NEWS FROM SON.
The first communication since a cablegram dispatched before the fall of Singapore on February 15, 1942, has just been received from Sapper Ian Watt, son of Mrs F. W. Watt, of Cameron Street. In a post card to his mother Sapper Watt says he is a prisoner of war in good health. The post-card, which is not dated, comes from a prisoner of war camp, but the Chinese characters have not yet been translated.
Prior to joining the Royal Engineers in December, 1941, Sapper Watt was a mining engineer with the Malay Consolidated Tin Mines, in Malaya. He has been away from the Dominion five years. -Ashbutron Guardian, 4/11/1944.
The name of Private L. I. Watt, son of Mrs F. W. Watt, of Cameron Street, Ashburton, appears in a list of prisoners of war and civilian internees in Japanese lands supplied by the High Commissioner in London (Mr W. J. Jordan) to the New Zealand Government. The name of the camp at which he is interned is not given. -Ashburton Guardian, 17/11/1943.
The place where Leslie died, Thanbyuzayat, was a PoW camp for prisoners used as slave labour for the building of the infamous Burma Railway.
DEATH WHILE INTERNED
VOLUNTEERS IN MALAYA
(P.A.) WELLINGTON, Thursday
The following New Zealand civilian internees, all of whom served in the Malayan Volunteer Forces, are reported to have died: — Sergeant A. Burns — Mrs H. Burns, Hamilton (mother); Private L. Russell —Mrs E. G. Russell. Auckland (wife); Sapper L. I. Watt — Ashburton. -NZ Herald, 28/9/1945.
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