The Cruise Of The

" Felicie "

Some Corrections By The Owner

Letter to the Editor T NOTICED in your January issue the lucubrations of your special corres pondent at Tulagi, under the caption “A Non-Paying Enterprise—A Visitor from the Seychelles.” * He says: “The Felice is of no parti cular rig, etc.” The name is spelt Felicie and she is ketch-rigged according to her registry. This you can verify by looking in the signal-letter book where you will find her name next to the Buranbah.

Her signal letters are V.S.D.J.

He says that her foremast was badly sprung. This is news to me and the cap tain. If your correspondent’s eagle eye noticed this it is curious that he could not read her name correctly.

He next says: “The owner, Mr. H.

Parsons, an Englishman of birth and education, etc.” This is very kind of him. although how he found it out is beyond me, as none of us on board ever met him, at least to our knowledge.

He goes on: “They called at Singapore, Kavieng, and Rabaul. According to their story, they were given no work and were on the point of starvation.” The last sentence is absolutely false. We did a freight at Kavieng and we freighted out of Rabaul for a month. We were not on the point of starvation—unless your

correspondent considers running out of tinned meat constitutes this.

He says that we' took three months to get from Rabaul to Tulagi. We took a week to get to the Shortland Islands. We stopped there about two weeks, and took four days from that place to Tulagi.

Next follows this piece of news: “After a week in Tulagi, where they got no work and scant hospitality, they left once more for the African coast.” We got no work in Tulagi, it is true. As for the hospitality, perhaps he speaks for himself on this point. I can only say that the people of the Solomons were most hospitable, especially in the Short lands, where Mr. Sutton and Mr. Seaton were most kind and most hospitable.

The part of the sentence about the African coast is most interesting. Either the captain was drunk, and set the wrong course, or the compass went on the blink, as we found ourselves back in Rabaul.

Your correspondent continues: “Mr.

Parsons, the owner, said that native con ditions in the Solomons were extraordin ary ... He was astounded with the lack of discipline and general velvet-glove system.” I said nothing at all about this —but I agree with him, all the same.

He goes on; “What surprised him more than anything were the number of Chinese in Tulagi.” It did not. I knew how many Chinese there were in Tulagi, from perusing the Colonial Office List.

Your correspondent finishes up with with: “Seychelles was a prosperous and industrious group of islands of 40,000 inhabitants. There was plenty of work

and labour and good conditions, etc.” He should have said Seychelles was a poor and lazy group of islands with 30,000 people. There was no work and poor conditions.

His letter to you was nearly as good as that which was published about us by a Singapore paper, whose correspondent said that the Felicie was a three-masted schooner, and we anchored on the Line! (In the middle of the Indian Ocean, I presume.) I am, etc..

Kokopo, T.N.G., 20/3/1937.

The engagement is announced of Miss Myra Ayson, daughter of Judge Ayson, Resident Commissioner of the Cook Islands, to Mr. Noel Rodgers, of Palmer ston North, N.Z. Miss Ayson is the elder daughter of the Judge and Mrs. Ayson, and has been in charge of the dental clinic in Palmerston North.