Asian Airlines was an enterprise that emerged during the struggle for Indonesian independence from Dutch colonial rule. The airline was the inspiration of Australian businessmen, Kenneth Frederick Wong and Clarence Hart Campbell. Wong and Campbell viewed their company as a means of supporting Indonesia's independence movement. When Holland violated its truce with the Indonesian republicans and, aided by the British military and Ambonese mercenaries, Dutch forces carried out the first of their Police Actions, 20,000 Indonesians were killed.^[1] Thousands more were displaced and Indonesia was deprived of oil areas and vital rice supplies. Following the Dutch Police Action, Campbell and Wong conceived the idea of an Australian-based airline that would fetch and carry cargo to the Indonesian republicans. Asian Airlines, however, had only a brief existence. Its operations were obstructed by Australian intelligence and marred by controversy.

     The background to the failed Asian Airlines is the emerging independence struggle in Indonesia and Malaya. Such fractures and openings in the old imperial system were overlain by the exigencies of the Cold War. In the aftermath of the first Dutch Police Action, Indonesian communists in March 1948 formed the People's Democratic Front, based in Madiun, central Java. They urged national leaders Hatta and Sukarno to break off negotiations with the Dutch and unilaterally establish a people's republic through armed struggle. The response of the Indonesian nationalist leadership was swift and severe. The Indonesian communist resistance was destroyed at Madiun and its leaders, many of whom were instrumental in initiating the boycott of Dutch shipping in Australia and had been political prisoners in the Netherlands East Indies and Australia, were killed or imprisoned.^[2] Following the Madiun incident, the Indonesian independence leadership, free of their communist rivals, were able in time to conclude an agreement with the Dutch in partial fulfilment of their independence goal. With the effective eradication of the PKI, the United States was willing to sponsor Indonesian independence. By threatening to withhold economic aid drawn from the Marshall Plan, the United States was able to rebuff Dutch ambitions of recreating its Netherlands East Indies empire.^[3]

     Two of the leading figures of Asian Airlines, Clarence Hart Campbell and Kenneth Frederick Wong, were communist internationalists before they were businessmen. 'Clarrie' or 'Steve' Campbell, a confidant of the Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley; Gallipoli Cove survivor; ALP organiser; iron worker; industrial chemist; alleged Comintern courier; secret member of the Communist Party of Australia's central committee; and bitumen producer, was at the forefront of the industrial struggle to prevent Dutch-controlled ships sailing from Australian ports in their imperial quest to retake Indonesia.^[4] Campbell had been the honorary secretary of the Indian Seamen's Union in Australia, whose members, even as stateless aliens, defied Dutch guns and Australian laws in their refusal to work as sailors under a Dutch flag of war. Without this continuing Indian resolve, the longstanding boycott of Dutch shipping, and perhaps even Indonesian independence, may have been in jeopardy. It was believed that Campbell's efforts to support the Indian seamen's mass refusal and desertion of Dutch ships maintained the wavering Australian boycott after many of the Indonesian seamen were repatriated to republican-held Indonesia.^[5]

     The Australian Labor government assisted the Dutch military effort to re-conquer Indonesia through the supply and provisioning of food and supposed 'non-military' equipment.^[6] Nevertheless, Prime Minister Chifley seemed to believe that the Dutch would fail to secure Indonesia.^[7] Following the Japanese invasion, occupation, defeat, and the emergence of an armed Indonesian independence movement, to the chagrin of both the Hague and Whitehall, Australian troops were not sent to assist the Dutch military campaign of renewed empire.^[8] During the ceasefire between the Dutch occupying forces and the Indonesian nationalists, Clarrie Campbell travelled from Singapore to the Indonesian nationalist headquarters in Jogjakarta where he delivered a speech over Independence Radio. In the speech, which was beamed back to Australia, Campbell urged the forging of trade links between the embryonic Indonesian republic and Australia. According to his surviving papers, Campbell had been appointed the Indonesian trade representative in Australia by the Indonesian republican government.^[9]

     The Australia-Indonesia Trading Company was established in Australia when Campbell returned to Sydney. It was rumoured that the trading company, of which Campbell was managing director, would secure a monopoly of the Indonesian trade if the Indonesian republicans gained complete control of Indonesia. Campbell addressed a Sydney meeting of the Commercial Traders Association in October 1947 where samples of tea, cutlery, rubber, kapok, pepper, cinnamon, and other items from republican Indonesia were displayed. Campbell stated that Indonesia required 100,000,000 pounds worth of goods including machine tools, agricultural implements, and food stuffs. He claimed that the Australian government was favourably disposed to trading with Indonesia. Charged with the responsibility of promoting trade between Australia and the emerging nation of Indonesia, Campbell sought the means or a vehicle by which this trade relationship could occur.^[10]

     Campbell's association with the Indian seamen in the boycott of Dutch shipping as well as his organising abilities for the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) led him into a political and commercial operation with Fred Wong. An Australian-born Chinese, Wong was president of the Chinese Youth League, treasurer of the Chinese Seamen's Union, and one of the six members of the 'Direct branch, Chinese' of the CPA. In the first days of the boycott of Dutch shipping, Chinese seamen walked off ships throughout Australian ports in solidarity with their Indonesian brethren in the cause of Indonesian independence.^[11]

     Wong helped to organise rallies and demonstrations in support of Indonesian independence from Dutch imperialism. The Chinese Youth League, with support from the Chinese community, provided food and accommodation for Indonesian seamen and other Indonesians who were victimised by the Dutch authorities in Australia. The Chinese Seamen's Union and the Chinese Youth League during this period also raised funds and aid for the Chinese communist forces in the Chinese civil war which broke out soon after the Japanese surrendered unconditionally in September 1945.^[12]

     Australian intelligence files described Wong as the most active communist among Australia's Chinese community.^[13] A Leichhardt green grocer, Wong's patriotism, commitment to anti-fascism and international solidarity had been forged in the Port Kembla Pig Iron Strike of 1938-39. During that strike, he organised truckloads of fruit and vegetables donated by Chinese shopkeepers and market gardeners to be delivered to striking wharfies and their families when they refused to load pig iron onto the tramp steamer Dalfram. The pig iron was destined for the armouries of Kobe where it would be forged into bullets and bombs to kill Chinese in Japan's undeclared invasion of coastal China.^[14]

     In 1942, when stranded Chinese seamen refused to crew foreign ships in Australian ports because of their appalling wages and working and living conditions, Wong and other leading members of the Chinese Youth League, with the assistance of the Seamen's Union of Australia and the Waterside Workers' Federation, founded an Australian chapter of the Chinese Seamen's Union. This local chapter was unofficially recognised by the Australian Labor government.^[15] In the formation of the Chinese Youth League and the Chinese Seamen's Union, Wong attempted to build a form of international proletarian solidarity within Australia. Throughout the war years the Chinese Youth League organised concerts and operatic performances by Chinese seamen, musicians, singers and dancers to raise funds and subscriptions for war widows and orphans in China, victory loans, and the Doctor Norman Bethune Hospital in Red Yenan.^[16]

     In the immediate post-war period, as militant Chinese seamen and members of the Chinese community supported Indonesian independence and Chinese war refugees, the Chifley Labor government sought to repatriate forcibly all Chinese who were not citizens or did not hold long-term residency in Australia.^[17] Wong and the Chinese Youth League were in the forefront of this struggle against the exclusion of their compatriots from white Australia, whose collective efforts to end Japanese militarism in the Pacific were forgotten.^[18]

     Wong and Campbell's commitment to the liberation of Indonesia and possibly British Malaya was realised in their expectation of creating an independent air freight service between Australia and two Asian nations-in-the-making. Asian Airlines was seen by both as the means to achieve this end. The commercial origins of Asian Airlines are obscure and complicated. In December 1945, a Sydney entrepreneur, O.K. Kennedy, discussed the issue of trade between Australia and the Far East with E.V. Burgoyne, an ex-AIF officer and the Australian agent of a Hong Kong trading company. Kennedy told Burgoyne he proposed to buy Catalina aircraft from the RAAF disposals at Rathmines and convert them into air freight carriers.^[19]

     Kennedy advertised in the Sydney Morning Herald for ex-RAAF pilots, engineers, and radio operators to work in an overseas air freight service. G.C. Brickwood, J.O. Diggins, V.M. Trevitt, E.V. MacDonald-Brookes and J.R. Garemyn responded to Kennedy's offer, giving him 300 pounds each to purchase the Catalinas.^[20] Kennedy continued to ask the ex-servicemen for money. He finally admitted to Burgoyne that he never purchased the aircraft but merely held options over them. The Disposals Commission pressed Kennedy to complete the sale, but he abandoned the venture. In June 1947, Burgoyne spoke with Jack Wells, a leading communist party member, about the options on the aircraft. Wells introduced Burgoyne to Campbell, who agreed to buy the aircraft, with Burgoyne dependent upon the capital Campbell contributed. Campbell purchased the aircraft on option in Kennedy's name. On 29 July 1947, Campbell registered the partnership under the Business Names Act as 'Asian Airlines'. Dissatisfied with the lack of progress, lack of capital, and Campbell's waywardness, Burgoyne withdrew from the company.^[21]

     By January 1948, Campbell converted the airline into a public company registered as 'Asian Airlines Pty Ltd', with a share capital of 25,000 pounds. Campbell was the Managing Director of Asian Airlines, and the company's office was in a Haymarket building rented to the Chinese Seamen's Union and the Chinese Youth League. The partners of the new company were Campbell, Fred Wong, Lewis Wong, W.J. Lee and the remaining ex-servicemen. Lewis Wong was the secretary of the Chinese Seamen's Union and a communist, while W.J. Lee was the barrister of the Chinese Seamen's Union. Fred Wong and Clarrie Campbell were the company's majority shareholders, while Chinese gardeners, restaurant proprietors, and merchants held small numbers of shares.^[22]

     Although a manufacturer of bitumen, supplier of lubricants and oils to the NSW railways, and a nominal part-owner of Marx House, the Sydney headquarters of the Communist Party of Australia, Campbell by himself was unable to raise the capital for the purchase of these sea-planes. Although the precise circumstances are unknown, Campbell's associations and commitments drew him to Wong. Through their deep involvement in the support of Asian independence from European imperialism, they formed Asian Airlines.

     Wong, as the treasurer of the Chinese Seamen's Union, was rumoured never to have held bank accounts in the name of that organisation.^[23] Never faulted for embezzlement or corruption, Wong was scrupulous in his dealings with the financial affairs and welfare of Chinese seamen. Whether the 25,000 pounds raised to form the company came from Campbell, the Chinese Seamen's Union or sympathisers in the Communist Party or the Chinese community is unknown. The intelligence files simply list the shareholders of Asian Airlines and their number of shares.^[24]

     Campbell rather than Wong was responsible for purchasing eight of the aircraft and securing a licence to operate an air-freight service from Australia to Southeast Asia. The repair and conversion of the planes was left to inexperienced ex-servicemen who held minority stakes in the company.^[25] It would seem that Wong was simply the key financial vector for the airline. The brief existence of Asian Airlines occurred in the period after the first Dutch Police Action in Indonesia and Sukarno's defeat of the Indonesian communist resistance at Mediun. It was during this period that the boycott of Dutch shipping in Australia waned. The Indonesian republic appeared to be on the verge of collapse as the Dutch blockade tightened. Anti-communist forces inside the Australian Labor Party and Australian trade unions were demanding an end to the boycott. Food and medical supplies from Australia carried by Dutch shipping helped to consolidate the Dutch presence in the archipelago. Asian Airlines was created not primarily as a profitable business undertaking, but as a way of building the economic viability of the infant Indonesian republic through a tenuous trade link which would attempt to break the Dutch cordon sanitaire. Campbell believed, however, that Asian Airlines was viable. Such a belief was based on political commitment rather than business acumen. Asian Airlines' viability was never tested as the company was scuttled by government fiat and public controversy, fuelled by intelligence interference within Australia. Among the shareholders, only Campbell and, to a far lesser extent, Wong, were active in the operations of the airline. From the time it was listed as a public company, Asian Airlines faced insurmountable difficulties.

     Asian Airlines was depicted in the press as a communist front organisation that would aid the rebels in Indonesia and British Malaya.^[26] The Federal Labor Attorney-General, Doctor H.V. Evatt, believed the story of 'the communist trading company to be an elaborate hoax'. For Campbell, Asian Airlines would offer the possibility of breaking the Dutch blockade, ending the Indonesian republic's isolation and hastening trade between Australia and an independent Indonesia.^[27] It was accused of being a potential trafficker in drugs, specifically opium. Campbell's involvement in Asian Airlines was seen to be deeply suspicious. His friendship and associations with Chifley, Eddie Ward, and the boycotters, were all depicted as bordering on the criminal.^[28] Australian, American and Dutch intelligence, active throughout the boycott of Dutch shipping in Australia, provided information to the press which condemned Asian Airlines.^[29] The company's operations manager for a mere three months, ex-RAAF wing commander, V.B. Littlejohn, OBE, believed Asian Airlines' activities were 'highly unorthodox, if not illegal'. Littlejohn stated that C.H. Campbell intended to supply army radios and radar equipment to the 'Indonesian republicans who were fighting Dutch imperialism.' Campbell allegedly told Littlejohn he could 'obtain what was required without much difficulty'. Campbell believed ferrying military equipment to Indonesia by air remained the difficulty.

     Campbell had visited Malaya at the same time as L.L. Sharkey, the Australian communist leader, and had later entered Indonesia illegally. He toured the country and broadcast over Jogjakarta radio that Australia must stand firm in its boycott of Dutch shipping so that Indonesia could win its independence. Campbell claimed in conversation with Littlejohn that he had arranged for Lake Bota near Jogjakarta to be excavated for the landing of flying boats. Campbell explained to Littlejohn that he would be given a permit to fly to Indonesia and Malaya 'because I know enough about a certain Minister of the Crown and some of the others too, to get anything I want out of them when I want it.' V.M. Trevitt, an ex-RAAF pilot and shareholding employee of the company, stated that Campbell twice suggested that he should fly a Catalina to Singapore and make a bogus forced landing at Lake Bota to deliver medical equipment to the Indonesians. After talking to Littlejohn, Trevitt refused.^[30]

     Subsequent to the first Dutch Police Action against the Indonesian republic, the Australian boycott of Dutch shipping was attacked by the Liberal Opposition and Australian importers and exporters as both a communist plot and a brake on Australian trade. It was seen as a threat to the Australian Labor Party by right-wing unions and anti-communist forces. The boycott supposedly demonstrated that communists were dictating Australian foreign policy, as well as supporting Asian rebels in Indonesia and Malaya.

     Members of Asian Airlines' ground crew finally left because the company's finances were largely non-existent, as well as pressure from the security services. The civilian air authorities in Canberra and Singapore refused to permit the airline to make flights between Australia, Indonesia and British Malaya, effectively making the company unviable. Pilots could not be recruited. The aircraft could not be made flight-worthy as cargo carriers because of a lack of funds and spare parts. Because of the furore of the communist connections to Asian Airlines, Campbell was a marked man and his relationship with Chifley was severed by the Prime Minister. The other principal investor, Wong, was largely preoccupied with the course of the civil war in China. He still supported the boycott, although it was faltering, and was concerned about the repatriation of war-time Chinese refugees from Australia, many of whom were militant Chinese seamen. Instead of purchasing eight Catalinas from the Disposal Commission, only three were actually acquired and moored at the RAAF depot at Lake Boga, Victoria.^[31]

     In early August 1948, Campbell was in Singapore attempting to convince civil aviation officials of his plan to start an Australian air freight service covering the Far East from a base in Singapore. At the same time, Wong travelled to Lake Boga to inspect the aeroplanes the company had purchased. Wong was assisting a recently hired Asian Airlines employee, ex-RAAF flight engineer, Frederick Taylor, in repairing the tail of one of the Catalinas. They were carrying out these repairs in a metal dingy when it capsized and both Taylor and Wong fell into the lake. Taylor swam three metres to one of the Catalina's open portholes. He assumed that Wong was behind him. Wong disappeared into the water; Taylor tried to rescue him but failed to find him. Wong's body was later recovered by a local fisherman and the coronial inquiry into the circumstances of Wong's death concluded that he accidentally drowned.^[32] Wong's accidental death was never raised in the federal parliament or the press even though he was the leading shareholder in an alleged communist front company. The Chinese community in Sydney, among which Wong was respected as a political activist, was silent about the circumstances of Wong's death because of the forced evacuation of Chinese war-time refugees and the fear of government repression. The war-time unity within the Australian nation was vanishing with the onset of the Cold War.^[33]

     Asian Airlines effectively died when Fred Wong drowned. The books of the company have apparently been lost to history. After Wong's death, Campbell moved to live permanently in Singapore where his bitumen business built roads on the Malayan mainland during the Emergency.^[34] Whatever his former beliefs and aspirations, he became a wealthy Australian expatriate in Kuala Lumpur during the Cold War.^[35] While Indonesian independence was eventually won, Asian Airlines became a lost and forgotten episode in the Australian Cold War. Wong's drowning and Campbell's retreat to Malaya represented both Asian Airlines' finality and futility in attempting to operate a business that was even a minor affront to global capitalism in the emerging Cold War.