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Letter from injured soldier seeking compensation after repatriation from Australia
[Underlined heading:] Compensation for War Injuries.
With reference to your letter S.O.79/48 dated 2nd April, 1948, I have the honour to state that it is quite impossible for me to obtain and produce the Medical Certificate now, as the Hospital in which I was treated and which was an American one, known as the A.P.O.982 [corrected in pencil to ‘928’] Field Hospital has ceased to function at New Guinea. It is possible that the Unit has since been disbanded and returned to America. I can only, if it is required, produce an evidence by calling my fellow-sailors, who were also injured and treated at the 2/1CCS Australian Field Hospital and who were lucky to be given with medical certificates, to make sworn affidavits to the fact that I was together with them injured when the s.s. Gorgon was bombed whilst in Milne Bay, New Guinea on the 14th April, 1943, and that I was taken in and treated for about 3 months at the said American Hospital. With regard to the injuries received, I cannot express them in medical terms what they are but that they can be proved by the scars that can still be seen all over my body.
2. Since I was repatriated from Australia about a month ago, I have not been able to secure satisfactory work, largely due to the injury I received at Milne Bay in 1943.
3. The short history of my service is as follows :–
[Text presented in three columns, with the headings ‘Period’, ‘Ship’, and ‘Appointment.’]
[Period:] 16.12.41 – 30.11.42
[Ship:] s.s. KLANG
[Appointment:] Sailor
[Period:] 1.12.42 – 8.3.43
[Ship:] s.s. KLANG
[Appointment:] “
[Period:] 26.3.43 – 29.9.43
[Ship:] s.s. GORGON
[Appointment:] “
[Period:] 14.6.44 – 14.11.44
[Ship:] s.s. MARELLA
[Appointment:] “
4. I attach herewith copies of my Discharge Certificates for your kind perusal.
5. Trusting that my just claim will be entertained with your kind sympathetic consideration, so as to enable me to maintain my wife, who will be expecting a baby, and two children one aged 2 years and the other 9 months old, who were left behind and are still in Australia.
6. Thanking you, Sir in anticipation.
I have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your obedient servant,
[Blank space for signature.]
A. S. Amjah [underlined]
[Added in pencil at the bottom of the page:] ABDUL SAMAD BIN AMJAH
