Tropicalities

MEMO from a Solomon Islands planter:— “I heard two of my boys swearing and, suffering for once from a spasm of piety, I took one of the boys aside and told him he must not swear, other wise he would not go to Heaven. The boy answered that he did not care, as there was only one man in Heaven—all the others were Marys.

“When I tried to find his method of reasoning, he produced for my inspec tion a book that had been given to him by one of the missions. It contained a picture of Heaven, in which the Saviour was depicted clearly, and surrounded by a dozen angels—Marys, to the primitive mind.” * * • IT is noted that the Rev. Roger Page, a Methodist missionary, of Tonga, went to Wellington recently to officially represent Tonga at the Conference called by the New Zealand Government to discuss banana quotas. Mr. Page has much influence with the Queen of Tonga. The distinguished Page brothers seem to have a gift for being the power behind the throne. There are three of them. Dr. Earl Page, next to Mr. Lyons, is the most influential man in the Aust ralian Government. Mr. Harold Page is Government Secretary in New Guinea, and acts as Administrator when the head is away. And Rev. Roger Page is as sociated with a whole host of things in Tonga, besides church organisation and bananas. • • • WHILE sensational American news papers gnashed their teeth and howled, and various fat-headed publi cists chanted “The Star-spangled Ban ner”, a small U.S.A. vessel went to Canton Island (already in the occupa tion of British officials, and flying the Union Jack). American officials landed on the island, formally established a station there, and hoisted the Stars and Stripes. It was, in a sense, an act of war, and the excitement of the Press was intense.

The brown and bearded Britishers were not in the least excited. They greeted the invaders warmly and, with a grin, invited them to have some cold beer. The Americans, having finished a hot job on a hot equatorial island, accepted gratefully. The two parties, queer outposts of London and Washing ton respectively, are living amicably on the island.

And that was that.

One is reminded of two other inci dents in Pacific history.

In 1889, British, American and Ger man warships were trapped by a hurri cane in Apia roadstead, and only one, H.M.S. “Calliope”, escaped. As the British ship fought her way out in the teeth of the tempest, the crew of the doomed American ship “Trenton” (they were nearly all dead within an hour) lined the rail and cheered.

In the naval battle in Manila harbour,

between Americans and Spanish, in 1898, there came a moment when an inter ested, onlooking British warship was cleared for action on behalf of tjhe Americans. The battle favoured Uncle Sam, however, and the British, got no excuse to interfere; but the in cident was “front page news” for a few days.

It will take a lot of misrepresentation by the pack of snarling young Com munists who control a large section of American newspapers, to break down traditional Anglo-American friendship in the Pacific. ♦ * « DOES anyone know anything about Clipperton Island?

It appears to be a tiny speck of land in the Pacific, about 700 miles south west of the coast of Mexico. The in formation is sought by Mr. E. C. Lush, of the Hawkesbury Agricultural College, Richmond, N.S.W. The records of Pacific Publications Pty., Limited have failed to meet the request. If any reader of the “P.1.M.” can oblige, please com municate with Mr. Lush. * * * THE following is awarded first prize in any competition there may be for the silliest paragraph published in the Sydney “flapper press” in April:— “Five head-hunting tribes in the wilds of the Papuan jungle are claimed by the Oxford Group as converts. Mr.

Geoffrey Baskett, of the Kwato mission station, who is visiting Sydney, said that in 16 months 3000 head-hunters had been won over. The Oxford Group doc trine was explained in sign language to chiefs of the five tribes. Now sorcerers were apologising to the relatives of

those they had put to death. The Ad ministration appreciated the change, and was encouraging the Oxford Group, said Mr. Baskett”.

It is that kind of twaddle that brings the fine work of the mission bodies into ridicule and disrepute.