Stock Photo - 1962 - Aged catholic sisters of Mercy escape from Rebel-Ridden Celebes: When the Dutch KPM ship Swartenhondt was released from Menado b the rebel commander in the Celebes (N. Indonesia) aboard it went nearly two hundred refugees who were finally put ashore at Sorong in New Guinea. Among them were several aged nuns, white robed, who had spent all their working lives in Indonesia, and who found their -cent adventure quite new and even exciting. They were Sisters of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. All had been interned by the Japs in the war. Unlike Catholic priests and monks, the nuns never get home leave once they reach their missionary territory, So it was that this journey outside their adopted land was for them a wonderful experience, and life afloat was perhaps the free-est they had known since they had taken their vows. They stood on deck watching through binocular fed with the other passengers, and industriously sewed and knitled through the day. Asked whether they wanted to fly home to Holland they refused, saying it was a grand opportunity to see the world by ship. The expect to finish their lives in a convent in Holland. Photo shows Sister Imaldina, 64-year old, sits on deck with her companion Sister Basilesa, aged -6 (leaning over the rail). Sister Basilea arrived in Monado 60 years ago ans was taken to the Convent on a bullock cart but her journey to the Swartenhondt she travelled by American limousine. In the Convent her duties were in the kitchen department and the kitchen garden. The Japs took her and other Sisters, in their night cloths to a neighbouring school and made her work for them. They wore forbidden to wear nuns habits during that time. (Credit Image: © Keystone Pictures USA/ZUMAPRESS.com)