Westbrook

Death of G. E. L.

ALL the adventure and romance which imaginative writers like to associate with life in the Pacific Islands had really been experienced by Mr. George Egerton Leigh Westbrook, who died in Apia, Western Samoa, on January 31 aged 78.

Mr. Westbrooke arrived in Polynesia when a young man; and for years, as sailor, trader, planter, and recruiter he wandered up and down the Eastern Paci nc, from Tahiti and Samoa to the Mar shall and Caroline Islands. About 45 years ago, he settled in Western Sa moa, and from that centre he saw great changes take place in the Pacific Is lands. From the late seventies onward, he met everyone worth meeting in the Central Pacific; he was a keen and in terested observer of men and events; he became involved in

many public move ments (especially the Nationalist Movement in Sa moa, where he was, for a time, in seri ous conflict with the New Zealand authorities); and few men could dis cuss Pacific af fairs as interest ingly as he. He wrote well and copiously, and his articles and stor ies were published all over the world.

He provided pic turesque material for a book, “Gods Who Die’’, publish ed in America early in 1936. He had learned much wisdom in his later years, and his advice, though

not always sought, was always valuable.

His passing is a loss to Samoa.

Mr. Westbrook (left), with Mr. P. Hoeflich, an old German resident of Samoa.