 The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated stations present The Pacific Story. This is the story of the Pacific and the millions of people who live around this greatest sea. The drama of the people's whose destiny is at stake in the Pacific War. This is the background to the struggle in the Pacific and its meaning to us and to the generations to come. Tonight's Pacific Story comes to you from Hollywood and New York as another public service. With drama the past and present and a message from George Woodhead, former editor of the Peking Tinsin Times and authority on Far Eastern Affairs. Singapore. The last time I saw Clyde was there in Singapore when the Japanese were marching him and his Scottish regiment away to a prison camp. His Highlanders walked along blowing their pipes as if they were on parade. Not a trace of emotion on their faces. Clyde walked along carrying a cane in place of a sword. Goodbye Clyde. Singapore had fallen. I couldn't believe it. It had been my world for three years. We knew everyone, we went everywhere and suddenly it was gone. And Clyde was gone. And I was a prisoner. In the three and a half years since then that part of my life hardly seemed real. Now it is beginning to seem real again. One of these days now I'm going back there. Until eight years ago I had no idea that I should ever be interested in Singapore. Let's not dance this one, Madeline. Let's go out and get some air, hmm? We walked out on the veranda. Why don't you come with me to Singapore? I've got a job. Isn't it awfully dull newspaper reporting? I like it. Besides I don't know anything about Singapore. Well, the climate's just about the same as here in Washington, DC. In August. We were married there in Washington. And we left it once for Singapore where Clyde was to join his regiments. You'll love it, Madeline. There's nothing like it on earth. On road he told me about how Raffles, almost single-handed, had founded Singapore somewhere around 1820. It commands the main sea lane between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. Oh, so that's why it's important. Yes. It's the crossroads of the sea routes and the air routes of the world. You've been reading the travel advertisement. Oh, you mean. It's one of the foremost important sea gateways of the world. Singapore, Gibraltar, Suez and the Panama Canal. It isn't a big island, actually. It's about the size of your island of Guam. But it's important because of its strategic location. And that's why they need me there. I mean us. We approached from the west down through the Straits of Malacca. There's another island, Madeline. Well, there's so many. I can't count them. We'll be in Singapore in no time now. Suddenly, there it was before. The harbor was filled with ships coming and going and with junks and lighters and motorboats. Vessels of 80 different companies served the port of Singapore. We stood beside the captain of the ship. That's the famous Kali Aki over there. See the shipping and banking offices along it? Yes. Isn't it magnificent, Madeline? Well, it's just like the setting for movies. You see that clock tower back there? That's on the Victoria Theatre. And that's the Supreme Court building. Do you see all those odd roofs back there? Those are Chinese temples. Chinese? 80% of the population of Singapore is Chinese. Oh, wow. How many people live here? Oh, what did you say, Captain? Probably between six and 700,000. It's grown since I was here last. It's the naval base and the air bases. Of course. When will we be sure? Very soon now. We'll anchor here in the stream and you'll be taken over there to Clifford Pier by steam launch. The streets were teeming with people of every race. Turban Indian Sikhs, British officers, Malays, Chinese, Arabs, Mongols, Russians, Japanese, and a thin sprinkling of Europeans. A babble of the tongues and customs and spirits of more different kinds of people than I had ever seen. The wonder of it all absorbed me. And I almost forgot the oppressive heat. That's the famous Rapples Hotel. Oh, so that's the social center of Singapore. Interesting, what? And that statue in front there, the old boy himself, Sir Stamford Rapples. He was so young. Extraordinary, Chet. Rolls Royces and rickshaws were rolling up and discharging passengers. Rolls Royces and rickshaws. This better than anything else typified the scope of life in Singapore. Clyde Scottish Regiment was stationed out at Changi about 14 miles from Singapore town, and that's where we were quartered. Changi became the center of our life in Singapore, and there we moved out in all directions over the island. You see, the city of Singapore is on the south side of the island. This was Sydney, Illingworth, major in the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers. The reason for all this activity here in the city is the opening of the new naval base. The naval base meddling is on the opposite side of the island, facing the Strait of Johor. Oh, yes. They were pretty well along with the naval base when you were here last, weren't they, Clyde? Yes, they'd been building on it for 10 years or so then. Good heavens. When did they start building? No, long about 1923, 24, I should think. Yes, it's the biggest naval base on earth. That's why so many visitors are here for the opening. More ships coming in than ever before, and the hotel's filled to overflow. Oh, how exciting. Tell me about the naval base. Er, Madeleine, don't look, but you see the Japanese on that bicycle at the curb? Yes. He's a spy. Oh. At least four out of every five Japanese and Singaporeers spies. There are probably 5,000 of them here. But you'll have a chance to see the naval base yourself on the day it opens. Of course. Come along. Let's walk down through the Chinese town. I shall never forget those first impressions in the Chinese town. Well, this is one of the temples we saw when we were coming in on the ship. Oh, oh, yes. We walked down among the shops in the jeeping houses. You know, I've never seen so many people packed into one place. Yes, and a good many more work in the mines and the rubber plantations in Malaya across the straight of Johor. Oh. Most of these Chinese must be very poor. Yes, most of them are madeleine. And many of them are wealthy. The Chinese are the retailers and the manufacturers of the business people. Yes, there's honorable Dato SQ Wang, for example. Who? Honorable SQ Wang. That's a sort of honorary title. He's a newspaper publisher and chairman of the board of several insurance and banking companies. Oh, really? I am. There's Tang Kaki. He's an industrial magnate. He, uh... You like to come in and dance? Where? In the happy world, right here. Can we look in, Clive? Of course, if you like. Right this way, please. The happy world was a Chinese amusement park with stalls and booths, theaters and dance halls. Three places like this here in Singapore, all of them are Chinese. Shall we dance, Madeline? Oh, yes, let's. That's the way I learned about Singapore. About its streets and its waterfront and its people. Its wonders and its dangers. On those sultry tropical nights, we used to watch the moon rise over the roadstead where our ship had come in. And at twilight, I used to drive out to the barracks square and watch Clyde's Highlanders pipe retreats. Days before the opening of the naval base, everyone was talking about it. There is nothing like it on Earth. It runs for five miles along the north coast of the island. It has more than 20 square miles of deep water anchorage, space enough for the entire British Navy at one time. Matter of fact, they say that moving plans have already been worked out for every vessel in the Royal Navy and perhaps even for a good part of the American Navy. It has everything to service and repair ships up to the very largest, dockyards, machine shops, and highways and railroads running in every possible direction. And the whole thing is so constructed that the idea... The highways and railroads that lead to the naval base were hewn through the tropical undergrowth. Sydney went with Clyde and me out to the opening. You see, Madeline, there are two of everything out here. There's one power station there and there's the other way down there. Oh, yes. Look at that monstrous machinery. That's a derrick. Big enough to lift the biggest guns a battleship can carry as if they were toys. This is amazing. A naval yard as big as this built... built here, practically in the jungle. That's one of the wonders of it. The mem group swamps in the tropic jungles had first to be drained and then cleared, which was a tremendous task. That took years before the construction was started. Cost must have been enormous. It was. Some of the native sultans made contributions toward it. New Zealand helped and even Hong Kong. Uh, Clyde. Yes, isn't it? Japanese weapons over there. Oh, yes. Let's walk over and have a look at Dock 9. Dock 9, I learned, was the great floating dry dock that had been built on the tine in England and had been towed 8,000 miles through the Bay of Biscay, through the Straits of Gibraltar, the Mediterranean, the Suez Canal, across the Indian Ocean, down through the Straits of Malacca to Singapore. This floating dry dock is big enough and powerful enough to lift our biggest battleship. Guns and all clear out of the water. We met the captain of the ship that had brought us to Singapore. There's room for 60,000 men to stand on its deck. The dock looked a thousand feet long. You see, this saves our men a war out here in the China station. A 7,000 mile trip back to Malta when they need repairs. This dry dock's been out here about 10 years, hasn't it, Captain? Yeah, about that. I have a feeling we're getting this base ready none too soon. You're right. It's much more apparent now than it was when I was out here last time. Underneath everything, from the moment we had arrived, I had been conscious of danger. It wasn't what anyone said. It was in the atmosphere. I started looking around and applied sense to what was in my mind. You don't have to worry, Madeline. Huh? What are those? Those sort of doorways? Those? Well, entrances to bomb-proof shelters. I see. And they're for personnel and for fuel and mines and ammunition. We have enough fuel here to supply a good-sized battle fleet for six months, and enough ammunition to supply our guns for perhaps longer than that. And it takes a good deal of space to store the ammunition for batteries like those up on Mount Faber. I looked up at the 15-inch guns on Mount Faber. I looked at the special areas guarded by Sikhs. Behind the barbed wire was equipment such as I had never seen. Now that I was looking for guns, it seemed the naval base was bristling with them. It seemed that the whole island was bristling with them. No enemy ship would dare get close to Singapore. The sea lanes are mined, and there are steel nets stretched across the channels to keep out submarines. What about attack from the air? I think that is taken care of. Oh, the ceremonies are starting. Let's get over there. At night, we watched the great searchlights sweep the sky. Every now and then, they would catch a British warplane Dramatic, what? Yes. Are there enough planes here, Clyde, to protect Singapore from the air? Well, there's an RAF airbase at Seletar, just east of the dockyards. There's another one at Semboang, one at Tengau. We went out to the airbase at Seletar. This was a fishing village here before we took it over. Complete transformation. Well, I can recognize it's some of the geography, sir. We've developed this basin secrecy, even more secrecy than the naval base. No, I've never seen such planes as you have here, Colonel Tenture. We may be needing them. Because of the crisis in Europe? If there should be war in Europe, it will immediately affect us here. That's why we are developing an outlying ring of airbases northwest up through Malaya to Burma and southeastward to British Borneo. If they should break through that ring, we still have these fields here on the island. We held our breath through the Munich crisis of 1938. In the next year, the activity around Singapore gave you the feeling of a race for time. You see, Madeleine, it's not only that Singapore is Britain's cheap military base out there. Most of the world's supply of rubber and tin goes through this port. Amazing. What is that ship loading? Rubber. And that's a tanker of petroleum. Does the petroleum from the Netherlands Indies go through here too? Yes, ma'am. And the quinine and spices and coffee and tea and coke, too. Oh, where's that cargo of rubber bound for? Japan, probably. If you'll excuse me, I've got work to do. Japanese seem to be scattered everywhere among the workers on the dock. You look worried, Madeleine. Do I? Good many of these ships are bringing in supplies for us. Petrol and the like. We're building up a stockpile here in the North. We were at the club at Changi when the news came. Sydney told us. It started Hitler's march to Napoleon. What? He struck in the middle of the next. Foster Warsaw with his bombers, same time his armored unit to attack across the border. You're wondering the headquarters at once, Clyde? Of course. The news electrified Singapore. While the war went on in Europe, we watched the movements of the Japanese. They took over the northern part of Indochina. Gentlemen, we've drawn up, as you know, extensive plans for defense in depth of Singapore. Execution of these plans is not now possible. Our commitments in the European fitter preclude any considerable help to us at this time. What about the Japanese in Indochina, sir? There was no answer to the question. We watched the Japanese with one eye, the war in Europe with the other. Every available ship and fishing vessel and boat have been pressed to the service to rescue the British forces from the beach at Dunkirk. Hundreds of thousands of men have been driven to the seashore by the Nazi Panzer divisions. Overhead, the vastly outnumbered RAF is fighting with a fury never before known in aerial warfare, hurling themselves against... Madeleine, I want you to leave. I want you to go back to America. I couldn't leave. You must, Madeleine. Dunkirk is a disaster possibly even greater than we now know. I determined to stay. I say, Clyde, Madeleine. Yes, Sidney? The Japanese have moved down an occupied all of Indochina. There are now within only 600 miles of Singapore. To us it was no longer a matter of if the Japanese would attack, it was when. Singapore prepared for siege. I saw little of Clyde these days. New territorial troops came to join those already stationed here and I learned to recognize them all. The Australian division, the two divisions from India, the Sherwood Foresters, the Gordon Highlanders, the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, the Argyle Highlanders. But it was late. Very late. Pearl Harbor has been attacked. The American fleet has been crippled if not destroyed. The battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battle cruiser HMS Repulse steamed out of Singapore to intercept the Japanese. The Prince of Wales and the Repulse have been sunk by Japanese torpedo bombers. 43 of the Japanese bombers made the attack. It's not as bad as it looks, Madeleine. We're impregnable from attack by sea. We can part ships approaching through the maze of islands like ducks in a bed. But they might come down the peninsula. Oh, Madeleine. You're so naive. With that jungle under growth it's so thick that it's like a jungle's a maze. Besides, it's full of tigers and panthers and poisonous snakes with the thousands of... But you could fight through it. Well... Yes. Darling, don't look like that. At the air raid, Siren. Come on. Hurry along, Master. Got it. Our planes rose from the air base of Seletarn from the other fields. For the first time, I saw planes falling to destruction. Look, there it goes. Right down the street. The Japanese had made landings on the Malay Peninsula and were driving down to the back door of Singapore. Sydney was killed. Throughout the day, they strafed and died, bombed our lines. They're fighting inside our lines. Come on, lady. Come along with us or you'll get killed. I tried to find out what had happened to Clyde's outfit, where he was. Yes, ma'am. I know the outfit. I have no idea where they are. At last, the firing stopped. I shall never forget the silence on that Sunday. The ship captain was rounded up with us. The whole keystone of the United Nations position in this part of the world is gone. With this, most of the Far East has fallen into the hands of the Japanese. The Japanese are marching their way to prison camp. Yes, look at that. As striding along as if they're on parade. I looked frantically for Clyde. Was he dead or... No. No, there he was. Walking along carrying his cane in place of a sword. Clyde! That last impression is written on my heart. An hour after three and a half years, I can hardly believe the situation has changed. But it has. It has. And today I'm looking toward Singapore as I never did before. How different my attitude is from the one I had eight years ago when Clyde first mentioned Singapore in Washington. Then it was just a vague enchanting place on the other side of the world. Today I know the importance of Singapore. Today I know its meaning. Soon now I shall be going back to Singapore. Clyde and I have an appointment there. I will again be in the headlines. The return of Singapore to Britain marks the opening of a new era in the Far East. To tell the significance of Singapore in the Pacific, the national broadcasting company presents George Woodhead for many years a newspaper man in China and an authority on Far Eastern affairs. The next voice you hear will be that of Mr. Woodhead. We take you now to New York. English historians tell us that Queen Mary Tudor and whose reign Calais was recaptured by the French declared that when she died the name of that town would be found graven on her heart. Today, as for more than three years past, on the hearts of many thousands of British subjects, women as well as men, dead as well as living is indelibly graven the single word Singapore. For the fall of Singapore on February the 15th, 1942 was the greatest military disaster during this war. During the Dunkirk evacuation the British expeditionary force lost all of its equipment but it saved some 80% of its personnel. At Singapore the British Empire lost a whole army of some 70,000 together with their equipment and the vast and costly naval base. It lost also temporarily the trust of millions of Malays, Chinese and Tamils who had looked to Great Britain for protection. Nor was that all. Tens of thousands of prisoners of war and the entire civilian population of Malaya fell into the hands of a merciless and brutal foe. The British War Office in December 1944 charged that 25,000 luckless prisoners of war had succumbed to maltreatment on the Thailand Burma railway project alone. There was only a small Malay village of some 130 inhabitants on the site of Singapore when it was leased to Sastanford Rappels in 1819. By 1941 it had grown into one of the world's largest ports with an estimated population of 750,000. As a naval base it was the keystone of communications between the Indian and Pacific Oceans and it was the outlet for nearly half of the world's supply of tin and rubber. When the naval base was constructed it was never contemplated that Singapore would be thrown open to any potential invader but that is what happened. After the collapse of France Japanese troops virtually occupied French Indochina and Thailand sold out to Tokyo's warlords. Great Britain threatened with the invasion of her home islands and of Egypt was physically incapable of furnishing the forces and equipment necessary to defend her far eastern possessions as well as local military and air forces. It has often been asked why the Malays, unlike the Filipinos failed to play a larger part in the defense of their country. The answer is simple. When British influence spread to Malaya the only respectable occupations of the Malays were fighting and piracy. As Lord Cranbourne stated in May 1943 so far from training the Malayan and other colonial peoples to fight for the last 50 or 60 years has been to train them not to fight. Of the population of 750,000 in Singapore 585,000 were Chinese and only 75,000 Malays and as many Malays resent the immigration of the more enterprising and industrious Chinese arming the natives might have had very serious consequences. We are on the way back to Singapore The treatment of the population by the Japanese makes it certain that our return will be welcomed. When that glad day release comes can you imagine a British spokesman broadcasting to the people as a Japanese spokesman did in March 1942 all peoples in the peninsula must realize that the mere fact that their lives are almost safeguarded is an enormous favor on the part of Japan. Exaggerated mercy and useless population must be vigorously suppressed. We are on the way back to carry on the work that prior to 1941 had made Malaya the most prosperous area of Britain's far eastern empire with living standards and public health and educational services far superior to those of any neighboring Asiatic peoples. We are returning to keep faith with those who relied upon our protection and not until we have done so will the millions on whose heart Singapore is graven feel that we have accomplished the task whereby our dead shall sleep in honor and betrayed and we in faith and honor keep that peace for which they paid. Thank you Mr. George Woodhead. Presented by the national broadcasting company and its affiliated independent stations as a public service to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable across currents of life in the Pacific Basin. For a reprint of this Pacific Story program send ten cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press Berkeley, California. The Pacific Story is written and directed by Arnold Marquess. The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Paluso. The principal voice was that of Kathy Lewis. Programs in this series of particular interest to servicemen and women are broadcast overseas through the worldwide facilities of the Armed Forces Radio Service. This program came from you to you from Hollywood and New York. This is the national broadcasting company.