History The Penang Wireless Station a historic building

THE PENANG WIRELESS STATION  call sign ZHJ was operated by amateurs at No 50 Perak Road. One of its active members was the Rev. Colin King, teacher of English at the Penang Free School and a pillar of St George's Church.  When the Japanese continued to bomb Penang after the British had deserted the island, Saravanamuttu the editor of the Straits Echo activated the station with the hospital auxiliary plant and broadcast the following message to the Japanese Army hoping they would receive the message broadcast on the 49m waveband "This is Penang calling. Penang calling the Japanese Headquarters in North Malaya.  "Penang has been evacuated by the British. There are no more troops or any defences whatsoever in Penang. "Please refrain from bombing Penang" An appeal repeated every half hour and also broadcast in Japanese. In "The Sara Saga" Saravanamuttu modestly recalls the drama

"I learnt later that a young Eurasian by the name of Ivan Allan (later a race horse trainer and since dead)... went to Sungei Patani on the 18th [December] with a Japanese named Izumi, who had a barber saloon in Argyll Road. They were said to have conveyed the news that the British had evacuated Penang. So it would appear that the reputation I had earned as the 'Saviour of Penang'  by broadcasting to the Japanese to stop bombing Penang was another of those exaggerated tributes that contributed to making me a legend in Penang." #

Part of the Penang Story project  organised by the Penang Heritage Trust was the colloquium on Penang's Historical Minorities which discussed the Siamese, Burmese  Filipino, Eurasian, Ceylonese, Parsis, and Japanese communities.

 

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___________________ The Penang File Issue 19