Beyond the traditional ‘school’ and vocational topics taught in the camp’s classrooms, some lectures were held simply for information and entertainment. ‘Know the Dominions’ was a series of talks designed to provide background information on the countries of the British Commonwealth. The lectures were co-ordinated by the grandly titled ‘Empire Co-operation Society’ and they offered an opportunity for convivial social gatherings in the evenings, as well as stimulating thoughts for the future. One of the key themes was to give the men hope that one day, when their captivity had ended, travel to far-flung places across the globe would once again be possible. ‘Know the Dominions’ also suggested opportunities for emigration, employment and dreams of a new and different lifestyle after the war. These lectures covered the following locations - Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and England. Corporal Arthur Mede Bentall of the British Army designed all the posters for this series of lectures and two of the surviving posters have been chosen here to illustrate the breadth of knowledge being shared among the diverse prisoner population.
The lecture on Australia was given by Corporal James Roberton Craig on the evening of Tuesday 13 October 1942 in what was known as ‘the Ambonese Lecture Room’. Craig, from South Australia, was part of the 2/3rd Machine Gun Battalion who arrived in Java from the Middle East on board the liner SS Orcades with Major John de Crespigny. As a member of ‘Blackforce’ he was taken into captivity on 9 March 1942. Craig is listed in the camp records as one of the forty lecturers involved in the ambitious education programs being conducted at Bandoeng. With only the poster to prove that this lecture took place however, we can only speculate as to the nature of the Australian topics he discussed. Perhaps he spoke of the vast size of the continent and the prospects for professional employment in the cities? Maybe he stressed the boundless opportunities for both skilled and unskilled tradesmen? Or did he highlight the magnificent, rugged outdoors that country and outback Australia offered? The poster featuring a man on a horse certainly suggests that the rural lifestyle might have been a notable feature of Craig’s lecture. Perhaps he sought to debunk some of the more outlandish myths and fabrications that were commonly believed about ‘Oz’? As an aside, we know that Australian prisoners under interrogation by their Japanese captors often told richly embellished stories. The Japanese were ‘reliably’ informed that Australia was a land of endless deserts, constant droughts and vast tropical monsoon floods. Tales of frenzied crocodile attacks in the north and the menace of monstrous shark attacks on beaches, not to mention venomous spiders, lethal jellyfish and poisonous snakes were all amplified and inflated to suggest that the Australian continent was a hostile and deadly place. To consider invading it for these reasons alone would be madness! Whether Corporal Craig dealt with questions of this nature at the end of his lecture, we can only wonder. It is quite possible however, that the non-Australians in his audience would have been keenly curious to find out the veracity of the alarming stories that were then all too common about the ‘land down under.’
The lecture on New Zealand was given by Flying Officer Sydney Ernest ‘Sid’ Scales on the evening of 3 November 1942 in the Ambonese Lecture Room. Scales was a native-born ‘Kiwi’ and an officer in the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF.) He had been attached to No 205 Squadron of the Royal Air Force which flew Catalina flying boats, when he and several of his fellow Air Force colleagues were caught up in the Japanese invasion of Java in early 1942. Scales was a talented cartoonist and was responsible for producing many ‘campicatures’ of his fellow prisoners, (including John de Crespigny and Edward ‘Weary’ Dunlop) for the camp magazine Mark Time. Again, we do not know the precise topics covered in his New Zealand lecture, but Scales, like Craig, might have emphasised the opportunities that existed for men to migrate to New Zealand in their professional capacities. Perhaps he told the audience that sheep farmers were particularly welcome, along with those with experience in the dairy, fruit and vegetable industries, all of which were major exporters to the United Kingdom. Maybe he explained that Aotearoa, or the Land of the Long White Cloud had previously experienced fierce colonial wars but now there was a rather more peaceful relationship between British settlers and the traditional Maori population. The tiki symbol on the poster would have been familiar to some but probably also raised questions by other audience members unsure of its green stone symbolism. The prowess of his country’s international rugby team, the All Blacks, was probably mentioned too. Another topic would likely have been that the New Zealand climate was much less harsh than Australia’s and more like the United Kingdom, and especially Scotland. Many migrants of Scottish ancestry had already made New Zealand their home, with the South Island and its cooler climate earning it the nickname of ‘Scotland in the South Seas’. After the war, Sydney Scales returned to his beloved New Zealand and later, with the help of a Returned Serviceman’s bursary, travelled to London where he studied art and design for three years. From 1951 until his retirement thirty years later, Scales worked as the resident staff cartoonist at the Otago Daily Times and in 1983 his professional skills were acknowledged with an OBE for his services to cartoons.
