Thrale history

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lied.The railway trucks shown were normally used for the transport of rice and were all metal. I know what it is like to be literally cooked. In to each truck were squeezed 32 men, and we had to take it in turns to lie down. This could only be done by half squeezing themselves standing at one end of the truck. The journey took five days. No sanitary arrangements were made, and a little rice every day was issued. We detrained at Ban Pong, 20 miles from Bangkok, and only then learned the Japanese joke. We were to march 200 miles through practically virgin jungle to help build the Railroad of Death (Bang Pong to Moulmein in Burma). This railroad project had, in pre-war days, been turned down by both English and German engineers as being too costly in the inevitable loss of men. We "blasted" that railway, but the Allied bombers at the end did the blasting that mattered. (Indian ink, black and red paint). The sketch was drawn in truck and coloured later.

31.—THE FIRST STRETCH OF THE HELL RAILWAY. This was laid through a rice field about nine months before I reached Siam. For every sleeper laid my country lost a son. In all White and Coloured, the casualties are thought to be a quarter of a million. Men were used until they dropped and died from sheer exhaustion, and they died with the Japanese chant "Speedo", "Speedo", "Bugaro" ringing in their ears, whilst they died from Cholera, Beri-Beri and Dysentery.

32.—LOOKING DOWN THE VALLEY, SIAM. Truly a "valley of the shadow of death." This shows rice fields and the living quarters of the Thais. This place was on the very edge of the jungle. I stuck two pieces of thin card together to make this picture, but could not obliterate the paper-maker's mark which appears in centre.

33.—CARRYING OUT THE HOSPITAL DEAD, CANCHANBURI BASE HOSPITAL. After five days of this dreadful march, I dropped out with amoebic dysentery, and was dragged back to the base hospital at Canchanburi or Kanburi, as it was generally called. The hospital was formed as a dump for men who fell sick on the march. The Japanes boasted it was "the best equipped hospital in Siam." but it had no equipment—it was equipped for the speedy despatch of men who could not work—sick men were dead men to the Japs, and they were not worried. It is true that a meagre quantity of drugs was thrown in by the Japs—always the wrong sort. There was no Emetine for Dysentery. Thousands died in this alleged hospital. (In writing ink and Indian ink.).

34.—CONTINUING THE MARCH. I have pulled through, and can stand, so off to work I go. My picture shows British and Australian P.O.W.s on that 200 mile march from Bangkok. Bullock carts were first used to carry baggage, but proved useless through the jungle—the happening depicted in my picture was boring in its frequency. They were soon discarded, and sick men carried the baggage. From the bamboo trees in background I took some strips for new brushes. (In blue, obtained from boiled book covers from a Thai).

35.—AT THE END OF THE DAY'S MARCH. We slept where and how we could, the Japs didn't mind—they did sometimes give us a drink of hot water, lor they were responsible for getting some of us to the