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Men With Malaria Rejected in New Guinea

From Our Own Correspondent WAU, Feb. 4.

A MATTER which is causing com ment, and some consternation here, is the medical conditions under which volunteers for the Second A.I.F. are handicapped. Men of splendid physique are volunteering, and are being rejected, principally on account of -having traces of malaria in their systems.

One well remembers contingents from almost every malaria-ridden country in the Empire serving in the last war. Why has this malaria scare taken on such a significant aspect now? Is there not a means known to medical science of vir tually eradicating malaria in men who

are urgently needed in their country’s service and who, apart from this one factor, are physically fit and anxious to serve?

It is very discouraging to men, who are eager to serve, to be rejected for an intermittent bout of fever, when in every other respect they are completely fit.

Women pen friends in the Pacific are sought by Mrs. M. Squires, of 60 Park way, Knightsbridge, South Australia.

Mrs. Squires writes: “I should like women pen friends. I have two sons and I am interested in stamp-collecting, knitting, etc. I should like to hear from people who have stamps for exchange."

Rainfall in Suva in 1939 totalled 147.15 inches, or 26.48 above the annual aver age of 120.67 inches. There were 348 wet days during the year, against an average of 247, due to the abnormally long wet season early in 1939.