Re: Changi Prison Artiifacts to be Saved

Date: March 08, 2004

"Changi mementoes head for Australia
By Mark Baker Asia Editor Singapore

Fittings and artefacts from the infamous Changi Prison will be sent to Australia to preserve key sections of the Singapore jail where thousands of Allied troops were held by the Japanese in World War II.

The Singapore Government has bowed to international pressure and agreed to save a 180-metre section of the prison wall, including two turrets used as Japanese guard posts, and to relocate the jail's main gates.

The Australian War Memorial, Goulburn City Council and ex-service groups are negotiating with Singapore to take other parts of the jail for use in museum displays. They include cell doors, shower stalls and other fixtures.

Singapore's Corrections Department had been preparing to demolish the wartime prison, built by the British in 1936 and still housing civilian prisoners, and build a new jail complex.

The plan drew an outcry from Allied veterans and Singapore historians who feared the loss of one of the best-known landmarks of the war in the Pacific.

Almost 15,000 Australians were taken prisoner when Singapore fell to the Japanese in 1942, and many passed through Changi on their way to the death camps of the Burma railway, the coal mines in Japan and the labour camps of Borneo.

Ex-Prisoner of War Association national secretary Cyril Gilbert yesterday welcomed the news. "We're very happy that at least some of the jail is being kept in memory of all those who suffered and died," he said.

But Mr Gilbert, who spent a year in Changi after returning from the Burma railway, said veterans' groups had hoped the main gates would be kept in their original position rather than being relocated.

The decision to save parts of the prison followed intense lobbying by several Australian ministers, including Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, whose father was a PoW in Changi.

Australian high commissioner Gary Quinlan said calls to preserve the entire prison had never been likely to succeed. "It's a working prison. It has to be rebuilt and we always recognised that," he said.

Under the revised redevelopment plans, the preserved sections of the prison will be open to the public. Authorities are also considering building a historical display centre to complement the Changi museum and chapel.

Singapore's Home Affairs Ministry said the surviving section of the jail would be gazetted as a national monument. It said artefacts from parts of the jail to be demolished were on offer to local tourism authorities and the governments of Australia, Britain and New Zealand.©2004 The Age Company Ltd"