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4 books to read to know more about life during Crown Colony of Sarawak (1946-1963)

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After World War II had ended in 1945, Sarawak was under the British Military Administration for seven months.

Then in 1946, the Crown Colony of Sarawak was established as part of the British Crown Colony.

The cession officially became effective on July 1, 1946. On the same day, the last White Rajah of Sarawak Vyner Brooke gave a speech on how he took this decision as ‘it was in the best interests of the people of Sarawak and that in the turmoil of the modern world they would benefit greatly from the experience, strength and wisdom of the British rule’.

If you want to know about life during Crown Colony of Sarawak especially from colonial officers’ point of views, here are KajoMag’s book suggestions:

1.Fair Land Sarawak: Some recollections of an Expatriate Officer by Alastair Morrison

Alastair Morrison joined the British Colonial Service in 1947 and was sent to Sarawak in the same year.

He served as a district officer for a number of years before being transferred to the Secretariat in Kuching in 1954.

In 1959, he was transferred to the Government Information Office. During his time as a District Officer, he also wrote extensively for the Sarawak Gazette.

After his wife Hedda died in 1991, Morrison busied himself writing. His first memoir is about his service in Sarawak, Fair Land Sarawak: Some recollections of an Expatriate Officer (1993).

In his word to explain about the memoir, Morrison stated wrote, “This is a book of personal recollections about nineteen happy years which my wife and I had the good fortune to spend in Sarawak. It does not attempt to provide a complete account of that period of Sarawak history but will, I hope, convey something of the way of life that we enjoyed and of some of the people, both Asian and European, whom we came to know.

“The narrative may appear lighthearted in places, but this is not due to any lack of serious side to life in Sarawak. Rather it seeks to reflect the good nature and humour which are some of the most abiding impression those who know Sarawak have always taken away with them.”

His other books include The Road To Peking (1993) and A Bird Fancier: A Journey to Peking (2001).

2.Sarawak Anecdotes: A Personal Memoir of Service 1947-1965 by Ian Urquhart

From the beginning of the book, this former British colonial service reminded readers that his book is ‘not the place to write a thesis on the evils and good points of British colonialism in the past and in my lifetime’.

He added, “I stress that what I have written NEITHER meant to convey a typical picture of this history of my life NOR of the life anyone else in Sarawak NOR to provide a balanced image of the development of that friendly country. If you want a book to give a proper picture of colonial Sarawak – this is not the book for you. I hope that ‘Anecdotes’ will leave my readers with an impression of what a delightful place Sarawak was to live and work in.”

Ian Urquhart arrived in Sarawak in 1947 and then continued spending 18 years here as a colonial officer.

Some of his views which he had written in his memoir are quite controversial, especially his criticism of both federal and state governments.

Nonetheless, it is always interesting to read different points of view.

3.A Servant of Sarawak: Reminiscences of a Crown Counsel in 1950s Borneo by Peter Mooney

In 1953, Peter Mooney was offered the appointment of Crown Counsel in Sarawak.

Here, he first became the Public Prosecutor. One of his memorable cases saw him going against Lee Kuan Yew who was then a barrister in Singapore.

The case involved violations of several section of the Forestry Ordinance and also the Customs Ordinance.

The accused, according to Mooney, was the managing director of the exporters named Mr Lau who also happened to be a timber tycoon in Sibu.

‘Mr Lau’ hired Lee to defend him but in the end, the court found him guilty of all charges.

This particular case was written in a chapter of Mooney’s memoir.

In the preface of his memoir, Mooney wrote this about Sarawak, “This was the country in which I arrived. It was happy and peaceful. I thought that I had come to civilize the people. It was they who civilized me. They were friendly, warm and most hospitable, ever willing to share what little they had. Moral standards were high. It was hardly necessary to close windows or doors at night. Theft was almost unknown.”

But obviously, customs fraud had already existed back then.

Anyway, Mooney was eventually appointed the Attorney General of Sarawak as well as serving on the Supreme Council and Council Negri.

Then in 1960, he left Sarawak for Malaya to join a law firm in Kuala Lumpur.

4.Lawyer in the Wilderness by Kenelm Hubert Digby

Kenelm Hubert Digby
Kenelm Hubert Digby

Kenelm Hubert Digby came to Sarawak to work for the last of the White Rajah of Sarawak in 1934.

He returned to England at the end of his contract in 1939.

However, Digby returned to Sarawak in 1940 where he was appointed as Legal Adviser to Brooke.

During the Japanese occupation of Sarawak, he was among the Europeans who were interned at the Batu Lintang Camp.

After the war has ended, he returned to Sarawak as Legal Adviser. Digby then rose to become Attorney-General and later a circuit judge.

In 1980, he published a memoir based on his life in Sarawak Lawyer in the Wilderness.

Although it was published in 1980, Digby pointed the content of the book was written in 1952 when ‘events were comparatively fresh in memory’.

It is based on his experience in Sarawak from the middle of 1934 to the end of 1951.

According to Digby, the period covered saw the decline and end of ‘Brooke rule’, the trauma of the Japanese occupation and the establishment of the authority of the Colonial Office.

These words are the perfect summary of what the state had gone through as the Crown Colony of Sarawak.

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How little we know about Joseph Middleton, Sarawak’s first police officer

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Joseph Middleton might be an unfamiliar name to Sarawakians today, but he was actually the first police officer of Sarawak.

He was one of the two boys who departed England with James Brooke on the Royalist in 1838.

Unfortunately, there is a little we know about Middleton during his first arrival to Sarawak.

However, we do know that he was referred to in 1852 as ‘Constable’.

It is also known that he married a local woman. One record showed that he had a son named Peter who was baptised in Kuching on Dec 3, 1848.

Apart from this, we know that he was almost killed during the Bau rebellion.

Joseph Middleton was one of the three targets of the Bau Rebellion

On Feb 18, 1857, some 600 Chinese came down through the Sarawak River to attack the White Rajah in Kuching.

By the time the group had reached Kuching, Brooke already fled from his home.

This did not stop the rebels from burning down properties including Brooke’s house.

According to The Gospel Missionary issued in June 1884, the Chinese announced they did not want to make war on the English or the Malays, only on the Rajah’s government.

The report stated, “It did seem as if it was chiefly a rebellion of revenge, for the only three people they had been anxious to kill were the Rajah himself, and Mr Crookshank, and Mr Middleton, who were the chief constable and the magistrate who had sentenced the offending Kunsi and actually done the flogging. If they could kill these three they did not seem to care how many others they killed.”

Joseph Middleton during the Bau Rebellion

Bau rebellion
Illustration depicting the Chinese Insurrection from Harriette McDougall’s Sketches of Our Life at Sarawak. Credit: Public Domain.

The rebels certainly did not care how many they killed that fateful night as in the end, they took the lives of Middleton’s two young children.

The Sarawak Gazette revisited the event in an article published on Mar 1, 1929.

It stated, “Two little boys, John and Charles Middleton, aged six and four years, were killed and ‘the fiends kicked the little heads with loud laughter from one to another’. Richard Wellington, a clerk in the Borneo Company, lost his life in gallantly attempting to defend Mrs Middleton and her children.”

So where was Middleton when his house was attacked?

According to Brooke who published his own narrative of the event in the Wellington Independent on Sept 5, 1857, Middleton’s house was one of the earliest places where the attack took place.

The Rajah wrote, “He (Middleton) escaped with difficulty. His poor little wife hid in a bakery till the burning rafters fell about her, and from her concealment saw the assailants kicking about the head of her eldest child. The mother was paralyzed; she wished, she said, to rush out but could not move. The youngest child was murdered and thrown into the flames.”

Joseph Middleton and the second class Europeans in Sarawak

Other than the Middleton family’s tragic fate during the rebellion, there was no significant information about the constable.

According to archivist Loh Chee Yin who wrote for the Sarawak Gazette in 1960-70s, Middleton presumably still held the roll of Constable until his death in Kuching in 1866.

Middleton is unlike some of Brooke’s early officers whose names are immortalised through street names in Kuching such as Crookshank.

Hence, it is easy to forget there was a man named Middleton who came to Sarawak from England as a boy and lived here till his death.

Perhaps it was because Middleton was considered a “second-class European” in Sarawak at that time.

During the resistance led by Syarif Masahor in 1857, Bishop Francis McDougall wrote a letter to his brother in-law.

McDougall narrated in the letter, “I hear that there has been a regular panic at Sarawak among the wives of the second-class Europeans, who all packed up and wanted to start for Singapore, but their fears have been allayed, and only Mrs Middleton, who suffered so much in the insurrection, persists in going.”

The so-called ‘caste system’ among the Europeans in Sarawak is believed to have started due to the different systems of salutes during Brooke time.

At that time, there were three forms of salutes given. The first class was full arms salute, the second class was arm across body to rifle butt, and third class was simply attention.

Those who were entitled for the first class salute included the Bishop, the Commandant of Sarawak Rangers, the Treasurer and the Principal Medical Officer.

Posts such as Magistrates, Superintendent of Works and Surveys Department, Medical Officers, Inspector of Police and Prisons were given the second class salute.

Finally, the third class salute was given to the junior officers and cadets.

The Sarawak Gazette reported, “It is said that this system of salutes caused a sort of caste system among the Europeans since the local people began to refer to them as first, second and third class Europeans instead of officials.”

Middleton, who was sometimes referred to as the Police Inspector, fell into the second-class European category.

Regardless, as Loh pointed out, Middleton had “the distinction of being the first police officer in Sarawak.”

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Kenelm Hubert Digby, the ‘communist’ who was the Attorney General of Sarawak

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One of the most interesting figures that ever graced Sarawak’s service during the reign of the Brooke family was none other than Kenelm Hubert Digby.

He joined as a district officer under Rajah Charles Vyner Brooke in 1934 and returned to England in 1939 at the end of his contract.

Digby returned again to Sarawak as Legal Adviser to the rajah in the spring of 1940.

When the Japanese invaded Sarawak during World War II, Digby was among the civilian internees held at the Batu Lintang camp.

After the war, Digby returned to Sarawak where he resumed the role of Legal Adviser under the Sarawak Civil Service.

From there, he rose to become the Attorney-General as well as the editor of the Sarawak Gazette.

His last post in Sarawak was as a circuit judge which ended in 1951.

Kenelm Hubert Digby and the MI5

So what made Digby ‘a colourful figure’ during his time in Sarawak?

It all started when Digby was still a student at St John’s College, Oxford.

During a debate in the Oxford Union in 1933, Digby proposed the motion “That this House would in no circumstances fight for its King and country.” The motion was passed with 275 votes for and 153 against it.

The ‘Oxford pledge’, as it became known, was controversial at the time, causing friction between older and younger generations, idealisms of pacifism and patriotism. The motion was passed and followed by a nationwide furore.

Thanks to the debate, Digby was a figure of interest for various security intelligence organisations.

In the book MI5, the Cold War and the Rule of Law by Keith Ewing, Joan Mahoney and Andrew Moretta, it is stated that MI5 ‘had scouts in both the Labour and Communist clubs at Oxford at the time, Digby appearing as a member of both’.

It is reported that his mail was routinely inspected in Singapore while en route to Kuching when he was working in Sarawak.

Digby’s move back to Sarawak in 1940 had also caused MI5 some anxiety.

“This anxiety was fuelled in part by the fact that Digby had joined the secret Communist Party Lawyer’s Group (CPLG),” wrote Ewing, Mahoney and Moretta.

After the war, Digby was still under surveillance even when he was working in the Colonial Office.

When the Sarawak colonial government was re-organising their judiciary system in 1951, it gave them the opportunity to get rid of Digby. The governor did not renew his service in Sarawak, obviously due to his political views.

Years later, Digby published an interesting memoir about his life in Sarawak entitled ‘Lawyer in the Wilderness’ (1980).

He shared some funny encounters he had, and his work life as well as getting caught in Sarawak political scene before and after the war – including getting sued by Anthony Brooke.

Was Digby’s service in Sarawak terminated because he was a suspected communist?

In the last part of his book ‘Lawyer in the Wilderness’ (1980), Digby told his part of the story in terms of his political views.

He stated, “Since the day I had first landed in 1934 , I had been notorious for my somewhat unorthodox views on public questions, but nobody had ever suggested that they unfitted me for the duties which were entrusted to me. The most stupid of the Residents, who ruled my early life, had once asked me seriously whether I was a ‘communist agent’, and the Rajah had on one occasion laughingly inquired whether I was a ‘communist.’

“Sir Charles Arden Clarke once kept the Chief Secretary and myself back from a Supreme Council meeting, and informed me that there was an unfortunate rumour in Sarawak that I was a communist, and that it would be so disagreeable if it should be breathed abroad that the Attorney-General of Sarawak was a ‘red’, that he would be obliged if I would refrain from airing my opinions publicly.”

Digby also revealed that Sir Clarke once called him an hour or two before he gave a talk at St. Thomas Secondary School on ‘The Meaning of Democracy’.

During the phone conversation, the governor reminded Digby to ‘not get too far away from the Government’s line’.

Ultimately, Digby wasn’t a communist, but he was a proud socialist. He believed that everyone should have the freedom to express their own views especially if their personal opinions didn’t affect their jobs.

He added, “… it is rubbish to pretend that judges and other civil servants are wholly at liberty to hold their own views so long as those views do not interfere with their duties. Judges and other civil servants are independent; they are free to form their own opinions and to indulge in discussions with their friends; but they are independent and free only so long as those opinions and discussions conform with the ‘Government line’.”

Even though his Oxford pledge past had haunted and dogged Digby, it’s important to remember how it is this same courage and belief in individual freedom that made him stand out for Vyner Brooke and his vision of empowering Sarawak with a constitution that promoted self-government. If it wasn’t for the Second World War, Sarawak may have seen the fruits of Vyner’s labour in the 1941 Sarawak Constitution which was drafted to realise the Nine Cardinal Principles.

Besides his political views, Digby shared a number of colourful stories in his memoir. Here are some of the tales from Kenelm Hubert Digby’s memoir:

1.When he confessed to pronouncing the bride’s name wrongly when officiating a marriage in Miri

“Towards the end of February 1935, I returned to Miri. Shortly after my arrival there it fell to my lot, in the temporary absence of the District Officer, to perform a civil marriage between two Indians. The prospective husband, with some such name as Govindasamy, was employed as a clerk in Seria by the oil company.

The prospective bride, Naoomal, hailed from some unpronounceable village in India. Strange though it may seem this was the first wedding which I had ever attended and I was naturally a little confused and embarrassed.

Influenced, I suppose, by the fact that Seria is obviously a more appropriate name for a girl than Naoomal, I misread the form in front of me by assuming that the names of the parties followed one another horizontally instead of vertically.

Consequently I married the bridegroom to the town in which he lived instead of to his bride. It was as if a registrar in England had said, “I declare you, Horatio Pifflington, and you, Stow-on-the-Wold, man and wife together.”

The mistake was pointed out to me after the ceremony was over. The marriage certificate did not repeat the error and I hope that it has continued to sanctify a union not nearly marred at its birth by a blunder of officialdom.”

2.On becoming a ‘real’ Sarawakian

“Some administrative officers never got tired of pointing out to me that Miri was not ‘the real Sarawak’ and that short visits to Sibuti, Niah, and the Limbang river did not compensate me for the degrading effect of the flesh-pots.

There was a horrible old saying that a man did not become ‘a real Sarawakian’ until he had “had the clap twice and been sick in his soup three times.”

That, of course, was a fantastic exaggeration of the attitude adopted by some of the older officers, but it cannot be disputed that that attitude, to a substantial degree, not only condoned but encouraged hard drinking and other minor vices, and, to some extent, despised the appearance in Sarawak of amenities imported from Europe.

In particular, a bachelor officer was considered to be a little queer if he did not ‘keep’ a native or Chinese mistress, but the critics were honest enough to admit that this omission was more excusable in Miri than in the lonelier out-stations.

A cadet, on his first arrival in Kuching, was interviewed by a doctor, who gave him a lecture on ‘tropical hygiene’ and presented him with a little box labeled “Outfit B,” the contents of which were designed to protect the user against incurring venereal disease.”

3.When Digby’s census in Sarawak didn’t quite add up

“There was the answer which the interpreter gave me on his own initiative, and without interpreting my question, when I attempted to ask a Chinese father, who reported six boys and no girls, what he had done with his daughters: ‘Sold them; I bought one myself, but as I didn’t really want it, I gave it away to a policeman.’

Lastly there was the other Chinese father, who, strangely enough, reported five daughters, and then chased me across ten acres to inform me that since my departure from his house he had lined the girls up and re-counted them and now made the total six.”

Can you imagine telling the officer from Department of Statistics today that you sold your daughter off or you miscalculated how many children you actually had?

4.Digby’s favourite prisoner in Simanggang

“My favourite prisoner was Benito Sosa, a Filipino, who was about half-way through a ten-year sentence, which was a commutation of the death penalty imposed on him for murdering a constabulary sergeant, who had been misconducting himself with Mrs. Benito Sosa, by thrusting the stem of an ordinary tobacco pipe through one of his eyes.

Benito was a skilled musician, who, prior to his misfortune, had played some instrument or other in the Constabulary Band. His official prison appointment was that of green-keeper on the golf-course , but he was seldom to be found on the job when I made my daily round of the gangs.

Faint, melodious sounds from the direction of the Resident’s stables would denote that Benito had once again rigged up a violin from a piece of wood and a few strands of wire, and was now sitting on a box beside the ponies entirely lost in his own musical dreams. He would grin cheerfully when reproached for his inattention to duty, and return temporarily to his greens.”

According to the Sarawak Gazette, Sosa’s sentence was commuted from death sentence to fifteen years’ imprisonment by the Rajah. He was found guilty for the murder of Delfin Arca, his fellow bandsman for the Sarawak Rangers.

5.How life as a civilian internee during the war had changed him

“Internment had by no means been pure loss. We had all of us learnt at least a little for our own good. It would be presumptuous to suggest to what extent others had improved themselves, but it was commonly agreed that three or four hard drinkers had been given a new lease of life.

I myself had learned how to count up to ten in Japanese, and a few Japanese military expressions; how to ‘Use an axe and a changkol; how to grow the easier kind of vegetables; how to play bridge; more chess openings than I had ever known before; a smattering of short hand; how to walk along stony roads in bare feet with a heavy load on my back; that I could perform hard manual labour, three-quarters naked, in the tropical sun, without any covering for the head even at noon; the dispensability of whisky and all other strong drink a few miles from the Equator; and how to walk warily before power and adapt myself to the military mind. I had read every play of Shakespeare’s once and most twice and I had studied many commentaries on them.

Above all, I had learned a great deal more about the behaviour of my fellow-men in adversity. My years of internment immensely improved my opinion of human nature.”

For his service in Sarawak, Digby was awarded the Companions of the Star of Sarawak in 1941.

In 1955, he migrated to New Zealand with his family. Digby passed away on Aug 5, 2001.

52755 Round Derek Barbed Wire Between Us A Story of Love and War
Digby’s relationship with his wife Mutal Fielding was the center of Derek Round’s book Barbed Wire Between Us (2002). While Digby was interned in Batu Lintang, Mutal was interned at the Stanley Internment Camp in Hong Kong.

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What happened in January according to Sarawak history?

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Did you know that the name January comes from the Roman god, Janus? He is always depicted with two heads with one head looking back on the year before and the other looking forward to the brand new year.

Let us look back into Sarawak history and see what happened in the month of January:

Jan 22, 1851: Consecration of St Thomas’s Church Kuching

394px Bishop Daniel Wilson
Bishop Daniel Wilson

The first Anglican missionary, Reverend Francis Thomas McDougall first arrived in Sarawak in 1848.

He came here on the invitation of the first White Rajah of Sarawak James Brooke.

Brooke gave the missionary a hill covered in dense jungle to build a church upon.

McDougall started the construction of a wooden church to accommodate up to 250 people.

On Jan 22, 1851, the Bishop of Calcutta, Daniel Wilson consecrated the church in honour of St Thomas the Apostle.

303px Francis Thomas McDougall
Bishop Francis McDougall

Jan 4, 1856: Sarikei was burned down by the Ibans from Julau

The Ibans from Julau resisted the Brooke government and on Jan 4, 1856, the so-called rebels burnt down Sarikei bazaar.

In response, James Brooke set up a fort in Sarikei in the same month to suppress the upriver Iban people.

It was built to serve Brooke allies led by locals Abang Ali and Abang Asop.

Jan 19, 1864: Britain recognises Sarawak as an independent state

As part of Britain’s recognition of Sarawak as an independent state, the British appointed George Thorne Ricketts as the first consul.

Ricketts was a former soldier who served with the British army in India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) from 1849 until his retirement from the army in 1858.

Prior taking up the job as a consul in Sarawak in 1864, Ricketts worked in the consulate at Monastir (now Bitola in the Republic of Macedonia) and as the acting consul-general at Belgrade, Serbia.

He worked in Sarawak for two years before he was transferred to Manila in 1866.

Jan 3, 1876: Second Gambier and Pepper Proclamation issued

Chinese farmers had been planting pepper and gambier in west Sarawak way before 1870s.

To further encourage these agricultural activities, Charles Brooke issued a proclamation regarding the gambier and pepper plantation in January 1876.

The proclamation offered gambier and pepper planters 99 years leaseholds at nominal rentals.

The second White Rajah also waived export duty and on pepper and gambier for the following twelve years for those who brought their own capital to Sarawak.

Jan 13, 1884: Belaga Fort completed

On Jan 13, 1884, the Belaga Fort was officially declared completed by the Brooke government.

It was later named Fort Vyner after the third White Rajah Charles Vyner Brooke.

Jan 20, 1884: The Great Fire of Kuching

On Jan 20, 1884 at 1:05 am, a big fire started from the intersection between Attap Street (present day Carpenter Street) and China Street.

The fire continued to spread and consumed much of the shophouses.

Only at 6am, the fire was put out by rain.

In the end, a total of 160 shophouses were burnt.

Jan 3, 1885: Cession of Trusan to Sarawak

Trusan river was the first district within the Fifth Division to be acquired by the Brooke in early 1885.

Reportedly, 20 Sarawak produce collectors went to Trusan to buy some jungle produce a year earlier. They were killed by the Murut people there.

The Sarawak government complained to the Sultan of Brunei but the sultan said he could not do anything about it.

Instead, the Sultan ordered the holder of tulin (hereditary private property) rights in Trusan to surrender the area for an annual payment of $4,500.

Then in 1885, the Trusan river basin was officially ceded to Sarawak.

Jan 1, 1897: Dog licensing introduced in Kuching

Also in January 1897, Sarawak dollar was worth one shilling and eleven pence.

January 1899: Cambridge expedition to Torres Straits visits Limbang and Baram

Charles Hose
A portrait sketch of Charles Hose. Credit: Public Domain.

A small group of Cambridge scholars led by the anthropologist Alfred Cort Haddon arrived in Sarawak as guests of Charles Hose, the then resident of the Baram district.

During their expedition, they took hundreds of photos of the people and places of the Baram, Limbang, Brunei and Kuching.

They even caught the famous Marudi peace-making ceremony 1899 in photos.

It is reported these rare photos of Sarawak have remained in storage at the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

339px Alfred Cort Haddon. Photograph. Wellcome V0026495
Alfred Cort Haddon

January, 1901: Arrival of the first Foochow immigrants in Sibu

In May 1900, Christian scholar Wong Nai Siong acted as the harbour master to signed a resettlement contract with the Brooke government.

By September that year, he began recruiting villagers to immigrate to Sibu.

Then on Dec 23, 1900, the first batch of 91 Foochow immigrants departed for Sibu.

They arrive in January 1901. However, some of them changed their minds during the journey leaving only 72 people arrived in Sibu.

January, 1905: The cession of Lawas

Charles Brooke signed an agreement with British North Borneo Company (BNBC) which saw the official handover of Lawas river to the Brooke government in exchange of 5000 pounds and several administrative areas around Brunei Bay to BNBC.

BNBC had obtained the administrative rights of the Lawas river from Brunei Sultanate on Sept 7, 1901 in order to stop the smuggling of weapons against the BNBC government in North Borneo.

Jan 13, 1928: Simanggang bazaar destroyed by fire

Simanggang bazaar was destroyed by fire on Jan 13, 1928. Then, a new bazaar consisting of 48 shops was completed in December 1929.

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Descriptions of some races and towns in Sarawak according to Harry de Windt

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Sarawakians might not be familiar with Captain Harry de Windt but his sister should be more familiar.

His sister Margaret was the wife of second White Rajah Charles Brooke.

Best known as a travel writer and explorer, de Windt at one point did work as the aide-de-camp for his brother in-law when he was only 16.

As for his writing career, de Windt’s first book On the Equator (1882) featured his travel stories in Sarawak, Dutch East Indies and Spain.

He shared his own perspectives and views of the people and the places he visited such as Santubong, Batang Sadong, Sibu, Kanowit and Kapit in 1880.

Harry de Windt
Harry de Windt pictured in his From Paris to New York by Land (Copyright expired-Public Domain).

Here is how Harry de Windt described some of the towns and races he encountered in his book On the Equator (1882):

1.Kuching

Harry de Windt 1
The Astana from the book On the Equator.

“Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, although smaller than Pontianak and other Dutch settlements on the coast of Borneo, is generally acknowledged to be the first town in Borneo so far as civilisation and comfort are concerned, and is renowned for its Bazaar, which is the best-built and cleanest in the island. There are two good roads extending at right angles from the town to a distance of seven miles each, at which point they are united by a third. These form a pleasant drive or ride, an amusement unknown in most Bornean townships, where the jungle and undergrowth are usually so dense as to defy any attempts at walking, to say nothing of riding or driving.
The number of Europeans in Kuching, although limited, and consisting of but some twenty in all (five of whom are ladies), form a pleasant little coterie, and there is a marked absence of the scandal and squabbling which generally seems inseparable from any place wherein a limited number of our countrymen and women are assembled. The occasional presence of an English or Dutch man-of-war, also, breaks the monotony of life, and enlivens matters considerably.

The Club, a comfortable stone building, was founded by the Government a few years ago, and contains bedrooms for the use of out-station officers when on a visit to Kuching. A lawn-tennis ground and bowling alley are attached to it, and serve to kill the time, which, however, rarely hung heavily on our hands in this cheerful little place.
Riding and driving are but still in their infancy, and Kuching boasted of only some dozen horses and four carriages—including a sporting little tandem of Deli (Sumatra) ponies, owned by the Resident. The Deli pony is a rare-shaped little animal, standing from 13 hands to 13.2, with immense strength, and very fast. They would be worth their weight in gold in Europe, and an enterprising Dutch merchant lately shipped a cargo of them to Amsterdam from Singapore, via the Suez Canal, with what result I never ascertained. A new road was being cut when we were there from Kuching to Penrisen, a mountain some thirty miles off, which, when completed, may bring a few more horses here; but Borneo (except far north) can never become a riding or driving country.”

The Club de Windt referred to here is The Sarawak Club which was established in 1876, four years before the writer arrived in Kuching.

2.Sibu town


“Sibu is a clean-looking Malay town of some 30,000 inhabitants. All Malays living here are exempt from taxation on condition that they are liable to be called out by Government in the event of any disturbance among the up-river tribes. The Fort and Bazaar stand on an island in the centre of the river, which is here about one and a half miles broad, and are connected with the town on the right bank by a wooden bridge. “Fort Brooke,” as it is styled, is built in a pentagon of solid bilian (belian) planks, about 12 feet high; a sloping wooden roof reaching down to within 2½ feet of the plank wall. This interval is guarded by a strong trellis-work, so that when the fort door is shut the building is rendered perfectly secure against any native attack. The Resident’s and fortmen’s quarters are reached by a ladder inside the fort about eight feet high, while the ground floor is used as a kitchen, rice-store, &c. Fort Brooke is garrisoned by sixteen Malays, and armed with six nine-pounders. All forts in Sarawak are built of the same materials and on the same model as the above, excepting that at Kuching, which is of stone, and much larger.”


Fort Brooke was built in 1862, and believed to be located at present day Jalan Channel.
Unfortunately, the fort was demolished in 1936.

3.The Iban People

“The Sea Dyaks are so called from their inhabiting the sea-coast east of the Sadong district, as far as the Rejang river, though some are to be occasionally met with far inland. These, who are the most numerous of any Dyaks, are at the same time the bravest and most warlike, and in former days were greatly addicted to piracy and head hunting. They are of a dark copper colour, and although not tall men are wonderfully strong and well-built, and will endure a great amount of fatigue. They are also endowed with great courage, and are very skilful in the use of weapons, especially the Parang ilang and spear. This tribe has been found by missionaries to possess some small amount of religion, inasmuch as they believe in the existence of a Supreme Being, Batara (petara), who made this earth and now governs it. They believe, also, in good and evil spirits, who dwell in the jungles and mountains. Sickness, death, and every kind of misfortune, are attributed to the latter, while Batara is the accredited author of every blessing.”

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Batang Sadong from de Windt’s book.

4.The Kanowit People

“The Kanowits are a small tribe, numbering about 500, and are quite distinct and totally unlike any other race in Borneo. They have not unpleasant features, are of lighter complexion than the Dyaks, and, though not so warlike, are fine, strongly-built men. Nearly all were tattooed from head to foot with most intricate patterns, and others representing birds, beasts, fishes, &c., while round the face and throat the marks were made in imitation of a beard, an ornament which none of the tribes yet met with in Borneo possess.

“These (Kanowit) women were fair specimens, as we were afterwards informed, of the tribe, and were, like the men, tattooed from head to foot. But for the disgusting habit (which I shall mention anon) of blackening their teeth and disfiguring the lobes of their ears, they would not have been bad-looking. They wore a light brown petticoat of cloth woven by themselves, and reaching from the waist to just above the knee. Their hair was not left to fall loose, but tied tightly into a knot at the back of their heads, very much as it is worn in Europe at the present time. A few brass rings round their waists and arms completed their attire. Strangely enough, the Kanowit women are, as a rule, darker than the men.”

Today, the Kanowit people are mostly known as the Melanau Kanowit or Rejang people.

5.The Ukit People

“The Ukits are generally supposed to be the wildest specimens of the human race yet et with in Borneo. This tribe (which is the only one living at the head of Rejang not tattooed) has been occasionally but seldom seen in these regions by Europeans, as they shrink from all intercourse with mankind, and fly at the approach of any but their own race. They are described as being of a much lighter colour than the Poonans, possess no dwellings, and are totally unclothed..”


6.The Kayan People

“The Kayans, on the other hand, are the finest and most civilised aboriginal race in the island. Their men, who are of a splendid physique and considerably taller than any other tribe in Sarawak, are of a light copper colour. Their dress is nearly identical with the Kanowits, excepting that they wear many more ornaments, but no turbans. Their long, coarse, black hair streamed in some cases far below the waist, and they were not a little proud of this appendage, which was cut square over the forehead. The Kayans were not at all given to joking like the Kanowits, but all wore an appearance of suspicion and distrust on their faces, which even the genial influence of square face (“Hollands”) failed to banish, but which originated perhaps more from shyness than ill-temper. Their women wore more clothes than any other tribe, being clothed in a long and flowing “sarong,” a species of petticoat, reaching from the waist to the feet, and a white linen jacket.”

So what do you think about de Windt’s descriptions on Sarawak towns or its people? Let us know in the comment box.

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Check out these photos of Batu Lintang Camp after liberation

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Also known as Lintang Barracks and Kuching POW camp, the Batu Lintang camp was a Japanese internment camp during the Second World War (WWII).

Unlike other Japanese internment camps, the Lintang Barracks held both Prisoners of War (POWs) and civilian internees.

The camp was originally British Indian Army barracks. The Japanese took it over from March 1942 and extended the original area.

After the Japanese officially surrendered on Aug 15, 1945, the camp was liberated on Sept 11, 1945 by the Australian 9th division.

Check out these photos of Batu Lintang camp taken after the Japanese had surrendered:

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Flying over the prisoner of war camp (POW) in Batu Lintang at a low height, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Beaufighter pilots reported sighting white POWs, clad in khaki shorts, who excitedly waved as the RAAF aircraft flew over to drop leaflets announcing Japan’s surrender.

One pilot also reported having seen white women who could have been either nurses or nuns.

Reportedly, there were 160 nuns interned in Batu Lintang camp in March 1944. Of these nuns, a large majority of them were Dutch Roman Catholic sisters with a few English sisters.

This image is believed to have been taken by the navigator of a Beaufighter aircraft possibly of 30 Squadron RAAF, whilst on operations to drop leaflets and to investigate the POW camp on Aug 22, 1945.

The RAAF planes were sent to drop these leaflets all over Sarawak’s First Division.

The leaflet was a foolscap size with a broad orange border.

Read the content of the leaflet here.

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A photo taken on Sept 12, 1945. A Japanese guard delivering a fowl to Mrs Iva Penlington of Yorks, England who was interned at the camp, in payment for the two years use of her typewriter.
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A photo taken on Sept 11, 1945. After the surrender ceremony at Kuching, 9th Australian Division, Kuching Force Commander Brigadier Sir Thomas Charles Eastick, accompanied by Lieutenant Colonel A.W. Walsh, 8th Australian Division ( a POW) and Lieut-Col Tatsuji Suga, Commandant of all POW camps in Borneo, visited Batu Lintang Camp.

A parade was held at which the prisoners were informed of their liberation.

In this photo, a section of the parade sitting in front of Eastick are listening to the address.

After the liberation, Eastick oversaw the liberation and repatriation of Allied POWs and internees in Sarawak.

Subsequently, he became the military governor of Sarawak from Sept 10, 1945 until December.

The last White Rajah of Sarawak Vyner Brooke awarded him The Most Excellent Order of the Star of Sarawak.

It was the highest order of chivalry within the Kingdom of Sarawak.

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A group of POWs leaving their compound to board the hospital ship Wanganella. The hut named ‘Australia House’ is in the background.

The camp was divided into different compounds with each person was allotted a very small space within a barrack building.

These compounds included British officers and non-commissioned officers (NCOs), Australian officers and NCOs, Dutch officers and NCOs, other ranks of British soldiers, British Indian Army, Royal Netherlands East Indies Army, Roman Catholic priest and religious men, male as well as female civilian internees.

Agnes Newton Keith, one of many civilian internees

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Agnes Newton Keith (left) speaking to Major T.T. Johnson (centre) and Eastick (right) after the surrender ceremony,

Keith was an American author and wife to Harry G. Keith.

She arrived in Sandakan in 1934 where her husband was working as the Conservator of Forests and Director of Agriculture under North Borneo Chartered Company.

When Sandakan was first captured by the Japanese on Jan 19, 1942, the Keiths were allowed to stay at their own home.

However on May 12, the couple were imprisoned on Berhala island. They spent eight months there before they were transported to Batu Lintang Camp.

Under the encouragement of her husband, Keith wrote three autobiographical accounts of her life in North Borneo.

Her book Three Came Home (1948) is based on her experience during WW2 and was made into a film of the same name in 1950.

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A photo taken on Sept 15, 1945. Internee children being taken for a ride in an Australian field ambulance soon after their release from the Japanese by members of the Kuching Force.

There were 34 children interned at the camp and all of them survived the war.

The women of the camp often went without provision to ensure the children’s survival.

During their internment, the children were taught by the nuns.

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A former Japanese guard from Batu Lintang Camp handcuffed on the front of a jeep.
About 8000 captured Japanese soldiers were then held at the camp after they had surrendered.

Life at Batu Lintang Camp

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Private J. M. Curry who was cook for Australian officers at the POW camp.

Curry is wearing the chawat (loin cloth) issued to him by the Japanese, his only clothing in two years.

The oven was improvised from an officer’s trunk packed round with clay. All the kitchen gear had to be improvised as the Japanese only provided them with two 44 gallon drums.

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A typical POW’s bed in the interior of ‘Australia House’.
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Former POWs standing around the coffin that has been used in for a burial conducted by a former internee, Father Brown.

Due to shortage of materials, coffins were constructed with a collapsible bottom so that they could be used again.

At first, the dead were buried in coffins but soon the number of fatalities increased.

Toward the end of the war, the bodies were buried in shrouds made from rice sacks or blankets.

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The daily ration of boiled rice for 1200 men in the camp only half filled this pig trough which they used for mixing with sweet potato.

In a war crime trial held against the Japanese soldiers in-charge of Batu Lintang camp, it is revealed that the only meat the prisoners was pig’s heads.

Reportedly, about 400 Allied POWs died of malnutrition in the last 12 months of the war.

The prosecuting officer of the case claimed that the diet fed to the camp’s pigs was more nutritious than the food given to the prisoners.

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The frightfulness of the treatment handed out by the Japanese to their POWs is shown by the emaciated condition of two British soldiers who were evacuated from Batu Lintang camp.

Like many Japanese POW and internee camps, the life in Batu Lintang was harsh.

Both POWs and civilians were suffering from malnutrition, diseases such as beriberi, malaria, dengue and scabies.

The mortality rate among the British soldiers was extremely high with two third of the POW population in the camp.

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A photo taken on Sept 18, 1945. All Japanese soldiers of Batu Lintang camp, were ordered from their quarters, searched and placed in the former British officers compound.
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Private H. J.P. Riseley, a former POW, holding his chicken pet as he stands on the verandah of ‘Australia House’.

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The graves of British, Dutch and Australian POWs at Batu Lintang Camp.

By July 1946, all the bodies had been exhumed and reburied in Labuan War Cemetery.

The Labuan cemetery is also the final resting place of soldiers who died during the Japanese invasion of Borneo, the Borneo Campaign 1945 and POWs who perished in the horrific Sandakan Death marches.

Photos by Australian War Memorial. Copyright expired – All Images are under Public Domain.

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Check out these rare photos of The Astana, Kuching

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If the Tsardom of Russia had their The Winter Palace and the Chinese emperors had their Forbidden City, we Sarawakians have what we call The Astana.

Once called Government House, it is now the official residence of the Governor of Sarawak.

It was built in 1870 by the second White Rajah Charles Brooke as a wedding gift to his wife Margaret Alice Lili de Windt.

The former palace of the White Rajahs is located on the north bank of the Sarawak, opposite the Kuching Waterfront.

One of the early descriptions of the Astana

Meanwhile, Sabine Baring-Gould and Charles Agar Bampfylde in their book A History of Sarawak under its two White Rajahs 1839-1908 had this to say about the building.

“Something must be said of the Astana, the residence of the Rajah and Ranee, which had then just been completed. It is built of brick in three separate sections, with a roof of iron-wood shingles, in appearance closely resembling slates. The illustration will best convey an idea of its exterior appearance, which in the opinion of some has been sacrificed for the sake of internal comfort. However that may be, no more comfortable or cooler house exists in the East. On the first or upper floor of the centre section are the drawing rooms and dining room spacious and lofty, and surrounded by a broad veranda. The side blocks contain the bedrooms, the lateral veranda of which are connected with those of the central block by covered bridges. In the basement are the Rajah’s office, guard room, household offices, bathroom, etc. The entrance is in the tower, in the lower part of which is the main staircase, and above is the billiard room. In a separate building, connected with the main building by a covered passage, are the bachelor’s quarters.

“The well laid out gardens are extensive and contain many beautiful tropical plants. Behind the Astana is the old graveyard of the former Malay Rajahs, in which are some well-carved monuments of ironwood. Beyond the gardens are grazing lands. The Rajah has two cattle farms, and he takes a great interest in rearing cattle, importing pedigree bulls from England to improve the stock in the country. Kuching is almost wholly supplied with milk and butter from the Astana diaries.”

Over the years, the Astana has witnessed so many historical events including the rise and fall of the Brooke era, the Japanese occupation, the British colonial days and now as Sarawak under the Malaysian federation.

It was here that local chiefs and their followers would meet especially those who came from outside of Kuching.

Former British colonial officer Alaistar Morrison stated in his book Fair Land Sarawak: Some Recollections of an Expatriate, “Any prominent personality visiting Kuching, such as Temenggong Oyong Lawai Jau, would normally be accompanied by a number of followers and you would meet them at the Astana receptions. These were prominent people in their own communities and they were perfectly at their ease in the Astana even if they did not wear lounge suits.”

The first reception of the Ranee

Speaking of receptions, the dining hall of the Astana was where the former Ranee Margaret held her first reception back in 1870.

In her book My Life in Sarawak (1913), she wrote,

“The dining room of the Astana was large, and could accommodate about two hundred and fifty guests… Some days before the party, on looking out my sitting room window towards the landing place and the path leading up from it to our door, I saw a number of little boys staggering under the weight of numerous round, red lacquer boxes. These were very large, and I sent for Talip (the butler) and asked him what they were. He informed me that they were to be used for the various cakes and fruit in the same way as we use silver dishes. Talip arranged that on this great occasion we should all sit on the floor round the room, and that the place occupied by the chief’s wife, with myself in their midst, should be set out with piles of gorgeous cushions covered with gold brocade – also borrowed from the houses of my guests. A fortnight or so was occupied in the preparations, and at last the day came to which I had been looking forward so much. I glanced into the dining room in the morning and thought how pretty a meal laid out for Malay ladies looked – very much prettier that the table arrangements at our dinner parties in England. Great strips of white and red material, bought for the occasion in the Bazaar, were laid down both sides of the room with cross pieces at each end. The red boxes were put at equal distances on these strips and between the boxes were dishes with the fruits of the country – mangosteens, mangoes, oranges, pineapples, etc. The red lacquer boxes made beautiful notes of colour all round the room.”

Unfortunately, there is no photo of Margaret’s first reception in Sarawak. One could only imagine how it looked like through her description.

The curse of Astana’s tower

With a building complex that has a history spanning more than a century, it is bound to have its own old wives’ tale.

One of these stories were told by John Beville Archer. He was the former Chief of Section in the Sarawak Civil Service and one of many Japanese internees during the Second World War (WWII).

In a June 1, 1948 issue of the Sarawak Gazette, Archer wrote how Toshinari Maeda’s untimely death might be related to the curse of Astana’s tower.

Maeda was a Japanese general and the first commander of the Japanese forces in northern Borneo during occupation.

“The main entrance of the Astana is the imposing and rather ancient tower overlooking the chief door to the palace.
Now there is a Brooke tradition that the exterior of this tower must not be whitewashed or renovated.
If this should occur, so runs the legend, some disaster will take place.
The tower had therefore became covered by an ivy-like creeper, and parts of the original building were crumbling in venerable decay.
The Japanese, vainglorious and victorious, saw fit to put this ruin into apple-pie order.
The creeper was torn down, masons, plasterers and white washers got busy.
Shortly afterwards Field Marshal Prince Maeda, cousin of the Emperor Sun god and Generalissimo, fell miserably to earth in a crashed plane somewhere round about Miri.”

To be precise, Maeda’s plane crash somewhere off Bintulu when flying from Kuching to Labuan in September 1942.
The wreckage of the plane and his body were never found.

After the war ended, the state became the Crown Colony of Sarawak (1945-1963). The colony was headed by a British governor appointed by King George IV and later by Queen Elizabeth II.

The official residence of the Governor of Sarawak at that time was the Astana.

Here are the photos of The Astana taken during Sarawak colonial days in 1959:

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The view of the ground behind the Astana where Santubong mountain could be seen in the background.
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The swimming pool, tennis court and outside bar behind the Astana.
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The fish pond in the Astana grounds.
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Sentry outside entrance to the Astana.
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Looking across river to Kuching from the tower of the Astana.
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The back of the Astana from the grounds.
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Another point of view of the former Rajah’s residence.
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The front of the Astana, Kuching.
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The back verandah.
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The Governor’s private sitting room.
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The hall.
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The sitting room in the private secretary’s flat.
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The Lady Rachel room.
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Entrance steps in the Astana.
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The dining room with round table.
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The air conditioned library in the Astana.
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The Governor’s bedroom.
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The private secretary’s bedroom.
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The Ranee’s room, Astana.
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Round table (seats 9) in dining room.
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The games room and comptroller of the household’s desk.
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Office of the assistant private secretary underneath the Astana.
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The Governor’s office
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The Duchess room,
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The kitchens.
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The Governor’s office,
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Bathroom of the Lady Rachel room.

All images are part of the Colonial Office photographic collection held at The National Archives, United Kingdom. There is no known copyright restrictions.

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The history of strawberry shortcake that you never knew

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Are you a fan of strawberry shortcake? If you are based in Kuching, one of the places you can get a hand on a strawberry shortcake is at The Hash Cafe. Pair it with a cup of hot coffee or black tea and you have the perfect afternoon tea session.

However, did you know that the dessert we know as strawberry shortcake today (especially in Asian countries) is different from its original version?

Let us take a look into the history of strawberry shortcake

First of all, there are two types of shortcake. In the American version, a shortcake is a crumbly sweet cake or biscuit that has been leavened with baking powder or baking soda.

Meanwhile in the United Kingdom, the term shortcake mainly refers to a biscuit that is similar to shortbread.

A typical shortcake is made with flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, butter, milk or cream and sometimes egg.

Of all the desserts made from shortcake, the most popular one is none other than strawberry shortcake.

It is made from layers of shortcakes with sugared strawberry slices and whipped cream in between.

The first strawberry shortcake recipe appeared in an English cookbook in 1588.

Back then, the dessert was made from biscuits (or scones) and strawberry served with butter and sweetened cream.

By the early 20th century, the topping was replaced with heavy whipped cream.

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The Western version of strawberry shortcake using biscuits. Credit: Unsplash.

The Japanese version of strawberry shortcake

The strawberry shortcake that most Malaysians are familiar with is the Japanese version of the recipe.

And we all have to thank the founder of Fujiya Co. Ltd Rinemon Fujii for this.

Fujiya is a Japanese chain of confectionery stores and restaurants that was founded in 1910 in Yokohama.

In 1912, Fujii went to the US to learn to make Western desserts. During his stay, he was fascinated with a dessert made with butter sponge cake, sweetened fruit and whipped cream.

When he returned to Japan in 1922, Fujii came up with his own version of strawberries, whipped cream and sponge cake.

It was not until the cake appeared in TV commercials in 1958 that the dessert caught the attention of Japanese people.

The dessert is particularly famous during the Christmas season that some might refer it as Japanese Christmas cake.

Today, if you say ‘cake’, most Japanese would immediately think of this sponge cake with whipped cream and strawberry.

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The Japanese version of strawberry shortcake. Credit: Pexels.

Read about other desserts on KajoMag.com here:

Nuns or concubines: Who invented Italian pastry, cannoli?

Know the legends behind these 5 famous Chinese desserts

What you need to know about Basque burnt cheesecake

What you should know about French cake, madeleine

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Brooketon, the extraterritorial extension of Sarawak during Brooke dynasty

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Many Sarawakians today might not be familiar with Brooketon but about a century ago, it was a mining settlement that was once under the Sarawak government.

What made this settlement special was that it was located in Brunei, not in Sarawak.

During the reign of second White Rajah of Sarawak Charles Brooke, Brooketon was considered an ‘extraterritorial extension’ of Sarawak.

William Cowie and the mine in Brunei

Muara Colliery 1900
Brooketon Colliery by the end of 1900. Credit: Public Domain/Copyright Expired.

Before going into how Brooke ‘acquired’ a territory outside of Sarawak, let us take a look into the history of William Cowie.

Cowie was a Scottish engineer, mariner and businessman born in 1849.

He was famously known for helping establish British North Borneo (present-day Sabah) and being the chairman of the British North Borneo Company.

In March 1882, Cowie purchased a 40-year concession for the exploitation of coal fields in Muara town in Brunei.

The Muara coalmine was first commercially mined in 1883.

At the same time, Cowie rented a shipyard in Labuan for 99 years from which he shipped his coal.

Some years later, he wanted to sell his concession rights in Muara and the person who bought the deal was Brooke.

On Sept 6, 1888, Cowie transferred his leases to Brooke for £25,000.

After the transfer, the coalmine in Muara incurred heavy losses from the outset and it was not until 1917 that even a minuscule surplus of $1,527 was shown on a year’s trading.

Rajah Charles Brooke, the de facto ruler of Brooketon

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So why keep a mine that isn’t making money? Charles Agar Bampfylde, the Resident of the First Division of Sarawak (1896-1903) once explained that Brooketon without its coalmine “would be but a small fishing hamlet, that the mine found employment for a great many people.

And that it was “entirely on that account” that Brooke kept the mine open.

Meanwhile, English historian Steven Runciman believed that the Rajah bought the mine “perhaps more from fear that otherwise on the North Borneo Company might take it over than from any great faith in its potentialities”.

There is another possible theory on why Brooke bought the mine.

After Sarawak had acquired Limbang in 1890 from the Brunei sultanate, the purchase of the coal mine and its strategic location near the sea would give the Rajah a stranglehold on Brunei and and bring him closer to fulfilling his ultimate ambition, which was to incorporate Brunei within Sarawak.

According to writer Rozan Yunus in his article Before the Oil, It was Coal, the colliery was strategic as it was very near to Muara town where then and as well as now here is a safe deep-water anchorage to which the mine was connected to rail.

By 1911, there was more than 1,447 people lived in the settlement with about 30 shops.

Rozan wrote, “Politically too, even though he only had economic rights, Rajah Charles became the ‘ruler’ of the area. The mine employed hundred of miners and that required him to introduce a police force, post office and roads transforming Muara into an ‘extraterritorial’ settlement – an extension of Sarawak”.

Thanks to the post office, Brooketon became the first place in Brunei where a postage stamp was issued.

Who came up with the name Brooketon?

While many records claimed that Brooke was the one who named the settlement Brooketon, researcher A.V.M Horton pointed out it was Cowie who came up with the name.

In his paper Rajah Charles Brooke and Mining Concessions in Brunei 1888-1924, Horton wrote, “Mr Cowie had renamed the colliery settlement ‘Brooketon’ in honour of Sir Charles. Subsequently the latter was most touchy on this point: in early 1907, after a British ‘resident’ had been appointed to administer Brunei, he detected a (non-existent) British plot to suppress the name and complained to the colonial office.

“It might be observed, however, that if Brunei Malays were as well disposed towards as some writers have claimed, then it is somewhat surprising that the name ‘Brooketon’ no longer survives.”

The colliery which was known as Muara Coal Mine, was renamed as Brooketon Colliery.

The history of the mining settlement inspired the card game ‘Letters to Brooketon’

Bruneian game creator company Comet Games was so inspired with the rich history of the mining settlement that they created a card game called ‘Letters to Brooketon’.

The imaginary scenario idea behind the game is ‘What if there were local Bruneians who were against Charles Brooke and wanted to sabotage the coal mines?’

In order to play the game, each player is secretly assigned a role as either a Miner or a Mole.

Thus, it is the job of each player to find out who is who as the game progresses, lest they want the opponent to win.

The highlight of the game is deception and how you twist and play against your opponents in every round.

What is left of Brooketon Colliery

The mine was closed in 1924 due to financial losses driven by the decreasing price of coal during the world economic recession.

By then, the mine and its settlement had already returned to Brunei in 1921.

When the Japanese occupied Brunei during the Second World War (WWII) and tried to reopen the mine, they failed.

At the end of the war, the Australian forces landed at Brooketon as part of the Borneo Campaign 1945.

Today, the former fishing/mining settlement has now become Brunei’s primary deep water port with a population of 2,102 in 2016.

As for Brooketon Colliery, all that remains is an overgrown railway, locomotives, mine entrances and an abandoned Morris Minor.

Thankfully, it is currently a protected site under the Antiquities and Treasure Trove Act of Brunei Darussalam.

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What you need to know about the Fall of Singapore during WWII

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When the Malayan Peninsula and subsequently Singapore were captured during World War II (WWII), it was considered among the Japanese Army’s greatest wartime achievements.

Meanwhile, it was the worst Far Eastern defeats for Great Britain.

During WWII, Singapore was British military base in Southeast Asia.

Also known as the Fall of Singapore, the battle lasted from Feb 8 to 15, 1942.

It resulted in the Japanese capture of Singapore and the largest British surrender in history.

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Japanese victorious troops march through the city centre. Credit Public Domain.

Here are eight things you should know about the Fall of Singapore:

1.Why did Japan attack Singapore?

According to Paul H. Kratoska in his book The Japanese Occupation of Malaya, Japan considered Malaya and Sumatra ‘the nuclear zone of the Empire’s plans for the Southern area’, and saw the Malay Peninsula as ‘the economic and communication axis for the entire Southern area’.

Moreover, Singapore also had considerable strategic importance because Britain’s Singapore Naval Base provided a centre for operations against Japan.

At that time, Singapore was the key to British imperial interwar defence planning for Southeast Asia and the Southwest Pacific.

If Singapore had fallen, it also meant the Allied forces in Southeast Asia had also fallen.

On the same day that the Japanese was attacking Pearl Harbour, they simultaneously bombed Royal Air Force bases to the north of Singapore on the Malay coast.

By doing this, the Japanese successfully eliminated British air forces available to protect or retaliate the troops on the ground.

The British retaliated by sending the battleship ‘Prince of Wales’ and the battle ‘Repulse’ at the head of fleet of ships.

This efforts turned out futile as they both were torpedoed and sank into the sea.

Hence even before the Japanese troops even set foot on Singapore, they already destroyed the British naval and aerial capabilities.

2.The Battle of Singapore

Somehow, the British was really expecting the Japanese forces to attack from the sea at the south of Singapore instead of from the Malay peninsula where treacherous jungle and mangrove swamp covered the region.

The British commander at the time, Arthur Percival had about 90,000 men at his disposal.

After the Japanese had attacked Kota Bharu just after midnight on Dec 8, 1941 right before the attack on Pearl Harbour, it marked the beginning of Japanese invasion of Malaya.

The Japanese assaulted their way from there heading south towards Singapore.

By Feb 8, 1942 with only around 23,000 troops, the Japanese forces which led by General Tomoyuki Yamashita entered Singapore.

Despite being outnumbered three to one, the Japanese managed to gain a strong foothold in Singapore.

One factor which contributed to that was Percival’s miscalculation in locating his troops.

Even though the British forces were far superior in number, they were were spread so thinly.

This allowed the Japanese forces to easily overwhelmed them by attacking the weakest part of the line.

Just seven days later, Percival decided to surrender to prevent further loss of life.

3.The Japanese called the Fall of Singapore ‘the bluff that worked’

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Lieutenant-General Yamashita (seated, centre) thumps the table with his fist to emphasise his demand for unconditional surrender. Lieutenant-General Percival sits between his officers, his clenched hand to his mouth. (Photo from Imperial War Museum/Public Domain).

On the evening of Feb 15, Percival tried to negotiate with Yamashita on the some of the conditions for the surrender of Singapore.

The British Lieutenant-General wished to delay the ceasefire so that all of his men to receive their orders on time.

In the same time, Percival wished to keep 1000 of his men armed in case that the Japanese would retaliate against the local populations.

Yamashita, however, threatened to carry on the planned attack for that night if the British did not surrender.

This was all a facade on Yamashita’s side. He was actually afraid that the British might discover the real situation of the Japanese in Singapore.

What Percival did not know was that the Japanese had a smaller number of troops compared to the British.

Furthermore, the Japanese were at the end of their supplies with literally only hours of shells left.

If Yamashita and Percival were to play a game of poker, now we know who would be the winner.

4.Winston Churchill called it the worst disaster in British Military History

When the Battle of Singapore first started, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered Percival to fight to the last man standing.

Hence imagine the shock Churchill received when he received the news that Singapore had fallen.

He called it the ‘worst disaster’ in British military history.

Later in his book The Hinge of Fate, Churchill blamed himself for the lack of fortification in order to prepare for the war.

“I do not write this in any way to excuse myself. I ought to have known. My advisers ought to have known and I ought to have been told and I ought to have asked. The reason I had not asked about this matter, amid the thousands of questions I put, was that the possibility of Singapore having no landward defences no more entered into my mind than that of a battleship being launched without a bottom.

“I am aware of the various reasons that have been given for this failure: the preoccupation of the troops in training and in building defence works in Northern Malaya; the shortage of civilian labour; pre-war financial limitations and centralised War Office control; the fact that the Army’s role was to protect the naval base, situated on the north shore of the island, and that it was therefore their duty to fight in front of that shore and not along it. I do not consider these reasons valid. Defences should have been built.”

The Fall of Singapore left the prime minister feeling in disgrace. According to his personal physician Lord Moran, it left a scar in his mind.

Moran wrote, “One evening, months later, when he was sitting in his bathroom enveloped in a towel, he stopped drying himself and gloomily surveyed the floor: ‘I cannot get over Singapore’, he said sadly.”

5.Was Arthur Percival to be blamed?

Surrender Singapore
Percival (right) and his party carry the Union flag on their way to surrender Singapore to the Japanese. (Photo credit: Imperial War Museum/ Public Domain)

When things go south, it is natural for the blame game to start.

As for the Battle of Singapore, most fingers turned toward Percival.

His critics blamed him for not building the fixed defences in either Johor or the north of Singapore.

When his chief engineer Brigadier Ivan Simson requested to start construction in the area, Percival dismissed him with the comment, “Defences are bad for morale for both troops and civilians.”

Furthermore, teamwork was not in the Allied forces’ dictionary during the Battle of Singapore.

He was not in tune with Sir Lewis Health who was commanding Indian III Corps and Gordon Bennett who was commanding the Australian 8th Division.

Ultimately, Percival’s willingness to surrender to the invading Japanese forces was seen as undermining the British power in Southeast Asia.

Percival became a POW was sent to a camp near Hsian, China.

He was freed by an American intelligence agency, the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) as the war drew to an end.

After that, he went to the Philippines to witness the surrender of the Japanese army there.

In a twist of fate, Percival was ‘reunited’ with his old nemesis General Yamashita there.

Reportedly, Percival refused to shake Yamashita’s hand during their unexpected reunion as he was angered with the mistreatment of POWs in Singapore by the Japanese.

6.The escape of Australian general Gordon Bennett

Apart from Percival’s controversial decision to surrender, another person who came under scrutiny was Australian Lieutenant General Gordon Bennett.

On Feb 15, when Percival was negotiating about the surrender, Bennett decided to escape from Singapore.

After handing the command of the Australian 8th Division to Brigadier Cecil Callaghan, Bennett took a sampan with some junior officers and local Europeans crossing the Strait of Malacca to the east coast of Sumatra.

From there, the group proceeded to Padang on the west coast of Sumatra and then to Java before flying to Melbourne on Mar 2, 1942.

While Bennett was busy escaping, almost 15,000 Australian soldiers were captured in Singapore.

Unsurprisingly, Bennett’s choice to abandon his move was heavily criticised.

On Nov 17, 1945, the Prime Minister of Australia appointed Justice Ligertwood to be a commissioner to inquire into the action of Bennett relinquishing his command and leaving Singapore.

Later in his report, Ligertwood stated, “At the time General Bennett left Singapore he was not a prisoner of war in the sense of being a soldier who was under a duty to escape. He was in the position of a soldier whose commanding officer had agreed to surrender him and to submit him to directions which would make him a prisoner of war.

“Having regard to the terms of the capitulation I think that it was General Bennett’s duty to have remained in command of the AIF until the surrender was complete.

“Having regard to the terms of the capitulation I find that General Bennett was not justified in relinquishing his command and leaving Singapore.”

7.What you should know about Japanese Tomoyuki Yamashita

Yamashita Tomoyuki
Portrait of Tomoyuki Yamashita, Japanese general of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Yamashita led Japanese forces during the invasion of Malaya and Battle of Singapore, with his accomplishment of conquering Malaya and Singapore in 70 days earning him the sobriquet The Tiger of Malaya. (Photo: Public Domain).

Thanks to his accomplishment conquering Malaya and Singapore in 70 days, Yamashita earned the nickname “The Tiger of Malaya”.

Most people do not know that the man behind “The Tiger of Malaya” was in a way, a believer of peace despite his proven successful achievements in leading his men in battle.

When he was promoted to lieutenant-general in November 1937, Yamashita insisted that Japan should end the conflict with China.

Moreover, he proposed to keep peaceful relations with the United States and Great Britain.

Clearly, Yamashita’s proposal was ignored.

Fast forward to WWII, he was the man who led Japan to victory in Singapore against Britain.

He was assigned to defend Philippines at the end of the war and was able to hold on to part of Luzon until Japan Empire formally surrendered in August 1945.

After the war, Yamashita was tried for war crimes committed by troops under his command during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines.

The American military tribunal in Manila tried him for the Manila massacre and many atrocities against the civilians and POWs in the Philippines.

Even though Yamashita denied giving the orders for these war crimes and denied having any knowledge of these events, the court found him guilty. He was sentenced to death by hanging.

In his final statement right before he was hanged, Yamashita named and thanked the American officers who were in-charge of him during the military trial.

He also said that he did not blame his executioners and pray that the gods bless them. Yamashita was executed on Feb 23, 1946.

His controversial trial led to what the military all over the world now know as the Yamashita Standard.

It is when a soldier “unlawfully disregarding, and failing to discharge, his duty as a commander to control the acts of members of his command, by permitting them to commit war crimes.”

The overall situation was irony for Yamashita as the first orders he gave to his soldiers at the start of WWII was “no looting, no rape, no arson.”

8.The aftermath

Nonetheless, the Fall of Singapore resulted in the largest British surrender in history with a total of a nearly 85,000 personnel including Australians captured and about 5000 were killed or wounded.

Thousands were held captives in Singapore’s Changi Prison and thousands others were sent to other parts of Asia.

Many of them who boarded the infamous hell ships did not survive the journey.

A huge number of the captured Allied forces found themselves working as forced labour on Burma-Siam Death Railway, Sumatra Railway and Sandakan Airfield.

Unfortunately, many POWs perished during their internment.

Throughout the entire 70-day campaign in both Malaya and Singapore, about 8,708 Allied forces were killed or wounded while the Japanese forces suffered from 9,824 casualties.

The Fall of Singapore also marked the beginning of Japanese occupation of Singapore.

Singapore was renamed Syonan-to meaning ‘Light of the South Island’.

During this time, the local Singaporeans suffered great hardships under the rule of Japanese.

The Chinese people in particular were targeted by the Japanese due to the Second Sino-Japanese War with thousands were murdered in the Sook Ching massacre.

Finally, the island was returned to British colonial rule on Sept 12, 1945 following the formal signing of Japanese surrender.

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