - these were very varied - scarlet, red, yellow and blue. There were very few birds but every morning as soon as it waqs light a number of crows used to make a tremendous noise up in the trees.

Our little household got on surprisingly well - although of course there were a few differences now and then. We all worked in the hospital except Mary, who coped with the rations etc. Actually we all helped her as she was not fit to go up and down to the top camp and back more than once a day. She really had not very much to do and for a few weeks she seemed surprisingly fit and well again and much more like her old self. All of us got fever now and again - nearly always there was one or other of us 'off sick'.
After about two months Mamie was very ill - it was impossible for Georgette to carry on the hospital cooking alone so two Dutch women took it over. The room where the hospital cooking was done led into another small room where the dead were laid on the floor until taken away. Georgette said that she got quite accustomed to seeing corpses as she went about her work, in normal life she would have been the last person to say that. Fortunately towards the end, our senses became dulled due to malnutrition, we did not become callous, it was just a matter of existing from day to day. Georgette did regular hours in the hospital like the rest of us and was a great help.

At the end of June Mary became very quiet and depressed - obviously she was not well - she had slight fever at times, puffy legs and seemed unable to pull herself together. She used to lie quietly for hours - I tried to help her by arranging a bed for her outside the hut in the mornings where a little sunshine came through the trees. Dr.Goldberg had very little patience with her and after a few weeks I was glad to get Mary into the hospital where at least she would get the benefit of any extra food which might be sent in.

During June and July more and more people came into hospital in such a state that we knew they would never get any better. Fever, beri-beri, all forms of malnutrition - marasma and dysentry. Miss Dryburgh, Nan Wier, Miss Livingstone, Mary Cooper - MacFie - all real friends dying one after another - several Dutch nuns and Australian sisters died - always one or two deaths every day. The grave diggers found it difficult to dig deep enough, it took so much strength, in the end the children were the strongest and it was they who did the digging. We used to carry the coffins from the hospital up the hill behind amongst the rubber trees to the clearing that was used as a burial place. A few friends used to follow and either Rev.Mother or Miss Cullen took the short service.

After two weeks in hospital Mary seemed to get a little brighter, she was able to sit up in a chair outside for a short time each day but she was still very weak. She was able to buy a few small potatoes - I used to boil them for her and she used to nibble them with a little palm oil. Sometimes I was able to coax her to take a little soup - once or twice a chicken was sent to the hospital - patients were able to buy small portions of it, one chicken between thirty people did not go far. I said to Mary that she ought to try and take anything with nourishment in it - as long as either of us had any money we would buy what we could. But her mouth was very sore and in the end she could not swallow anything. From August 10th, the last week of her life, I realised that she could not live much longer, in fact her emaciated body was in such a state we hoped it would not be long. Helen MacKenzie was very good and helped me every morning to bathe her and make her as comfortable as possible at night. I used to go over and tuck her up and arrange the mosquito net around her. At this stage we were all so weak that we could not do as much as we wanted to for one another. On August 16 Mary was much worse. She dozed most of the day, she had very little pain and at about 7 p.m. the last thing she said was "I can't do anymore - I'm going to join Charlie".
I spoke to her and said I would see Robert, her son, when I got home to give him her love and to say how brave she had been - she gave a little smile - then soon after became unconcious and died within an hour.
By now only five femained of the original fifteen from 'Garage 9'.

August 24th 1945
All those who could walk were told to gather at the top of the camp. Theer we found the Jap captain standing on a table. He announced that the war was over, but we would have to wait for arrangements to be made before we could leave - we must be patient and conditions would be improved etc..!
I think most of us were so stunned we would not let ourselves believe it at first - we had heard so many rumours before. Later we found out that the war had been over since August 15th. The next day we were all given anti-cholera injections! Rations increased and included things that we had not seen for years - Milo, Klim milk and tinned butter - even lipsticks! The Japs obviously wanted us to look in better shape by the time we were freed. One day an Allied plane flew low over the camp - it dropped bread and S.E.A.C. newspapers by parachute - the first bread we had tasted for three and a half years.
Unfortunately the extra rations arrived too late to save a number of people. Molly Watts-Carter was among those who were dying but she was fully conscious and calmly whispered to me that she was happy to have lived long enough to know that soon we would all be free.
A few days later an Allied Officer - a South African - came round the camp, he had flown to Lahat the nearest airfield to Loeboelinggau. He said that at first nobody knew where to find us as we had been moved so often and our present camp was in a very isolated place, with the result that we were among the last people to be freed.

September 16th
We left Belaloo Estate at dawn, I wore a Jap private's uniform complete with yellow leather boots and carried a small pack containing the linen dress left to me by Mary Anderson when she died. I also had a pair of tennis shoes with the toes cut out which had belonged to Mary Jenkin. We drove in open trucks to a railway station and got on board a train waiting to take us to Lahat. Such a comfortable journey compared with the dreadful experience we had had the previous April. On our way we stopped at a small station - I saw a man on the platform with a tray of sticky sweet caked. I quickly took off my boots and handed them through the window and he gave me the lot! We spent one night at Lahat in a school where British and American soldiers looked after us.

The next day we were flown out in batches to Singapore. I had changed into my dress and climbed with trembling legs into the plane and felt I was living in a dream. We arrived in Singapore on the afternoon of September 17th and my little group was taken by ambulance to Alexandria Hospital.
It was wonderful to be in a real bed between white sheets. The Sister came over to seee me the next morning and I felt so ashamed as I saw her staring with horror - a bed bug had crawled out of my little bag and was walking across the snow white sheet! We had tried so hard to keep ourselves free of vermin. I weighed six stone and had scabies on my hands but was thankful not to have swollen legs and a rice tummy like so many others. The hospital staff looked funny to us they all seemed to have such large busts and behinds, until I realised that we had gotten so used to seeing emaciated people. For the first time for many weeks I slept all night, in spite of having had fried fish, sherry and port!

September 19th
Bacon and egg for breakfast!
Ice cream later on!
We were not entirely happy and had our sad and anxious moments. We tried to trace friends and relatives and the Red Cross did their best to help us and we learnt that many of our dear friends were dead or missing. Several husbands from POW camps came looking for their wives. We had to tell them that they had died and others had been drowned when leaving Singapore three and a half years before. I hoped to get news of Tony and later made enquiries at an office which had been set up to trace people, it was here that I was told that Tony had never been a POW in Singapore and that he was listed as missing presumed dead. He must have been one of the many who perished at sea in February 1942, it was a bitter blow.

Nurse Kong said that if she got out of the camp alive she would become a Christian, this she did and her little home near Kuala Lumpar is called St. Matthews Cottage. She often entertains poor children and gives a big party every Christmas. I still hear from her every year.

After ten days in hospital I moved to Raffles Hotel which was being used as a clearing centre. One day Lord and Lady Mountbatten came round and talked to us. Ships were leaving for the UK with British ex-POWs - Australians and New Zealanders were taken home by air!
Mrs Colley and Miss Cullen looked after Mischa on the voyage to England. While waiting for the ship, little Mischa was taken for a drive round Singapore, he could not remember any life other than being in prison camps, so during the drive he kept saying "When are we going to reach the barbed wire?"
Miss Cullen wanted to adopt him and as she was about to get married she would have given Mischa a good home. However the Jewish Society said they would trace his family which they eventually did and he was sent all the way to Shanghai to live with relatives whom he had never seen.

My brother Tom got a message through to me via the Red Cross asking me to go to them in New Zealand. On the 30th September I boarded the plane with about fifteen cheerful New Zealanders, all ex-POWs - there were three other women - Joan Powell was the only one who had been with me in Sumatra. We spent one night on a small island at an Army camp. Several of us had a swim in the sea - it was a marvellous feeling. We spent one night in Darwin and another in Brisbane - everyone was most kind. From Brisbane we flew to Auckland - this was a long hop in those days. Before we got off the plane we were all well and truly sprayed with disinfectant! We disembarked and then were see by a doctor - finally we were allowed to join our friends and relatives. Dear Tom and Mabel had been waiting a long time.
I do not remember anything about the first evening with them. I only know that they were most understanding and that it was wonderful to be free and in a real home once more.

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