Cowra Breakout

Dear Editor,

In his review of Mat McLachlan’s The Cowra Breakout, Seumas Spark omitted to mention, among previous books on the subject, Break-out by Hugh V. Clarke, my late husband. This book was published by Horwitz in 1967 and republished in many subsequent editions by Corgi in Australia, England, and the United States. A revised edition Escape to Death was published by Random House in 1994.

Hugh Clarke was a prisoner of war of the Japanese on the Burma-Thailand railway and at Nagasaki. He wrote the book in collaboration with a Japanese author, Takeo Yamashita, at a time when most Australian ex-POWs were still bitterly opposed to the Japanese. Despite his suffering as a POW, detailed in his testimony to the War Crimes Tribunal, Clarke was able to accept that not all Japanese shared the views of Emperor Hirohito and the military hierarchy, manifested in the extreme cruelty of many guards during World War II. In addition to its many editions in English, Break-out was published in Japanese in Tokyo in 1967.

Patricia Clarke, Deakin, ACT

To wear the crown

Dear Editor,

Kudos to Clare Monagle for tackling the role of the monarchy in Australia with such verve and wit (‘To Wear the Crown Too Easily’, October 2022). The moniker ‘king of Australia’ does seem weird, as does the notion of Australia’s being considered one of the realms of King Charles III. Australia comes across as a minor actor on this stage. Queen Elizabeth II was much admired for her constancy and attention to the correct procedures, or, as Monagle writes, for her dullness.

Whatever happens, we definitely need more of Clare Monagle’s commentaries.

Jenny Esots, Willunga, SA

Otiose adverbs

Dear Editor,

Please maintain the rage about otiose adverbs (Advances, October 2022). Recently I heard a government minister describe the prime minister’s presentation of his new policies as ‘incredibly clear’.

John Seymour, Canberra, ACT

Subtitling Siegfried

Dear Editor,

What a magnificent treat this performance of Siegfried was, from Melbourne Opera (ABR Arts, September 2022). Added to the excellence of all the musicians was the large screen with both English and German subtitles, easily read and well timed. Accolades to those who created it.

Margaret Knight (online comment)

Adam Aitken

Dear Editor,

Tracy Ryan is correct: the allusion to Robert Adamson’s fine poem went right past me (Letters, September 2022). We continue to differ, though, on what it does for the poem by Adam Aitken, which still strikes me as a misfire.

David Mason, Garden Island Creek, Tas.

Correction

Philip Short, author of the biography of Vladimir Putin that Sheila Fitzpatrick reviewed in our September issue, notes that the figure on Prince Charles’s right in the photograph that appeared on page 11 of the issue is not Putin but rather, most likely, his chief bodyguard, Viktor Zolotov.