avail. The St John's quarantine station officially closed on 14 January 1976 because the popularisation of air travel had drastically reduced the number of arrivals by boat. Detention centre St John's Island served as a World War I and World War II internment camp. In August 1914, right after World War I began, most German men in Singapore were interned on St John's Island and Tanglin Barracks while women and children were detained in Kuala Lumpur. Enemy combatants were also imprisoned on the island, including the crew of and the Greek collier , which was captured by the Germans. By 1916, a total of 296 enemy nationals had been transferred from St John's to Australia . During World War II (1939–1945), enemy foreign nationals—some of whom were fleeing Nazism—were interned at St John's Island in 1940. Of these, the Germans who were to be removed from the war were interned in Ceylon. As for the rest, some were deported to neutral grounds like Shanghai. Others were transported to Australia, including German-Jewish and his family. Separately, the Japanese subsequently allied with the Germans and invaded Malaya. Shortly after, the Japanese women and children in Singapore were also interned on St John's Island from late 1941 to 1942 before being shipped to Calcutta. When the Japanese occupation of Malaya during World War II began, Allied prisoners of war were detained on St John’s. The Malayan Emergency (1948–1960) sparked by the Communist Party of Malaya caused St John’s to resume operating as a detention centre for political prisoners. In 1947, the Communist Party of Malaya initiated a guerilla war against the British colonial government in hopes that it would be more effective in turning the Federation of Malaya and the Crown Colony of Singapore communist. Fatal attacks committed in the Federation of Malaya on June 1948 as part of this war culminated in the British colonial government declaring a state of emergency, thus enacting the Essential Regulations Proclamation on 24 June. This granted the government the authority to arrest and detain anyone without trial. Expecting an influx of political prisoners, St John's Island was officially announced as the site of the new detention centre on 3 July 1948 and became a protected area from 10 September onward. St John’s housed not only communists but also political suspects and detainees of other political leanings, from both Malaya and Singapore, who sought to overthrow the