Gentlemen, The President!

Tahitian Sidelight on a South American Drama

By “Pinaki”

ISOLATED as is Tahiti on the vast expanse of the Pacific, it has more than once been the theatre of dramatic happenings, the roots of which have lain in distant countries. Not the least inter esting of these events was the staging at Papeete, some years ago, of a scene in the drama of South American revolution.

One day, from a responsible source at Paris, a cablegram arrived requesting the despatch of a schooner to Easter Is land to transport thence a company of cinematograph operators to Papeete. The schooner was duly despatched.

When, some weeks later, her return was signalled from Semaphore Hill, a large crowd gathered at the'wharf (as is the Papeete custom) to inspect the new arrivals.

As the schooner tied up at the landing place, the spectators saw come ashore, not a company of photographers, but four dignified Spanish gentlemen whose papers revealed them to be: a general of the Chilean army; a colonel in the same service; a barrister of Valparaiso; and the Chilean Governor of Easter Island.

They established themselves at the Hotel Diadem in the town, where the writer (in his capacity of correspondent of the Associated Press of America) sought an interview.

He was most courteously received by the colonel and barrister, who alone of the four spoke the English language.

He listened, then, to an extraordinary tale of tyranny and corruption, of oppres sion and confiscation, of imprisonments and exile. The barrister, while recount ing the story, became as eloquent as though pleading the wrong of his country before an International tribunal.

An abortive coup d'etat had compelled the colonel and the general to flee to the Argentine. The barrister had been seized and interned at Punta Arenas (in Magel lan Strait) whence, later, he had escaped to join his colleagues at Buenos Aires.

From there, through secret agents in Chile, the three, together with other exiles, had engineered a new revolution.

Report came that all was in readiness.

The military forces in Southern Chile awaited only the arrival of the leaders to raise the standard of revolt. The gen eral, colonel, and barrister went to Men doza, in the Western Argentine, where an aeroplane waited to take them over the Andes. They arrived safely at the city of Concepcion (Chile), headquarters of the Southern Army.

Something had gone wrong, however.

Instead of cheering regiments, the aero plane, on landing, was surrounded by stern-faced gendarmes who seized the passengers and hurried them off to San tiago. the capital. There they were court martialled and condemned to death; but the sentence was commuted to exile and they were sent to Easter Island.

The Governor of Easter Island was a secret member of their party. Together, they contrived to get word to the junta at Buenos Aires, and means for their escape from Easter were arranged through Paris.

A few weeks after their arrival in Tahiti a Chilean warship sailed into Papeete Harbour. This seemed to pre sage a determined effort by the Chilean Government to negotiate the extradition

of the exiles; but nothing of the kind happened.

On the contrary, the next thing we heard of was a banquet at one of the country hotels given by the colonel to the officers of the warship. Rumour had it that at the end of the dinner the colonel delivered a fiery speech; whereon the officers rose to their feet and cheered and hailed him as their next President.

This rumour was confirmed when, sometime later, the colonel and his com panions took passage on the Messageries Maritimes steamer bound for Panama.

The officers of the warship assembled on the wharf, gave the colonel a rousing ovation, and publicly proclaimed him the next President of the Republic. (Continued Overleaf)

Months passed. We heard nothing of the subsequent fate of these heroes of revolution until the United States jour nals announced a new coup d'etat in Chile, which actually had carried the colonel into the Presidency. Then fol lowed a counter-revolution, which de posed the new President and again sent him into exile —this time to the Robinson Crusoe island, San Juan Fernandez.

Of the fortunes of his three companions nothing was ever heard.

Mrs. W. E. Grose, whose husband is a well-known planter and a member of the Legislative Council in New Guinea, and whose home is at Kavieng, arrived in Sydney by the Nellore recently to spend a year’s holiday. She is at present staying with her mother, Mrs. L. F. S.

Hore, of Moss Vale, N.S.W., and will shortly be joined by Mr. Grose.

Miss N. Sudlow, who sailed from Sydney for New Britain by the Macdhui late in August, was married on her arrival at Rabaul early in September to Rev. T. N. Simpson, of the Methodist Mission, who is stationed at New Hanover, off the coast of New Ireland.