Pat Johnson is the daughter of Major Charles Bates, MC. Ramale, in New Britain, Papua New Guinea, was a Prisoner-of-War camp during World War II. The album covers the story of the release of Catholic priests, nuns and civilians from captivity on 14 September 1945 after internment by the Japanese. Pat’s father, Major Charles Dowson Bates, MC, was the officer-in-charge of the party that released the Ramale captives.

The Ramale album is a “scrapbook” style album created by Pat Johnson. It includes the original manuscript of a song titled “Sons of Australia” composed by Father Jos. Reischl, a Missionary of the Sacred Heart, with words by Sr Adela, when liberated from the Ramale prisoner of war camp on New Britain in 1945. The manuscript was presented by Father Jos. Reischl to Pat’s mother through Major Charles Dowson Bates in appreciation of their release. "Sons of Australia", referred to as the 'Ramale Anthem' was performed (with vocal) by the Salvation Army Melbourne Staff Band at the dedication of the Rabaul and Montevideo Maru National Memorial on 1 July 2012, at the Australian War Memorial by Her Excellency, Ms Quentin Bryce, AC CVO, Governor General of Australia.

The album includes Sr Theodeberta’s account of her war years at Vunapope/Ramale where she refers to Psalm 46 written by Fr Reischl. Psalm 46 was also presented to Major Charles Bates and is included in this collection.

There are copied extracts of Gordon Thomas’ diary who was interned in Rabaul during World War II. The album also includes extracts from books, newspaper clippings and printouts of pictures and information from the Internet (mainly the Australian War Memorial online photographic database) that relate to the Ramale Prisoner-of-war camp.
See also: PMB 1191 MISSIONARY SISTERS OF THE SACRED HEART
OF JESUS OF HILTRUP: Reports from New Ireland and New Britain, New
Guinea, 1937-1950. 1 reel. (Available for Reference.)

The World YWCA started a South Pacific Project in 1974 with Ruth Lechte as staff person. In 1982, Ofis Blong Ol Meri was established with Diane Goodwillie as Co-ordinator. In May 1983, Edith Enoga from Papua New Guinea was appointed as Communications Development Officer. Ofis Blong Ol Meri was a project to serve the needs of women in the Pacific Islands (especially PNG, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, New Caledonia, Kiribati and Tuvalu). It worked mainly with non-government women’s groups. (From leaflet, n.d., 1983?)

Circulars, leaflets and reports, 1982-1987; Newsletters, 1983-1991; Photographs; Calendars, 1984-1988; Related Publications, 1994-2002.
See Finding aids for details.

Mary Helen Margaret Leishman was born at Bunbury Western Australia on 17 April 1902. She died on 7 May 1995 in Launceston, Tasmania. Helen Leishman gave 22 years service to the Anglican Church's Melanesian Mission in the Solomons and New Hebrides (now Vanuatu) as both lay missionary nursing sister, then as a member of the religious sisterhood, the Community of the Cross. That Community corporately moved to the Roman Catholic church in July 1950, after which Helen Leishman spent more than 38 years in a Carmelite Monastery in Tasmania.

Helen Leishman trained as a nurse in Perth WA, completing her midwifery in Adelaide SA. While living and working in Perth she heard a clergyman preach on the work of the Anglican church's overseas missions. Some time later, on an impulse, she enquired about missionary life, was accepted on the spot, sent to Mission headquarters, Siota, Solomon Islands for training, then was assigned to a school in the New Hebrides.

Her enculturation programme was conducted by the Community of the Cross, an Anglican Sisterhood of three members established only a year previously. She subsequently joined the Community. She taught in the Community's school, was nurse, dentist, midwife and otherwise multi-skilled member of the Community, became the de facto mother of the babies taken in as orphans, taught personal and community hygiene and mothercraft to the older students at the school, trained indigenous women who joined the Community in hygiene, child care, midwifery and other elementary medical skills. Either alone, or with colleagues (mostly one or two Taina), she worked in remote locations, went periodically to distant islands to preach Christianity, teach, and attend to the sick. She was in the Solomons during World War II when the Japanese invaded, remained in seclusion in the mountains under the protection of the indigenous people until after the battle of Guadalcanal, when evacuated to the New Hebrides. After some years back in the Solomons the Sisters decided to join the Roman Catholic church, an event described by Mother Margaret Wilson, the Community Superior (see PMB 145). (From T.W. Campbell, “The Hidden Lives of Helen Leishman”, <i>Women-Church</i>, 33, Spring 2003.)

These letters cover the period 1930 to 1948. The originals, held privately, are to be placed with St Mark's Library, Canberra ACT. <b>See Finding aids for details.</b>

The Reverend Shirley Waldemar Baker (1836-1903) was an English Wesleyan missionary who arrived in Tonga from Australia in 1860. During his stay of more than 30 years, Baker became a close adviser to King Tupou I and, like the King, an active promoter of Tonga’s independence in the face of European colonial expansion in the south Pacific. Baker’s many disputes with other Europeans in Tonga, most notably with his fellow missionary James Moulton, and especially with the British government officials in Fiji and elsewhere, generated a degree of controversy unique among 19th-century missionaries working in the Pacific. His metamorphosis into a politician culminated in his appointment as Premier of Tonga. (John Spurway, ‘Baker Papers’, Journal of Pacific History, 38:2, 2003.)

These papers of Rev. Shirley and Beatrice Baker were bequeathed to the Mitchell Library by Dorothy Crozier along with her own research papers. They were transferred from the Mitchell Library to the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau in August 2001. Lillian Baker, a daughter of Shirley Baker who lived in Ha’apai, gave the papers to Dorothy Crozier in 1950 when Ms Crozier was researching culture change in Tonga under the supervision of Professor Raymond Firth. The papers are made up of the following documents:

• Reel 1: SB/1-5 Correspondence-out: press-copies, 1873-80; SB/6-106, Correspondence-in, 1849, 1860-87.
• Reel 2: SB/107-187, Correspondence-in, cont., 1887-1913, 1950; SB/188-214/2, Articles, reports, diaries, notes, texts and other documents, c.1879-1906.
• Reel 3: SB/214/3-226, articles, etc., cont.; SB/228-232, Vocabulary, Words and Meanings, n.d.; SB/233-235, Genealogies, n.d.; SB/236-247, Mission and Church Related Papers, 1874-1890; SB/248-255, Documents relating to Government and Kingdom of Tonga, 1879-1900; SB/266 & 273, Tongan Government Publications.
• Reel 4: SB/274-297, Tonga Govt. publications, cont.; SB/298-307, 309-310, 312-314, Other printed material relating to Tonga, 1863-1951; SB/318-329, Tonga: An Historical Collection from Voyages and Discoveries with Explanatory Remarks, by Beatrice Baker; SB/339, Memoirs of the Rev. Shirley Waldemar Baker, by Beatrice Baker, 1922-51; SB/340-348, Extracts: transcripts of various documents, 1876-85.
• Reel 5: SB/349-370 Press Cuttings, 1879-1911; SB/371-379 Miscellaneous Papers, 1860-1932; SB/380-383 Photographs, n.d.

See Finding aids for details.</b> See also PMB Doc 463 for Tongan Government publications at SB/256-266.

Please see PMB 581 for full entry.

Correspondence with private individuals (Continued from reel PMB 586): Gottlieb von Jagow, 1914-34; H. Knipping, 1900-04, 1920-30; Richard von Kuhlmann, 1912-17; Richard Kuenzer, 1912-35; Karl Max Lisknowsky, 1914-18; Emil Ludwig, 1916-18; Adolf-Friedrich Mecklenberg, 1913-16; Albrecht Mendelssohn, 1922-31; Friedrich Wilhelm Mohr, 1922-35; Anton Mentz, 1916-18; Walther Rathenau, 1911-18; Otto Riedel (manager of the Deutsche Handels-und Plantagen-Gesellschaft), 1905-26; Paul Rohrback, 1913-18; F. Rose, 1900-06; Friedrich Rosen, 1898-1932; Erich von Salzmann, 1921-32; and E. Schmidt-Dergitz, 1899-1904. Note: Rose and Schmidt-Dergitz were Pacific specialists in the German Colonial Office. (Cont. on PMB 588)