Time-Life series Australians At War, Volume 1. In South East Asia the European colonists lived an indolent life while to the north, the Japanese marched hungrily to war. In Singapore and up-country Malaya, there was still time for socialising and for serving officers to deck themselves out in their mess-dress finery for balls and dances, and for their wives to enjoy all the comforts that colonial service and a strong pound sterling could bring. Garrison life was an endless round of parties, parades and presentations at Government House. But with the splendour, there was a blind refusal in London and the Far East to see just how expansionist and bellicose the Japanese really were. Lavishly illustrated with archival black and white photographs and colour reproductions of contempory art.