大象传媒

Having just watched on T.V. the ceremony for the sixtieth anniversary of V.J. Day, I am moved to recount some of the adventures of my late father who served in the 14th. Army, the "forgotten army" under the command of General Slim. He was an emergency captain seconded from the Indian Army Corps of Clerks, having been serving in India since 1924.
As I understand it, following the fall of Singapore numerous rumours were circulating back in Quetta about the fate of my late father and his comrades. Much against the trend of such rumours my late mothere was convinced that my father had not been taken prisoner. As it turned out he just appeared at the door about a month after the debacle having, it seems, escaped on a ship which was torpedoed while he sustained injuries to his knee. He was rescued from a "raft" by a Dutch vessel and taken to Java. How he found his way to Ceylon(Sri Lanka) I know not. It would seem that after that the great Indian railway system conveyed him back to Quetta. Just then my mother received a telegram saying"Missing, believed taken prisoner.
It must have been late March by then, and this writer first saw the light of day in Quetta on the 17th December of that year, I have been doing mental arithmetic ever since!
I am saddened firstly that so much attention has subsequently been given to the history of the war in Europe to the neglect of that in the Far East, and secondly that it has taken so long to erect a memorial to all those Commonwealth and Empire men and women who sacrificed their lives to the cause. Our children could be forgiven for imagining that it was only the Americans in the Pacific who played any significant role in that theatre.

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