Tropicalities

MANY ports in the Central Pacific Is lands during the next few months should see the 30-ft. ketch “Hispa niola”, which has been built by Mr. Geo.

O Brien, of Sydney, and in which he in tends to sail across the Pacific to San Francisco, with his wife and two small sons. They say that they are in no hurry, and are prepared to spend a few weeks in any Islands port which takes their fancy.

The ketch is only 30-ft. long, but it is well designed, and carries most of the necessary amenities of life. * ♦ ♦ AN era of silliness and irresponsibility, which Is rather worse than usual, has fallen upon the newspaper press of Australia: and when Sir Hubert Mur ray (Lieutenant-Governor of Papua) ar rived here recently on his usual furlough, he was a victim of it. Sir Hu bert travelled on the B.P. boat as an ordinary passenger —as he has been as customed to do these 35 years—and as an ordinary passenger he removed him self and his luggage to the Hotel Met ropole—also his headquarters for many years.

But some bright newspaper reporter heard someone refer to Sir Hubert as “His Excellency”, and he deemed it his duty to point out that it was a shocking thing that a real Australian “Excellency” should be allowed to land in Sydney witn out a brass band to welcome him, and should be permitted to carry his own bag through the Customs shed. Other newspapers took it up, and in no time at all there was quite a clamour. Why had the Lieutenant-Governor of Papua been allowed to land in Sydney, unhon oured and unsung? One can imagine Sir Hubert, who has arrived in Sydney un der similar circumstances on probably hundreds of occasions, glaring in amaze ment at the newspaper headings. The newspapers ran yelping to Canberra. The Minister for Territories (Mr. Harrison) said merely that it never had been cus tomary for the Administrator of Papua or New Guinea to be met officially on arrival in Sydney. Other persons in Can berra announced that “the Territory Ad ministrators rank as ordinary public ser vants when travelling abroad on fur lough”. ♦ ♦ * THERE are signs that the Japanese are turning seriously and savagely to the job of propaganda.

They insist that their motives and their ambitions in regard to Pacific Territor ies generally have been grossly misrep resented: they say that they have no sinister intention so far as other coun tries bordering the Pacific are concern ed ; and they declare that their chief purpose in life is to carry to other be nighted people the fine old culture of Japan.

As part of this propaganda effort the Japanese Government shortly will com mence the publication at Singapore of a propaganda newspaper, in the English language, for wide distribution in the South Pacific, including the South Paci fic Islands, Australia and New Zealand.

The newspaper will be staffed by Japan ese journalists trained in the United States. So if residents in the Pacific Is lands begin to receive an attractive jour nal, in which Uncle Nippon is represent ed as a benign old gentleman, without any teeth, whose sole purpose in life is to do good to the world and make everybody happy, they will understand what it is all about. They must not ex

pect to find in the new Japanese journal anything about the seizure of Manchukuo or the rape Nanking.

HOTEL licensees in Fiji run risks that their brethren in less fortunate countries never dream of. They may not serve liquor to natives unless the natives have a “permit”; but they may serve persons of mixed European and Fiji blood who enjoy European status, The catch is that many Fijian natives, who have a strong Polynesian strain, are light in colour and, when they speak English and dress as Europeans, they easily pass as half-castes.

One such man entered the Melbourne Hotel in Suva recently, and—as he spoke good English and was dressed as a Eu ropean —he was served with beer by the barman, F. C. H. Irvine. But he was a Fijian; ’and so Irvine was brought be fore the police court and although he pleaded ignorance of the man’s true status, and the evidence showed that he easily could have made an error, he was fined £3O.

If the circumstances were as publish ed in the “Fiji Times”, we would say that the punishment did a great deal more than fit the crime—was brutal, in fact. * * * MINERS are miners all the world over and have a code of manners and a language of their own (says a re sident of Misima. Eastern Papua). Thus in this outpost of Papua, every boy in the mine is a “bloody” something or other; and he. in turn, refers to his white boss in the same cheerfully democratic terms.

But they have gone one better in re mote Mambare, and the Yodda. A num ber of boys there, when signing on for service, gave their names as “Silibuga”. and a startled Government official be gan to inquire why.

“Oh, Jimmy So-and-So gave me that name”, said one. Tom Such-and-Such christened another. Bill This-and-That was responsible for a third. “All same very

good name belong me”, volunteered one of the boys, who was being questioned.

I agree—a more appropriate name for the Papuan at large, like the inter national nickname of John Bull, Ps,t, or Sandy, could not be found!