Been Saved"
p. 68 · Read in the full issue
"Civilians Could Have Been Saved"
Rabaul Survivor Tells of Appeal to Canberra
“ A LL the • civilians could easily have J\ been evacuated from Rabaul aboard a Norwegian vessel, the ‘Hoersten,’ which was lying in the port for some days before the Japs bombed the town,” said Mr. Gordon Thomas, for merly editor of the “Rabaul Times,” when interviewed by the “Cairns Post” re cently. He is one of the few civilians who escaped from Rabaul.
“When I saw Mr. Page, the Govern ment Secretary, at the latter part of May, 1942, in the prison camp he told me that he had heard that many of the prisoners were blaming him for the position which had occurred and it was then that Mr. Page explained to me that he had sent a message to Aus tralia suggesting that all civilians should be evacuated by the ‘Hoersten but that the Government would not allow such action to be taken.
“Providing this statement of Mr. Page is correct,” said Mr. Thomas, “and I nave no reason to suspect that it is not, then the Government is certainly responsible for not having evacuated all the civilians from Rabaul. If these civilians had been evacuated then the sad tale of the ‘Montevideo Manx’ would never have been W Speaking of the first day in Rabaul when the Japanese troops landed, Mr.
Thomas said that Mr. R. L. Clark, who was the Chief Warden of the town, did
a splendid job of work in keeping the civilians together.
“Right throughout,” said Mr. Thomas, “Mr. Clark did everything possible for the civilians and tried to get ‘them better conditions from the Japanese. Mr. Clark, Mr. Hector Robinson and myself formed a white-flag party and surrendered the town in order that there should be no bombing of Refuge Gully, where the civilians were stationed.
“The Japanese looted everything from all the houses and the offices in the town, burning papers and books, and wantonly destroying property for the mere sake of seeing the wreckage. All the books of the Agnes Wisdom Library, numbering many thousands, were put in a pile and burnt; the same fate was meted out to all Government office papers, ss well as all the papers and books in my own office.”