A place called Selerang

[Lou Barron]

When I was taken ill with dengue fever I was taken to Selerang that was being used a hospital for us POW s and it was there that our doctors performed wonders with little medicines to work with For a few days I did not have any clue to what was happening but after awhile came right .When I asked the army medical orderly he told me that I was lucky I had only a mild form of the fever he said that some of the guys had died from it that cheered me a lot I must say .Iwas to stay there for a few more days The Japs use to come round and they were looking for more pows to fill the working parties because at that time they were sending guys up to the railway and also building strips for the airport I was very lucky I did not go on the railway but did get to work on the air strips .So overall I was very lucky

[Doc Vernon]

Hi Lou
Yet another small chapter in your life,and thank the Lord you overcame it.
many things happen to us in our lives,and sometimes we think nothing of it,but after a while it strikes home.
In many ways we I suppose have been lucky.

Cheers and keep well.
Time marches on.

[Richard Quartermaine]

With Margaret and our two kids we arrived in Singapore from Fiji in the first few days of 1968. Unlike you Lou we had the better fortune to have moved into the company house up near Holland Village. About a year went by and first Margaret and then I got dengue fever. Holy bleddy mackerel were we crook! Good news was that over the next nearly twenty years mostly in Singapore, apart from always having a packet of Lomotil handy to combat Sukarno's revenge, we were fit and well.
In other postings I see expressions of interest in nationalisation against private enterprise. After you left the hell of Japanese occupation, Singapore was nurtured into a form of democracy that did not please everybody but under difficult circumstances gave stability to the city state that I believe is not surpassed and as the world is heading is unlikely to be in the foreseeable future. The man who was the architect for this was Lee Kuan Yew. Hopefully that legacy will continue with his son, "The Brig". Unfortunately lesser men gain authority and succumb as power corrupts and absolute power that corrupts absolutely. It is nearly thirty years since Singapore was 'home' so I am not closely acquainted with the present but from what I observe in the media it still runs like a Swiss watch.
Richard

[Lou Barron]

Yes Richard Singapore did change a lot .My late wife and I stopped off there for five days on our way back to NZ after a holiday in the UK .So I took it on myself to show them around but got lost the only thing that I did really remember was Changi Jail but even that looked different it was all nice and clean .They had a replica of the church that they had in the jail in pow days .I think the real one is in Canberra in Aussie . We did get to go to Kranji Cemetary were a few guys I knew , there are buried but it sure was alloy different than in 1945