The Pittsburgh Press (January 31, 1944)
Jap atrocities will be probed
Aussies to gather data for war crimes group
Canberra, Australia (UP) –
The government has appointed a commission of inquiry under Chief Justice Sir William Webb of Queensland to investigate Jap atrocities against Australians in the Southwest Pacific, External Affairs Minister Herbert V. Evatt announced today.
Full details of satisfactorily-established atrocities with the names of the guilty persons will be submitted to the United Nations War Crimes Commission for the record and for punishment, he said.
Food inadequate
Mr. Evatt charged the Japs with refusing the International Red Cross and the Swiss government, as protecting power, permission to inspect prisoner and internment camps in Indochina, Asia, Malaya and the Dutch East Indies and with failing to facilitate the dispatch of relief supplies and parcels to Allies nationals.
Mr. Evatt said:
The Australian government has information that food rations, drugs and medical supplies in most camps are inadequate and far below European standards.
Lack prisoner list
However, conditions at camps in Japan, Korea and China which Swiss and Red Cross representatives have been permitted to inspect were improving, Mr. Evatt said.
He also indicated the Japs for failure to supply lists of pris0ners and internees, contending that many Australians believed captured in Malaya and the Dutch East Indies have not been accounted for officially.