Deportee From N. Guinea

And Insurance Company's Guarantee

WHEN Mr. Roy Delbridge arrived in Sydney from Wau, New Guinea, in April, as a deportee, he told the newspapers an extraordinary story.

He said that he had been engaged by a New Guinea goldfields company, and the company put up the necessary £3O guarantee to enable him to enter the Territory. It then took out a guarantee policy with an insurance company, and the premiums paid in connection there with were deducted from his wages.

After three months at Wau, he lost his job. He could not get another job, so he decided to return to Australia and he applied to the insurance company, to arrange his passage back to Sydney, in terms of the guarantee.

The company, he said, told him that it was a matter for the Administration.

The district officer, as a representative of the Administration, said that nothing could be done about it. Delbridge said that he had no money and was desper ate, and he appealed to the officer in charge of the police at Wau. The po lice officer said he could no nothing unless Delbridge had committed an of fence. Delbridge thereupon made a de claration that he was destitute. This declaration was brought under the no tice of the police, and he was formally arrested and charged with being a vag rant. As a vagrant, he was liable to a sentence of 12 months’ imprisonment; but the police, acting sensibly in the circumstances, deported him to Austra lia.

The Minister in Charge of Territories called for a report on the case.