End of a mysterious life: Harry Freame returns to Australia to die

Final chapter: The SS Tanda, the ship that carried Harry Freame to his death.This is the seventeenth in a series on Australia's early intelligence activities, the thirteenth on the life of Harry Freame. And so our story comes to an end. .

On 11 October 1940, Harry Freame sailed for Tokyo on the SS Tanda to set up the new Australian Legation.

Harry was worried by all the publicity, including the identification of his previous intelligence activities. He thought that he had been followed in Sydney in the weeks before his departure. He was right to be worried.

The economic sanctions imposed by the United State in1939 in response to the Japanese invasion of China were biting hard. Japan was already considering pre-emptive military action. The month before he sailed, Japan had signed the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy.

The new Australian Legation could probably have done little in any case, but the delays in appointing Sir John Latham meant that it was arriving after the signature of the Tripartite Pact.

John Fahey records that as the political climate worsened, the feared Kenpeitai was instructed to crack down on foreign intelligence activities in Japan.

Many Australian service members would meet the Kenpeitai to their cost. Founded in 1881 as the military police wing of the Imperial Japanese Army, it had evolved into military police plus intelligence plus enforcement wing. It was, in effect, a law in itself.

Political considerations limited action against US nationals, but all others were targets. Harry Freame had a particular problem because he was half-Japanese.

Events now are as confused as anything else in Harry Freame’s life.

The family believed, and there is evidence to support this view, that he was garroted on 27 January 1941, destroying his larynx. The official Australian position at the time was that he had throat cancer. Later family attempts to gain adequate compensation would be unsuccessful.

Severely ill and barely able to speak, Harry Freame was repatriated to Australia where he died and was buried on 29 May 1941. It had been quite a life!

This is not quite the end of our story, nor the last sad part.

Finding the orchard unprofitable with wartime restrictions, Harry Jnr decided to enlist. He tried to join the air force, but was unsuccessful. He therefore joined the 33^rd Battalion, a militia unit, on 31 October 1941.

On 27 March 1943, he entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon, graduating as head of his class on 4 April 1944. He had now achieved that office rank his father had sought so many years before. 

Harry Jnr was posted as Lieutenant to the 2/24 Battalion where he served on Tarakan. On 7 May 1945, Australian papers carried stories of a successful attack he had led on a Japanese pillbox. He was killed the following day.

It happened almost by accident. Suffering from a tooth abscess, Harry Jnr had called into a medical post. Invited to stay overnight, he was asleep when a Japanese soldier crept in and threw a fused shell under his bed. He died instantly. 

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 5 June 2019. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019   

Harry Freame: odd jobs man in Japan

John McEwen, Australian Minister for External Affairs: "the Consul-General of Japan considers the Freame appointment an excellent one, as Mr Freame had created a very favourable impression." This is the sixteenth in a series on Australia's early intelligence activities, the twelfth on the life of Harry Freame.

We come now to the next and last stage in the life of Harry Freame, one that would be as shrouded in mystery as all those that had gone before.

 I have spoken before in this series about the problems Australia faced in finding Japanese language speakers. I have also talked about the sometimes chaotic and ad hoc Australian approach to Australian intelligence gathering.

We will now see both in operation.

On 4 December 1939, Australian Military Intelligence employed Harry Freame on “secret defence work”.

There is no evidence that Harry had retained any intelligence links while living at Kentucky, but now there was need for Japanese speakers. His role was to monitor the small Japanese community living in New South Wales.

August 1940 was a big month for Harry. He married again. His new bride was a nurse, Harriet Brainwood, a divorcee with a son and daughter. He began working for the Military Censor as a Japanese linguist while retaining his intelligence role. He was also under consideration for another role.

Japan was a strategic threat to Australia, but it was also a major trading partner. Still hoping to avoid war, the Australian Government decided to open a Legation in Tokyo. This was an historic move, for this was Australia’s first diplomatic post outside the Empire and Commonwealth. 

Sir John Latham was appointed as Australia’s first Minister to Japan. A special act of Parliament was required since Latham was also Chief Justice of the High Court. Harry was offered and accepted the job of interpreter and odd jobs man, an unusual combination, at the new legation. 

In September 1940, Australian newspapers carried detailed stories on the Freame appointment including, in many cases, references to his secret defence work. Someone had backgrounded the papers and all hell broke loose.

 The Minister for the Army, P A McBryde, wrote to the Minister for External Affairs, John McEwen, to express his concern at the leak. The “possibility cannot be overlooked that this appointment may now be viewed with suspicion in Tokyo.”

McEwen defended his Department.

Freame’s activities were well known to the Japanese authorities in Australia. Further, his Department had specifically raised the question of Freame’s appointment with the Consul-General of Japan who had responded that the Freame appointment “was an excellent one, as Mr Freame had created a very favourable impression.”

Despite the assurances from the Consul-General, this leak would have unfortunate consequences.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 29 May 2019. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019   

Fresh challenges for the Freames

Harry Freame Jn with his mother 1937. This is the fifteenth in a series on Australia's early intelligence activities, the eleven on the life of Harry Freame.

As the international scene darkened in the late 1930, the Freame family faced a new set of problems.

Things had been going so well. Harry Jnr had won a bursary to study at the technical college in Sydney, working during the day and studying at night.

A 1937 photo of Harry Jnr with his mother from the Sheila Goodyear collection shows her pride in him. Harry Jnr is wearing his Armidale High blazer with its prefect’s badge, while his mother beams at the camera.

Grace, too, was doing well at school with the family planning to send her to secondary school at Arnidale High.

In June 1939, May Freame became ill. On the Wednesday night 23 August 1939, Harry Snr caught the train from Kentucky to Sydney to meet a lady friend and missionary from Japan who had worked with his sister Grace. This is one of the few references we have to Harry’s Japanese family.

May had been unwell, but insisted Harry go because the meeting had already been delayed.

Next morning, Thursday 24 August, May was again ill but got young Grace off to school. Just after Grace left, May had two heart attacks. She was alone, but was finally found by a salesman and taken to St Elmo’s Hospital in Uralla.

 The news reached Harry at his son’s place where he was staying. He rushed home. May was very sick and finally died at St Elmo’s Hospital on 7 September 1939.

Writing home, Harry Jnr said that May had been suffering from severe diabetes. Neither she nor the family knew how ill she was.

The problem was that “she would have nothing to do with doctors and was afraid of having to go to hospital.” Looking at May’s earlier history, we can perhaps understand why.

Harry Jnr then outlined their plans. His father was completely broken up: “next year we plan, overseas circumstances permitting, to live in Sydney and sell our own fruit, having a manager on the orchard and Grace will go away to Armidale High school and the Church of England’s Girls’ Hostel.   

He concluded: “we are having a very lean time at the moment but hope things will improve.”

By December 1939, plans had shifted again. Writing to the English family, Harry Snr said that Grace was still to board so that she could study at Armidale High, but that Harry Jnr had come home to the farm because he, Harry Snr, had accepted a job with the Australian military.

This is the first reference we have to the next and last stage in Harry’s life, one that would be as shrouded in mystery as all those that had gone before.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 22 May 2019. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019   

Nation unprepared for threat of war

War worries: The German invasion of Poland and the resulting war in Europe found Australia poorly equipped to respond at a time when worries about Japan were growing.This is the fourteenth in a series on Australia's early intelligence activities, the tenth on the life of Harry Freame.  

As the 1930s wound to a close, the international scene continued to darken.

In July 1937, full-scale war broke out between Japan and China. The Japanese achieved initial success capturing Shanghai and Nanking, the second with a degree of brutality that still scars Sino-Japanese relations.

In Europe, both Mussolini and Hitler were pursuing expansionist policies.

Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935 although both countries were members of the League of Nations. Later, in April 1939, Italy seized Albania.

In March 1938, Germany annexed Austria then placed pressure on Czechoslovakia to cede the Sudetenland. In September 1938 this was agreed to under the Munich Agreement on the basis that Germany would make no more territorial claims.

It quickly became clear that Hitler had further territorial ambitions. Now greatly alarmed, the United Kingdom and France guaranteed their support for Polish independence. When Germany invaded Poland, Britain declared war on 1 September 1939. Australia followed suit.

The country was ill equipped to fight a war, less prepared than it had been in August 1914. The poorly equipped Army had a small permanent cadre of 3,000 men plus 80,000 part time militiamen. The Air Force had 246 aircraft, few of them modern. The Navy was in a better position, but was still small.

These problems had been foreseen by, among others, David Drummond, then NSW Minister for Education as well as Member for Armidale. 

In the second half of 1936, Drummond had been on a ministerial tour of Europe and North America. This included a visit to Germany where he visited technical institutions and watched them training glider pilots.

Already convinced of the importance of airpower, Drummond argued for urgent action on his return.  His trip report painted a frightening picture,

Quoting T.W. Leech of Sydney University, it suggested that for defence purposes Australia needed a minimum of 400 first line aircraft with a further 100 training machines. To construct and maintain such a fleet would require 4,000 mechanics and forty aeronautical engineers.

However, as at 31 December 1935 there were only 333 aircraft registered in Australia, there were only 1099 pilots and only 956 aircraft mechanics. Even if aeronautical training was expanded immediately, it would take some years to train the necessary staff.

Rearmament had finally begun, but to a Commonwealth Government worried about Japan as well as Germany, there was considerable reluctance to commit limited resources to Europe.

Here the Government had another problem, one that would bring Harry Freame back into the frame. There were very few Japanese speakers available. 

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 15 May 2019. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019   

Japan's Empire a threat

Shanghai 1932: Chinese 19th Route Army defends against Japanese invasion. This is the thirteenth in a series on Australia's early intelligence activities, the ninth on the life of Harry Freame.  

While the Freame family was absorbed in the day-to-day rhythms of life in the Kentucky of the 1930s, the world was changing in ways that would bring Harry back to his old life and have tragic consequences for them all. 

Japan had entered the First World War with a clear objective, the creation of an empire to rival that of the European powers and the US.

Prior to the War, Japan had added Taiwan (1895) and Korea (1910) to its Empire. The War gave it the German holdings in China and the Marianas, Caroline and Marshall Islands in the Pacific that had been part of German New Guinea.

Japan had not finished. In 1931, it invaded and conquered Northeast China (Manchuria), establishing a puppet state, Manchukuo, with the last Manchu Emperor of China, Puyi, as official head of state.

On 28 January 1932 came what is called the 28 January or first Shanghai incident.

Anti-Japanese feeling had been rising. On January 18, five Japanese Buddhist monks, members of an ardently nationalist sect in Shanghai, were severely beaten. The police response caused anti-Japanese rioting.

On 28 January Japan responded with military force. After heavy fighting against Chinese forces, the Japanese imposed their will. In a League of Nations brokered truce, the Chinese Government was forced to withdraw all Chinese troops, making Shanghai a demilitarised zone.

This Japanese victory sent shock waves around the world.

It was the first time that carrier aircraft had been used to bomb a city. An inferior force measured by numbers had been able to triumph. And in so doing, an entire international naval fleet based at Shanghai had been bottled up by Japanese blockade.

In January 1934, an Imperial Naval conference was held in Singapore to consider the growing Japanese threat. Australia was represented.

There were at least  two ironies about this conference.

The first was that Japanese intelligence had improved to the point that two of their spies were able to send every detail to Tokyo. The second was that British signal intelligence had also improved to the point that they were able to decode the spies’ reports!

Some action would follow, although it was too slow. Again, the Australian Government dragged its heels.

Australia saw a threat, but it wanted the British and the other Dominions and colonies to pay for the intelligence activities required to monitor the threat. That would prove a costly error. 

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 8 May 2019. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015,  here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018, here 2019   

Curley Brydon flies to new heights

No. 78 Squadron members: Squadron Leader "Curley" Brydon, Jack Gibbons, probably Corporal Alfred John Gibbons, and Arthur Jones. Photo: Australian War Memorial.

After so many history columns, I am sometimes asked how I can still find things to write about. Part of the answer is that I am a bower bird, constantly looking for new sticks or trinkets to add to my ever growing nest!

In today’s case, it was the Tamworth Aviation Facebook page that informed me that on 25 October 1944, Squadron Leader Adam Howie “Curley” Brydon was awarded a Bar to his Distinguished Flying Cross. Attention caught, I started digging.

Adam Howie Brydon was born in Armidale on April 14, 1921, to Dr Adam Gibson Brydon and Marjorie (nee Mallam) Brydon. The couple were well liked and very active in community activities, while Dr Brydon was also The Armidale School (TAS) doctor.

I do not know where Curley went to primary school, but he enrolled at TAS in June 1931. There he was involved in the model aero club, was in the swimming team and played in the TAS 2^nd Fifteen.

Curley left TAS in 1939. When War broke out in September, he enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), completing flying training at Point Cook.

The Air Force suited Curley who seems to have had a love of fast planes and fast cars.

The Armidalian records that just after the War he decided on impulse at 9pm that he must visit Armidale. Leaving at 3am in his black MG, he arrived in Armidale for breakfast. The next year, the magazine records that he had come second in the Bathurst road race for the second time!

Curley served first in Number 8 Squadron and then in number 78 Squadron. Number 8 which flew Hudson light bombers took heavy casualties during the Japanese invasion of Malaya and then the Netherlands East Indies. forcing retreat to Australia for retraining and re-equipment.  

Number 78 Squadron was formed in July 1943 as one of the new squadrons being equipped with Kittyhawk fighters and took an active role in the fighting over New Guinea.

By October 1944 when Curley received the Bar to his Distinguished Flying Cross, he was Squadron Leader in charge of Number 78, the youngest Squadron Leader in the RAAF.

The citation for the award read in part: “Squadron-Leader Brydon displayed outstanding courage, keenness and initiative in carrying out extremely hazardous operations which have proved of inestimable value”.

At the end of the war, Curley joined the Fleet Air Arm before moving to the private sector. After establishing Diners Club in Australia, he joined News Limited holding multiple senior executive positions first in Australia and then the United States.

Curley died in September 1986. It had been a long and varied journey from the quiet streets of the Armidale streets of his birth in 1921.

Update 10 November 2018

In comments on the Armidale Families Facebook page, Ken Williams wrote "Howie made fame by setting a new record for road travel from Sydney to Armidale in his MG TC, just after the end of WWII. My recollection was that he made the trip in 6 ½ hours. Not impressed? Remember - hardly any bitumen then!"

Reading Ken's comment, I was taken back into my past when I spent a lot of time driving on dirt roads. I could imagine him pointing the car and drifting round the corner! Susie Dunn who knew him well remembered him flying spitfires as well. I hadn't picked this up from the squadron material.

Another commenter said that Dr Brydon was the doctor when she was born.    

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 31 October 2018. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here  2017, here 2018.

The story of Camp Victory and the Casino Boys

Last year I wrote a series of Armidale Express columns telling the story of Camp Victory and the Casino Boys. It's a fascinating story set in the context of WWII that begins with the fall of Holland to the Nazis.

This post on my general New England blog, New England Stories - Camp Victory and the Casino Boys - brings that story together.

Sad final days of Casino's Camp Victory

October, 2015: The Australia Indonesia Association of NSW held a Camp Victory Memorial Forum at Casino to remember the place of Camp Victory in the story of Indonesian independence.

Camp Victory, Casino, Wednesday 11 September 1946. An Indonesian corporal is found hanged within the camp. It is unclear whether the death is suicide or, as camp officials appear to have suspected, a political murder.

Two days later, on Friday 13 September, camp officials attempted to enter the internment portion of the camp to interview prisoners believed to have been involved in the killing. A hostile demonstration took place, leading to the guards firing a volley into the air. Most prisoners went to the ground, but some of the Indonesians stood their ground, reportedly attempting to push a guard against the barbed wire.

More shots were fired, hitting three of the prisoners. One died, having received a full burst from a Sten submachine gun. Interviewed many years later, one of the Casino Boys said that he felt the guard was frightened and simply lost his head. In any event, it was a sad ending to what had once been a generally harmonious place.

The death was greeted with outrage. “How much longer is Dr. Evatt going to leave this concentration camp at Casino?” wrote V Thompson in the Lismore Northern Star. “How long will it be before he does the democratic thing—breaks up the camp and repatriates the prisoners to Republican territory in Java?”

Over September, the Netherlands East Indies and Dutch Authorities attempted unsuccessfully to negotiate arrangements with the Commonwealth Government whereby the prisoners would be discharged from the NEI armed forces and be supervised by Australian guards pending repatriation.

In October, two hundred prisoners who had completed their military sentences were repatriated. Finally, in December, the remaining prisoners and were sent to Queensland for repatriation, with all Dutch and NEI personnel withdrawn from Camp Victory.

That wasn’t quite the end of the story of Camp Victory, its Indonesia prisoners or the Casino Boys.

The Casino Boys had come to Australia to learn to fly and then found themselves as camp guards and even wharfies loading Dutch shipping to counter the union black ban.. Now they returned to the Netherlands to complete their flying training.

Most had had enough. When there were further delays in flying training, a group negotiated their return to Australia for discharge here. Expert scroungers by now, they also persuaded the authorities to return them via troop ship to the Dutch East Indies and then Dutch aircraft to Australia.

Over coming decades, they remained a tight knit group holding annual reunions.

Memories continued on the Indonesian side too.

On 24 October 2015, the Australia Indonesia Association of NSW held a Camp Victory Memorial Forum at Casino to remember the place of Camp Victory in the story of Indonesian independence.

The Forum included cultural displays and a tour of the Camp Victory site where the Casino & District Historical Society described the camp and recounted the interactions with internees.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 15  March 2017. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here 2017.  

History Matters - state of chaos after surrender

"Complex mess" filters down to Casino. Jim Belshaw continues the story of Camp Victory and the Casino Boys

The position in the Netherlands East Indies in the last months of 1945 and first months of 1946 can best be described as chaotic.

Upon surrender, the Japanese troops had withdrawn to barracks, leaving a power vacuum. The terms of the subsequent peace treaty required them to maintain civil control pending the arrival of the Allies, but there was reluctance to become re-involved.

The Allies had undertake to restore the previous civil order, ie the Dutch East Indies Administration, but were stretched and slow to move. The independence forces under Sukarno had asserted independence, but were weak in both military and administrative terms, especially outside Java.

They were also divided. While the main movement supported a pluralist unitary state, some wanted an Islamic state, others a soviet state.

The result was a complex mess that saw Japanese troops fighting independence forces, British and Dutch forces fighting independence forces and Indonesians fighting each other.

BLOODY BATTLE: British troops Surabaya,1945. The battle of Surabaya from October 27 to November 20 1945 was the single most bloody engagement of the war for Indonesian independence.  

 The position in Australia was also messy. The Netherlands East Indies (NEI) Government-in-Exile wanted to re-assert control and had been planning to that end, partly supported by a $US 10 million dollar loan from the US Government.

Its military position was relatively weak, but it now sought to deploy the military resources it had back to the Netherlands East Indies. As part of this process, Australian personnel were withdrawn from the three joint RAAF/NEI squadrons, with full control restored to the NEI Government in January 1946.

The union boycott intended to prevent NEI Government action was blocking shipping. The Australian Government had been bound by Allied arrangements, but as fighting in Indonesia dragged on and faced by union boycotts and local support for Indonesian independence, its position began to shift.

DAILY LIFE: Camp scene in Camp Victory, Casino 1946. There was strong support for Indonesian prisoners following the Indonesian declaration of independence

Conditions at Casino’s Camp Victory began to deteriorate. At the end of 1945, some locals wanted to give presents to the Indonesian prisoners who had been court-martialled and imprisoned for refusing service. When the Camp authorities refused to allow this, a local protest movement formed to supporting the prisoners.

There were also growing local fears about the risk of a prison break-out. Papers across Northern NSW and beyond began carrying stories about the camp, calling it a concentration camp.

The Dutch authorities were in a difficult position, They wanted to maintain military discipline, but Camp Victory had become a running sore. The couldn’t move the prisoners because of the shipping bans. Initial attempts to encourage repatriation to rebel territory in Indonesia failed because of distrust among the prisoners. The Australian Government was reluctant to take direct responsibility for the prisoners.

In September 1946, the whole thing blew apart, forcing the Camp’s closure.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 8 March 2017. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here 2017. 

History matters - the ripple effect of Indonesia's declaration of independence

Tense wait: A scene from the 1946 Joris Ivens film Indonesia Calling showing Indonesian seamen in Sydney listening to a short-wave radio for news of Indonesia’s declaration of independence. Jim Belshaw continues the story of Camp Victory and the Casino Boys

 May 1925, Dutch East Indies. The Executive Committee of Comintern (Communist International) orders communists in Indonesia to form a united anti-imperialist front with non-communist nationalist organizations, but key elements in the PKI (Partai Komunis Indonesia) demand revolution to replace the Dutch colonial government with PKI rule. At a conference in Prambanan, Central Java, communist-controlled trades unions decide that revolution should start with a strike by railroad workers that would signal a general strike and then a revolution.

The attempt was poorly coordinated and quickly crushed by the Dutch East Indies Authorities. A number of those arrested were sent to the Tanah Merah prison camp in West Papua, with others added later. By 1943, numbers in the camp including women and children totalled more than 500.

Concerned that the Tanah Merah detainees might become a fifth column, Charles Van der Plas, the Chief Commissioner of the Netherlands East Indies Government-in-Exile, persuaded General Douglas MacArthur to overrule Australian Government reluctance and bring the Tanah Merah detainees to Australia. The evacuation was completed between 27 May and 2 June 1943, using a mix of boats and flying boat.

Initially the detainees were sent to the Australian Government’s internment camp at Cowra, but then redistributed to various places including the 36^th Australian Employment Company at Wallangarra and Camp Victory at Casino. While supporting Indonesian independence, most of the detainees saw defeat of Japan as a first priority.

The proclamation of Indonesian Independence on 17 August 1945 reached Australia by crackly short wave radio. Among those listening to the announcement were a group of Indonesian sailors crowded around a short-wave radio set in the Indonesian Seamen’s Union offices at Woolloomooloo.

Indonesian seamen speaking at a pro-Indonesian demonstration in Wynyard Square, Sydney, on September 28, 1945.

One of the things that I hadn’t properly realised until researching this series was the extent to which the relatively large Indonesian presence in Australia after 1942 created organisational linkages and a support base supporting Indonesian independence. This included both the Indonesians themselves and their organisations and their Australian supporters, building on previous fraternal links established through the unions and the Communist Party.

These links now came into play.

On 23 September 1945, Indonesian crew members on four Dutch ships in Sydney began a sit-down strike partly over pay, partly concerned that that the material on the ships might be used to suppress the independence movement. They were supported by the Australian Maritime Union and the Waterside Workers’ Federation, leading to a black ban on Dutch or Dutch chartered shipping that would last for over four years.

SS Moreton Bay. One of the Dutch chartered ships help up by the Union boycott 

News of Indonesian Independence seems to have reached both the Australian Army base at Wallangarra and the Netherlands East Indies’ Casino Camp Victory by 12 September 1945. At both places, Indonesian troops refused to continue service, while a grenade was thrown at Wallangarra.

At Camp Victory, barbed wire fences were hastily erected to contain troops who were (from a Netherlands East Indies’ Army perspective) in dereliction of duty. Instead of learning to fly, the Casino Boys found themselves pressed into duty as guards. 

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 1 March 2017. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here 2017.

History Matters - the Casino Boys wait for wings

The RMS Rangitata which brought the Casino Boys to Australia.

Jim Belshaw continues the story of camp Victory and the Casino Boys

With the final German surrender on 8 May 1945, attention switched to the defeat of Japan. As part of this process, the Dutch Government recruited 200 trainee pilots who were sent to Australia on the New Zealand Shipping Company’s RMS Rangitata for pilot training.

The group knew little about Australia. At Sydney, they were put on a troop train for travel to an unknown destination. After a long trip, the men found themselves at the Dutch East Indies Army base at Casino, Camp Victory, for basic training. 

We know from photographs that conditions at Camp Victory were fairly primitive, with the men living under canvas or in huts. Despite that, we know from later records such as interviews that they enjoyed themselves

They got on well with the Dutch East Indies troops, enjoying the food. With the exception of the Aboriginal settlement in South Casino which was out of bounds, they could move around freely, including visiting Casino or the nearby beaches.

A number acquired local girlfriends. Three of them, including Jill Spilsbury’s

step father Jacobus Johannes (Koos or Jack) Dalmayer, would marry local girls. They were also able to visit Sydney and in some cases Melbourne for R&R.

The experiences built on the bonds formed on ship, creating a tight knit group that would come to be called the Casino Boys.

Their biggest problem was that the military authorities really didn’t know what to do with them. Cornelus (Corry) Koedam recalled that they didn’t even have proper uniforms, wearing American uniforms at one point, Australian uniforms at another.

The men’s main frustration was that they had come to train as pilots. This depended on the Royal Australian Air Force and kept being deferred. The Pacific War was winding down, and the Dutch trainee pilots were not high on the list of immediate war priorities. They were effectively in limbo.

On 15 August 1945 Japanese time, the Japanese announced that they had surrendered. The official surrender document was signed on deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on 2 September.

The Dutch Government still wished the men to be trained, but the RAAF had no further interest in the matter. Other events now intervened.

In March 1945, the Japanese had organised an Indonesian committee on independence. On 9 August 1945, Sukarno, Hatta, and Radjiman Wediodiningrat were flown to meet Marshal Hisaichi Terauchi in Vietnam. They were told that Japan intended to announce Indonesian independence on 24 August.

With the Japanese surrender, Sukarno and Hatta decided to take immediate action. Two days after the Japanese surrender, they unilaterally proclaimed Indonesian independence. Indonesians were called upon to refuse service in the Dutch East Indies armed forces.

Word of the independence proclamation reached Camp Victory in September. With that, everything changed.

Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 22 February 2017. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here 2017.

History Matters - a unique wartime solution

Jim Belshaw continues the story of Camp Victory and the Casino Boys

Cut of from the home country by the Nazi invasion, the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) forces in Australia struggled to regroup. The problems were most acute on the Air side where there were shortages of planes and manpower.

A unique solution was adopted, the formation of joint NEI/Australian squadrons. The Dutch supplied the planes acquired under Lend-Lease arrangements, the pilots were Dutch, the aircrew a mix of NEI and Australian personnel, while ground crew were generally Australian.

Combined No 18 (NEI) squadron in action, 1944 

Operational command rested with Australia, with Australian crew reporting to an Australian squadron leader, while NEI personnel were under KNIL (Netherlands East Indies Army) command. The Dutch flag replaced the RAAF roundel on the planes, while the squadrons were named No (NEI) Squadron RAAF

This arrangement explains a conundrum I referred to in my first column in this series. How did an uncle from Kentucky with no known Dutch connections end up serving in the Dutch Airforce? Well, it should be more correctly the Netherlands East Indies Airforce!

Four squadrons were formed, of which three entered operational service (one bomber, one fighter plus one transport squadron), flying missions against Japanese positions in the Netherlands East Indies and South-West Pacific.

On the land side, the Australian Government provided the Dutch Netherlands East Indies KNIL forces with bases under NEI control. As part of this process, an advance party arrived in Casino in December 1942 to establish what would be called Camp Victory, a base for the KNL Technical or Labour Battalion.  

The Battalion contained personnel recruited from different parts of the Dutch East Indies under the command of both Dutch and locally recruited NEI officers. It also included people from other parts of the Dutch Empire including Surinam.

 MATES. Relations among the groups at Camp Victory appear to have been good up to the tensions flowing from the declaration of Indonesian Independence

Camp Victory also seems to have included political prisoners, supporters of Indonesian Independence, although it is unclear to what extent they formed part of the Battalion or were separately held. In any event, security at the Camp was low, allowing mixing and fraternisation within the Camp and beyond.

The White Australia Policy may have been bent by the exigencies of war, but was still in place. The sudden presence in Casino of a large number of non-Europeans therefore posed a challenge. How would the locals respond?

CAMP VICTORY. Fraternising with the locals, Ballina

The answer seems to be very well. Relations with the Dutch were easiest, with some concerns about local girls dating non-European personnel. However, the soldiers had soldiers pay and after hours would visit the stores. Many long term Casino residents remembered them buying bikes and having a fondness for perfumes. They also remember the soldiers showing them how to make kites.

The ending of the War would bring new tensions. Casino was about to find a place in Indonesian history.

 Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 15 February 2017. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here 2017.