Some of the defences at the D Company, 3rd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR), forward base at Stass, Sarawak/Kalimantan border. Where possible the defences and walkways at Stass were dug below ground level which provided a degree of cover for the Australian soldiers when walking around the base. These sunken walkways could also be used by Australian infantry as defensive positions if the need arose. Note the steel helmets on top of one of the parapets in the foreground (right). Donor : G Bradshaw

But as Ramadan ended, the religious fasting in large parts of Indonesia had become full-scale famine. Parched by drought, the rice crop in Java had failed; in Bali, last year's eruption of the Gunung Agung volcano had buried two of the island's largest rice areas under volcanic ash. In central Java, an invasion of rats, many 18 inches long from head to tail, had decimated rice stores and created a serious threat of bubonic plague; in east Java, local extermination campaigns have already accounted for the death of 7,000,000 rats.

Nearly 1,000,000 people were on a starvation diet in Java; scores have already died of malnutrition. Peasant villages emptied as food supplies dwindled, and native families poured into already overcrowded cities. In Surabaya, Indonesia's third largest city, 75,000 beggars roamed the streets; half-naked children, five and six years old, begged for parents too weak to walk the pavements themselves. To the source in full.......