# UK Says Former Female POW Not Brit Enough for Compensation?



## The Bread Guy (8 Oct 2006)

Shared in accordance with the "fair dealing" provisions, Section 29, of the Copyright Act - http://www.cb-cda.gc.ca/info/act-e.html#rid-33409

*British PoW faces verdict on how 'British' she really is* 

The Court of Appeal will this week decide if Diana Elias, an 83-year-old widow who was held in a Japanese PoW camp during the war, should be denied compensation on grounds of her nationality
Mark Townsend, The Observer (UK), 8 Oct 06
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1890415,00.html

She suffered in silence, petrified of being executed at any moment while interned in an insect-infested prison camp. Sixty years on, the horrific experiences of Diana Elias in a notorious Japanese Second World War camp will this week help to define the controversial issue of what constitutes Britishness.
The 83-year-old widow was interned because she was British. The UK government insists she is not quite British enough, arguing that she has no 'ancestral connection' to the land of her passport and is therefore not eligible for compensation from the government.

Amid the ongoing debate over national identity, the Court of Appeal is to decide whether the government was justified in deciding that to qualify as British an individual must have a 'blood link' through birth or ancestry. Elias was born in the British Empire and has always held a British passport, but the fact that her parents were Indian and Iraqi prompted the Ministry of Defence to claim she did not qualify for a payment scheme for individuals held in Japanese prisoner camps. To receive the payment, the victim's parents have to come from Britain.

The court's verdict will reignite the debate on British citizenship, while raising fresh questions over Britain's relationship with the Commonwealth. Closer to home, it also threatens to embarrass the MoD amid accusations of racism.

An internal government memo revealed during the case suggested that a person's right to compensation was evaluated partly on race. Written in July 2001 by the former head of the MoD's Veterans Agency, it states: 'It is true to deny we are being racist, but we are in fact including race as deciding factor as part of our eligibility criteria.'

Elias, who was born in colonial Hong Kong and now lives in a north London council flat, is adamant that she has been discriminated against for racial reasons.

Her solicitor argues that the MoD also contravened a legal obligation instigated in the wake of the murder of Stephen Lawrence, namely that government policies must promote racial equality and equal opportunities. Elias's case is the first legal challenge to test the government's commitment to avoiding racial discrimination. The judge is expected to comment on the responsibility of the state to treat its citizens equally.

Elias said: 'What this "blood link" means is that being British is not good enough. Being interred because you were British is not good enough.

'You only count if you were born here in the UK, or your family originates from here. If not, then you are another type of British. A type of British whose suffering and rights do not matter one bit. I was born British. I have always been British. My grandparents were British. My father was British and so was my mother. I can remember my father taking great pride in the fact he was British and so was his family. And I was proud to be British. I still am.'

Her solicitor, John Halford, of Bindman & Partners, said: 'At the heart of this case is an ongoing injustice of the most grotesque kind.'

Elias said: 'One of the things that makes me proud to be British and to make this country my home is that people of different races, origins and backgrounds have mixed here and made a success of that. There could not have been more of a mix at my 80th birthday party, but almost all of us were British.'

Aged just 17, Elias was singled out along with other Britons living in Hong Kong by the Japanese for internment in the Stanley Camp. Haunted ever since by nightmares, she still remembers being herded into a truck in the dead of night. She spent four years in the camp and the ordeal exacted a high price on the health of her entire family.

Her mother suffered a nervous breakdown during her imprisonment. Elias added: 'I wake up in the middle of the night, with those thoughts still in my head. It is hard to get back to sleep.'

More than 50,000 British PoWs and 19,000 civilians were captured by the Japanese and forced to work in inhumane conditions in mines or on the so-called Railway of Death between Thailand and Burma. Nearly one quarter of those seized died in captivity.

In November 2000 the government announced a £167m compensation scheme for British civilians interned by the Japanese during the Second World War with each receiving £10,000 as a 'debt of honour'.

Several months after details of the scheme were published, the government decreed that claimants should show a 'blood link' with this country, disqualifying up to 2,400 whose forebears worked and lived in the Far East, often for the Armed Forces or the colonial administration.

Last summer Elias did receive £10,000 compensation after she took a separate case to the Parliamentary Ombudsman who ruled the compensation scheme was afflicted by 'maladministration'. She is not now looking for any further recompense from the government, but is still pursuing the case as the policy based on race, she claims, is perverse.

Elias, who worked in Bombay as a travel agent's sales manager, travelled to Britain regularly and, after the death of her husband, Nissin, in 1972, moved to Britain permanently. She is hopeful that her five-year legal campaign will prove successful this week.

She said: 'I realised it would discriminate in a way that is racist. I did not need to go to court to realise that. One of my brothers Charlie, was refused under the same bloodlink rule. He died soon afterwards, considered a second-class type of British by his own country.'


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## Yrys (12 Oct 2006)

UK is the the only country to do that...

For me, if you're born in a country, you're citizen of that country, but hey,
I'm Canadian, not European .

In Dominic Republic, the constitution stated that if you're born there,
you're a citizen. But some descendant of Haitian parents don't have papers
proving it, with parents too poor to have go to the hospital.
No papers mean no education and no access to health care.

Which is all good for our sugary teeth, because most of them work for 
very low wage in sugar plantations...


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## beach_bum (20 Oct 2006)

I'm failing to understand why she is going after the British govt for compensation and not the Japanese govt?   ???


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## Trinity (20 Oct 2006)

beach_bum said:
			
		

> I'm failing to understand why she is going after the British govt for compensation and not the Japanese govt?   ???



British government gave other british captives compensation... she applied and was refused.


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## beach_bum (20 Oct 2006)

Gotcha.  Still think it should be the Japanese govt though.


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## 1feral1 (20 Oct 2006)

beach_bum said:
			
		

> Gotcha.  Still think it should be the Japanese govt though.



Hey Beach, the Japs still won't officially appologise or admit to the attrocites they OPENLY committed aginst Allied PWs. Their arrogance after over 60yrs still shines through.

One will never get a penny from them in regards to compensation from their many wartime attrocities. Look what they did in Korea and China to the local population, and this was considered 'expanding their empire'.

At least the Germans did the right thing and appologised to the world for what they did.


Cheers,

Wes


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## dapaterson (20 Oct 2006)

Wesley 'Over There' (formerly Down Under) said:
			
		

> Hey Beach, the Japs still won't officially appologise or admit to the attrocites they OPENLY committed aginst Allied PWs. Their arrogance after over 60yrs still shines through.
> 
> One will never get a penny from them in regards to compensation from their many wartime attrocities. Look what they did in Korea and China to the local population, and this was considered 'expanding their empire'.



I'd recommend visiting Singapore for a good perspective on the Japanese in Asia.  Short version: not well loved.  Or liked.  And barely tolerated.


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## niner domestic (25 Oct 2006)

This doesn't surprise me in the least.  The UK has been holding off the POWs and civilians internees ( I have a small nitpick at the terminology being interchanged of POW and Internee)for decades on their compensation. They are still refusing the MN theirs.  My grandfather served 35 years in the Royal Marines and was a POW in Burma for 5 years after his ship, HMS Repulse was sunk on Dec  10, 1941.  He never got one penny of compensation because he was Canadian and the brits felt that Canada should be compensating him, and Cdn VA kept referring him back to the brits.


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## cameron (29 Oct 2006)

This is so obviously racist its sickening.  One would have thought that sixty  years on British Govt. policy would have elevated from the days when black West Indian volunteers had to fight for the right to serve during World War II.


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