Thrale history

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27.—MERCHANT SEAMEN IN P.O.W. CAMP, SINGAPORE. It was my intention to make a collection of portraits of all nationalities within the camp, as in no. 5. I could not hoard my pictures safely, and distributed some among my friends, but men were more fragile than paper, and most of my studies were lost with them. (Green and black pencil, from crushed green pencil).

28.—THE DREADED TEMPLE HILL DETENTION BARRACKS. This was a peace-time prison, and was at this time still occupied by the ordinary staff, who were assisted by personnel from the Corps of Military Police. My picture shows a P.O.W. who had, been caught stealing sweet potatoes from the ration truck. Prisoners were strung up to the wall in this fashion for two hours, or more, according to the alleged seriousness of the offence. Is it an offence to want to live? I suppose under some conditions it can be. Some poor devils flung in this cell had passed away the time playing noughts and crosses on the wall—one had tried to draw a map of England on the wall—I have just put them all down as I saw them, because this is what know of war—if there are any, glories in it my eyes have not ever beheld them. Note: A Court of Enquiry was held at Aldershot and the officer responsible was dismissed from the Services, June, 1946. (Painted in Indian ink).

29.—THE NO ESCAPE INCIDENT. I re-painted this scene from memory, for the original sketch was taken from me by a Japanese Secret Police, the "Kempi". At the end of August, 1942, Colonel Fukue, the Jap Commander: called upon every prisoner offwar in Singapore, irrespective of rank, to sign a certificate saying he would not attempt to escape. EVERY MAN REFUSED TO SIGN. As a result, on the 2nd. September, the Jap Commander ordered all ranks (except those sick in hospital) to proceed to Selerang. The barracks at this place consisted of a block of buildings forming three sides of a rectangle, with an asphalt square in the centre. The maximum accommodation was for 8S0 men. and into this space the Japs squeezed 16,000 men. There were no sanitary arrangements. herded here for four days with machine guns trained upon us, and then the Japanese stated that unless we signed they would bring the sick into the camp as well. Discase was already rife, and to bring sick men into this compound meant certain death—the japs were obviously playing upon the sporting instincts of white men in order to force our hands, and to show they meant business they, shot a number of men, who had tried to escape. We signed, the forms under duress, and returned to our camps on September 6th. The Japanese responsible for this incident were sentenced to death by a War. Crimes Commission in 1946O. (Indian ink, on thin packing cardboard). This picture was damaged in Siam during the Monsoons.

I LEAVE SINGAPORE, FOR SIAM.

30.—ON THE WAY TO THE HELL RAILWAY, SIAM. With their tongues in their cheeks, the Japanese asked all us sick men to "volunteer" to go north—to better camps and living conditions. How the little devils