An inscription on the inside of the front wrapper identifies the author of this ephemeral piece: “By Lt. Col. T. Matthews, Director Refugees & Displaced Persons Branch, British Military Admin (Malaya), Singapore, Oct 1945.”
The introduction reads: “You are going to deal with thousands of non-Europeans who have spent a number of years isolated in many cases from their relatives in a foreign country, and subject to harsh discipline, all through no fault of their own. Your patience will be sorely tried. Remember there may be a partial or complete breakdown in their morale.”
According to the inserted slip, dated September 1945, “considerable numbers of displaced Javanese would be found and it was assumed that they and possibly other racial groups as well would probably be destitute. This assumption was correct, except that the Javanese were not merely destitute; many of them were sick and dying. The energetic rescue work during the first few weeks undoubtedly saved many lives …”
The rest of this work outlines the logistics of organisation and staff, then there are sections on police, discipline, accommodation, food and messing, health and welfare.
A seemingly unrecorded pamphlet - there are no copies recorded on OCLC or Libraryhub - nor do any results come up on internet searches.
