Escape to Pagan by Brian Devereux Read Free Book Online

glad my mother and two of my brothers, Cyril and Victor, and my youngest sister Lucy were staying with me in Taunggyi at the time before we fled. It was so reassuring to have my two strong and capable brothers with us when we first set off. Victor was six foot two, blonde, blue eyed and weighed well over two hundred and twenty pounds. Cyril used to stay with the Shan tribesmen while out hunting. After the war, Cyril married the headman’s daughter, had many children and became a schoolteacher. We had lost all contact with my oldest brother Harry. He was an officer in the Burmese Army, made up of Ghurkhas, Kachins and other hill tribes. The last we heard of, it was retreating towards the Irrawaddy River. My sister Grace was in Rangoon with her family. Grace had married and was now Mrs Lobo [’Mrs Wolf’ in Portuguese] with several sons, Kenny, Cyril, Carl, Oswald and daughters Gloria and Patricia. My other sister Annette married an English Major Wallace in the artillery who became a Colonel after the war. They came to visit us in England with their two children, a girl called Gwen and a son William; they moved to Eritrea and disappeared. We never heard from Annette again despite our attempts to contact her. I hope and pray they are alright.
    â€œDuring the occupation, my mother worried about my brothers and sisters, they were scattered all over Burma. Every town had its Kempeitai spies and trying to contact family members would be dangerous.”

    Many of the refugees trapped in Burma criticized those responsible for the empty promises and assurances which delayed their departure from Burma to India. The confidence of those in charge shaded the many non-endemic people living there with a flimsy bamboo umbrella of hope; useless against the ever increasing heatof the rising sun. Evacuating Burma just two weeks earlier would have allowed a great many fleeing refugees to reach safety, saving thousands of lives.
    General Stilwell who commanded the Chinese armies, it is said, disliked the Limeys; especially the officer class. Stilwell detested General Wavell who lectured him on tactics for defeating the Japanese, just after losing Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore and Burma. It has been said that president Franklin D. Roosevelt (who was of Dutch and French ancestry) was not a great fan of the British despite helping us win the war. He did not want Britain to regain her empire.
    â€œDo you think your father Herman Unger was a German spy, Mum?” I once asked. She laughed.

    â€œMy father was such a drunkard, he could not keep a secret and made it known that he did not like the British having an Empire. He also disliked the way the British allowed the Indians to dominate the markets and become the biggest landowners. When drunk he boasted, if Germany went to war, he would join their army. His views were well known in Rangoon and Mandalay. He was not popular with our British friends, but he got on well with everybody else, especially the Japanese.
    â€œMy mother’s first husband was James Talbot, a redheaded Irishman from Galway. He was thirty-five; she had just turned fifteen. He was the inspector of railways in Burma. There was always a railway inspector in the family, for my mother and grandmother never paid train fares as they travelled all over Burma visiting relatives.
    â€œMy face is my ticket, Grandmother used to say indignantly, when asked for her fare by a new ticket collector.
    â€œBoth my fathers were jolly men, both were alcoholics. Herman Unger was very cruel to animals. When he came back from a snipe shooting trip, dozens of birds would be threaded through the eyes with bamboo: some were still alive. I used to scream at him. He used to laugh and put me on his knee and call me his little dark diamond, his alcoholic breath used to make me feel dizzy. I would never eat snipe atdinner but soon developed a taste for whisky. I used to take sips from the decanter.”

    Mother referred to both men