OTTAWA, ON, March 14, 1988 - Dr. John Humphrey, former director with the United Nations Human Rights Commission, says he was disappointed with Canada's representatives at a recent meeting of the United Nations in Geneva. Humphrey made this statement shortly after he returned from Geneva where he was acting as a special consultant to The War Amputations of Canada.

Humphrey, who is now a professor at McGill University in Montreal, has been working with the Association on its claim to obtain compensation from Japan for Canadian PoWs imprisoned in Japan during World War II.

"The Canadian delegation at the UN should have a significant role to play within the Human Rights Commission," stated Humphrey in voicing his disappointment over the lack of support from the Canadian delegates.

"Their role is especially important where the rights of Canadian veterans are affected."

In commenting on Humphrey's report, Cliff Chadderton, Patron of the Hong Kong Veterans Association and Chief Executive Officer of The War Amps, said this underlines what he calls the Canadian factor.

"We have submitted documentation indicating the government of the day sent the veterans to Hong Kong knowing full well that no effort would be made to support or relieve the troops in the event of an attack by Japan," he stated. "It seems that the government's decision to send these men was a political one rather than a military one."

The Hong Kong PoWs' claim was submitted to the UN in the form of a 600-page brief and supported by a two-year medical study. The men want additional compensation for the 44 months of their internment. They originally received $1 per day in 1952.

The veterans, part of a Canadian army force sent to strengthen the British garrison in Hong Kong, were taken prisoner after a bitter 17-day fight when Japan invaded the island on December 8, 1941. The Canadian soldiers were brutalized and forced to do slave labour during their imprisonment.