SINGAPORE AND THE THAI RAILWAY EXPERIENCES OF ...

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someone about to look after our gear. We of course slept in a row on the opposite side of the
hut from the 9th Coast. Exactly opposite us we had Davey, Macomski, O'Connor and one
other Irishman. All these men were involved in the R.C. church robbery. Davey
subsequently became an informer and told the Nips about the secret wireless set and news
service. I hope they are going to be dealt with by justice. It was not a pleasant experience to
lie there on the dark nights listening to their conversation. Lincoln and I used to sit by the
river after roll-call (Tenko) and admire the sunset over the mountains. The view was
beautiful. There were 7 ranges of mountains between us and the sea of the Indian Ocean. We
could see 2 or 3 ranges dark green and blue - thickly jungled. The River running between
swiftly and clear. Behind us the parade ground, shortly before a mass of jungle, now a
smooth bare earth
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expanse. On our right the hut of the Koreans and on our left the Nip engineers. Behind, in a
row, the huts of the POWs. The Korean and Nip huts lighted by coconut oil and kerosene
lamps, and the POW huts mostly dark, but an occasional coconut oil lamp using blacklegged
oil.
As we sat there we used to speculate on our chances if we tried to get across the mountains to
the sea. We did know that there was a track leading towards Tavoy in Burma about 70 miles
away. But as we were weak without proper clothes or boots we always came to the
conclusion that escape was impracticable. Those that did try it later on, from further up the
river, either died in the jungle or were caught and shot. An exception was Pierson's brother,
an officer, who, with some others, was away for a week. They were not missed and when
they found the
difficulties insuperable they returned to camp and carried on as before. The Nips knew
nothing about it.
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Our Kongsi used to spend Yasumé days in the jungle alongside the camp, where we would
fry our rice and open a tin of corned beef. Our biggest feeds were on Christmas Day and on
my birthday. On that day we finished all our tinned stuff. By then we were able to buy eggs
in fair quantities and with a supplement of 2 or 3 eggs a day plus jungle "spinach" which
grew around the camps we were doing better. Our tickets home were definitely in the bottom
of our mess tins and we organised things to the best possible advantage.
Lincoln had a very bad go of fever for 2 weeks and became very thin. I gave him aspirin and
he went to hospital but he never did any
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work and was evacuated to Chungkai when we went up further to do the rush work. I next
saw him at Tamuan in Jan. '45. Joe Potter got dysentery very very badly and nearly died, but
pulled through with some M and B 693 that Pavillard had got hold of. He was evacuated in