We Have a Library in Mind

¿Anthony Smelt: Poll among internees at Lintang camp - titles for an imaginary library. 1943 ¿The Imperial War Museum archived Anthony Smelt''s personal papers because he spent three years of the Second World War interned in a camp in Borneo called Batu Lintang. He had been working as a civil servant in British North Borneo until the Japanese invaded at the beginning of 1942. During those years of captivity, he was an active member of the camp, documenting the diet of his fellow internees and contributing to various aspects of their lives. After he was liberated, he was awarded an OBE for his services during internment. At Batu Lintang, POWs and civilian internees alike endured food shortages, disease and sickness for which scant medicine was made available, forced labour, brutal treatment, and lack of adequate clothing and living quarters. Of the approximately 2,000 British POWs held there, over two-thirds died during or as a result of their captivity.An additional cruelty was enforce