Handling Scala exceptions from ListTopicsCommand in Java

[sggraham]

Hi All:
I am trying to programmatically create Topics from a Java client.

I am using a suggestion from 
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16946778/how-can-we-create-a-topic-in-kafka-from-the-ide-using-api/18480684#18480684

Essentially invoking the CreateTopicCommand.main().

        String [] arguments = new String[8];
        arguments[0] = "--zookeeper";
        arguments[1] = "localhost:2181";
        arguments[2] = "--replica";
        arguments[3] = "1";
        arguments[4] = "--partition";
        arguments[5] = "5";
        arguments[6] = "--topic";
        arguments[7] = "someTopicName";

        try{
                CreateTopicCommand.main(arguments);
        }catch(Exception e){
                System.out.println("Topic someTopicName exists.");
        }

This code works fine the first time it is run (i.e. the Topic does not yet 
exist).

Unfortunately, when this is run a second time, an exception is thrown from 
Scala that the Java catch block DOES NOT CATCH!

I tried using the ListTopicsCommand, but there is no boolean response to verify 
if the topic already exists.

Any suggestions?

thanks
sgg