The quilts were the idea of a Canadian internee, Mrs. Ethel Mulvaney, who had been a Red Cross representative in Singapore. Making the quilts was designed to alleviate boredom, boost morale and pass information to men in other camps. Each woman was asked to put something of herself into her square. "The quilt for the Japanese was more carefully considered and the squares, with the exception of the one made by American missionaries giving a Psalm reference, contain no messages, only scenes (mainly floral) that the makers thought would be acceptable to the JapaneseÂ...Â...Â....
Two squares on this quilt have an Australian connection. Square 33, made by Helen Beck, the wife of an Englishman serving with the Malay Police (the Becks had spent a holiday in Western Australia in 1941; both were interned by the Japanese), and square 66, made by Clarice Hancock, a Eurasian girl with an Australian father."
[Australian War Memorial]
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