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A`lance corporal collecting rations from
Ban Pong was handed a note. The note signed in good
cloak and dagger style ‘V’ said that civilian internees
in Bangkok had heard that conditions were none too good
on the line and wished to know more. Back at Nong Pla
Duek camp there was indecision. What if the note was a
plant by the Japanese wanting to know how much the
prisoners knew? It was a risky decision to take but
eventually it was decided the risk was worth taking.
V was started by a British civilian being
kept in Bangkok, Gairdner. He was married to a Thai
lady, Millie so was able, through her, to pass messages
around fairly easily, though of course easily is a
relative term in war time. Gairdner started to pass
news, money and small medicinal items through to some of
the camps closer to Ban Pong and in return he got
information about life further up river which he was
able to pass on to diplomats like the Swiss. By April
1943 the Allies had a good idea of the location of all
the camps along the line heading up to Burma, invaluable
information for the bombing raids that were to increase.
A local trader called Boonpong
Sirivejjabhandu, who I shall call Boonpong, got
involved. The thing with the Thais was that,
diplomatically speaking, they were in some kind of Alice
in Wonderland limbo. They were occupied by the Japanese
though nominally left to rule, they were at war with the
US though the Ambassador in Washington had decided not
to tell the Americans, not agreeing with the message his
government had sent him. They were also at war with the
British, the Ambassador in London having no such qualms,
which rather upset the allies but in reality, on the
ground, there was an active underground called Seri
Thai, Free Thai, who were doing their bit to
sabotage the Japanese war effort with support from the
British and Americans. Boonpong may have been involved
with Seri Thai on the ground but he is remembered
by many allied POWs for what he did in the camps. The
Thais being neutral, they just happened to be playing a
somewhat unwilling host to a bullying guest, tried to
carry on with business as usual and while many people
lose out in war time there’s no denying there is a
profit to be had. The Thais had food, drugs and
mobility; prisoners wanted all three though the latter
was somewhat difficult. In true Adam Smith style buyer
and seller were brought together and a deal was struck.
Thai traders would have been there when Padre Duckworth
arrived with his piano from Singapore; they would have
bought the prisoners personal belongings that could be
carried no further, giving the disheartened young men
access to money with which they could improve their piss
poor rations in the camps.
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Boonpong did all that and more. One
grateful prisoner recalls he was the merchant with the
lowest prices and the smallest mark up. But it was the
other stuff he did that endeared him to the captives,
stuff that could have seen him and possibly even his
family get serious grief. He advanced money, he provided
extra medicines, he ran messages. Doesn’t seem much on
paper but his value, and of others like him, maybe
cannot be measured in mere pounds, shillings and pence.
He saved lives with his attention to drugs and
medicines, for example the camp at Tamarkan, right by
the bridge, prisoners were dying at the rate of 5 a day
in May 1943, admittedly a particularly hectic time on
the railway, while by November the casualty rate was
down to one a week. But the morale boost just knowing
that in an alien environment, far from loved ones, where
no news from the outside world seeped, apart from the
odd illicit radio, there was someone outside the camp
looking after you must have been immeasurable. It was
perhaps appropriate that this unsung hero was able to
confirm the rumours, in August 1945 that the Japanese
had been beaten and the war was over. Weary Dunlop, a
name forever associated with the Death Railway, never
forgot Boonpong and his efforts and later set up a
foundation in both their names. If he was in the French
resistance no doubt there would be a movie about him. He
deserves something along with others whose names haven’t
been recorded.
Six weeks after he had passed on the
message that the war was over Boonpong was shot. Post
war France was a time of retribution and pay back,
Thailand the same. Someone somewhere had it in for the
man who had rowed up and down the river supplying the
allied prisoners. Weary Dunlop heard about his situation
and ordered the Senior Medical Officer to ‘report on the
condition of Mr. Boonpong, injured Thai civilian, who
had done so much for prisoners of war.’ In 1947 he was
in financial difficulties. A POW association heard about
it and had a whip round and not long after Boonpong
started Boonpong Bus Company. In 1948 he received the
MBE from the British though quite what a fiercely
independent Thai would have been made of being a Member
of the British Empire, which of course he never was, is
unclear. Maybe the good guys do always win but history
seems to prefer the bad, I guess they make better copy.
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