Report That Jap War

Criminals Freed

IN a despatch to the Sydney Sun on February 7, special correspondent Richard Hughes stated that at least 90 Japanese suspected war criminals who had been charged with murder, torture, beheading and other atrocities in Papua, New Guinea and New Britain between 1942-45, were to be freed in Japan on February 20.

Their crimes were against planters, missionaries of British, American and Dutch nationality, natives, and civilians.

Hughes says that the Australian Govern ment has ordered their release because their crimes were not against military personnel but “only” against civilians.

New Guinea residents who are not blessed with short memories remember how two young European women of the Anglican mission in Papua were brutally treated and finally murdered in Buna in 1942; how missionaries and nuns from the Madang district were treated before, during and after their removal to Hol landia bv the Japs, and a score of other atrocities against similar civilians. They naturally wonder how much truth there is in this story.

No other Sydney newspaper has printed it. And the Army Minister in Canberra has “refused to comment.”