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For those of us slaving on the Burma-Siam railway, the hundreds of war news rumours circulating the camps maintained morale — to a great extent. How many times had I heard ‘It will be over by Christmas.’ After three Christmas days had passed the credibility of that rumour had worn pretty thin. So much so that our best hopes by then seemed to lie in another earthquake in Japan - Some hopes! The authenticity for good reliable news was ‘I heard it from a well dressed Thai.’ Needless to say well-dressed Thais were not very thick on the ground around the jungle camps.
One day I found myself with a working party on the Bangkok — Saigon railway near the then Thailand and Indo-China border. Our task was building blast proof shelters for locomotives. The Jap guards had not turned up to take us to work so, apart from frequent visits to the latrines, most of us slept all day. Next day the same - no work. At sundown I ventured out of the hut and made my way to a small paddy field situated between the hut and the railway line. A train had stopped, and some of the passengers were stretching their legs walking along the embankment.
As I lay wallowing in the cool, muddy water I heard a voice ‘Soldier, Soldier!’ I looked up and there he was - the real live one hundred percent — well dressed Thai, looking as smart as paint in a bleached white suit.
‘Big bomb, soldier, big bomb, war finish. All soldiers to home!’ he shouted. With a wave of white arms he jumped back on the train and disappeared forever.
After a long, pleasant soaking I went back to the hut. While carefully stepping over the sleeping, restless, groaning bodies between the door and my bed space I said ‘Any of you blokes interested? The war’s over. There’s a big bomb somewhere, boom, boom.’ The usual pleasantries were shouted at me ‘Drop dead, go to sleep, get lost……’ and many other impossible suggestions.
‘But I got it from a really well dressed Thai,’ I protested with a laugh. ‘Boom boom to you too’ was the reply. Except for the snoring and the moaning it was soon quiet in the hut.

The Japs never came back — I had brought the greatest news in our lives, and nobody wanted to know.

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