Major events of this
period
The Straits Times, Dec 12, 1950Excerpt from report
British and Malay troops, with fixed bayonets, were in support of the Singapore police last night in efforts to quell the rioting which broke out in the afternoon after the appeal in the case of Maria Hertogh had been heard.
Two Europeans, two Chinese and a Eurasian were fatally injured and more than 100 people -- Europeans, Eurasians, Chinese and Indians -- were wounded in the Muslim rioting which gripped a section of Singapore city yesterday afternoon and last night.
The bodies of the two Europeans were found outside Borneo Motors in Orchard Road and in the Rochor Canal. A Eurasian, Francis Pereira, aged 36, died in hospital of multiple injuries.
The bodies of the two Chinese were in the monsoon drain at the junction of Katong and Amber Roads. Near them lay a badly-battered body of a European.
... Beach Road station was a miniature fortress and refugee outpost.
Behind its closed gates gathered men and women who had sought succour from indiscriminate mobbing.
Suddenly, I was in the midst of
about 2,000 people. They started trying
to turn my car over.
-- Dr Buus-Hansen, World Health
Organisation's BCG expert. He was in Singapore
initiating a BCG vaccination campaign.... In the station was Mrs J. W. Davies, ... She and her daughter, Janet, aged eight years, had arrived in Singapore ... only five days ago.
They were travelling in a bus along the North Bridge Road. Near them sat an unknown Eurasian woman.
The bus was suddenly stopped. Muslims were around it and shouting.
"I saw them point at me and then they came into the bus and started on my husband," she said. "They hit him with a stick. I went towards him but they punched me in the face and mouth and then pitched me off the bus.
"Janet was screaming. I did not see her again.
"They had my husband on the floor of the bus, punching him and kicking him.
"I was still dazed from the punches I had received. A friendly Indian hurried me into a taxi and I was brought to Beach Road station."
The women ran and took refuge
in a Eurasian home. They were later
escorted away by police.
-- An eyewitness, who saw a mob stopped the
women's car, set it on fire and beat up the women.As Mrs Davies recovered slowly in the station, she learned her husband had been sent to hospital, but he was dangerously ill with severe head injuries.
Then she got news of Janet. The unknown Eurasian woman had picked up the little girl and taken her away with her -- and sent a message to Mrs Davies.
... At 10.30 pm about 300 Indian Muslims and Malays lined both sides of Anson Road opposite C. F. Pope's motor garage.
They were armed with planks and sticks. They stopped every vehicle which passed and examined the passengers.
... Three police vans, two military lorries and one military jeep lay burnt into twisted steel in front of the Sultan Mosque. This had been done within half-hour by angry Muslim mobs.
All traffic along North Bridge Road stood still and all shops within the mosque area were closed.
Extracts of the broadcast from a Muslim leader, Maulana Mohamad Abdul Aleem Siddiqui:
... "With the full force at my command, I say that whatever is going on in the streets is quite contrary to the teachings of Islam."
... "Please, please for God's sake do not repeat such things. Have confidence in your leaders who are trying their level best to create a better atmosphere."
... Thousands of Malays and Indian Muslims were on the roads bounded by Beach Road, Sultan Street, Victoria and Rochore Road.
They were especially dense on the North Bridge Road, from Sultan Street to Rochore Road, the Muslim area of Singapore.
Traffic along that stretch ceased altogether around about 1.45 pm.
A light truck with three Europeans passed in front of Sultan Mosque round about 1.50. A shout went up and the crowd surged round it. The occupants stopped their vehicle and they ran out seeking shelter in one of the shops.
The truck was overturned and set on fire. The mob shouted in triumph. Not content with firing it, they hit it and threw stones at it.
Copyright © 1998 Singapore Press Holdings. All Rights Reserved.
Previous