Measles Kill 1000

Recent Epidemic in G. & E. Colony

THE Resident Commissioner in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, Mr. J. C.

Barley, was in Sydney between March 16 and 20, after a hectic few weeks in the Central Pacific.

He dashed across from Ocean Is. to Christmas Is. at the end of January in his small boat; connected there with H.M.S. Leith (when she was landing a radio party to hold the island for Britain against U.S.A.); and then, before going to Suva, they visited a number of the isolated Phoenix Islands. At one island,

SALAMAUA v. LAE —Article on p. 32.

This article was supplied by a bpecial Correspondent at Port Moresby.

a surf-beat upset, and Mr. Barley was within an ace of being drowned.

Mr. Barley has had a strenuous year.

The Ellice Islanders, early in 1936, caught measles from Fiji, and their is lands were promptly quarantined. But the natives somehow broke through, and carried the infection on to the Gilbert Group, through which it rushed like wild fire.

The Administration officials worked for many months to get rid of the dis ease. It is gone now; but it is estimated that 1000 Gilbert and Ellice Islanders died in 1936 from measles.