A Professor and His
p. 28 · Read in the full issue
"Rotten" Little Book
Letter to the Editor 1 EXPECT you have come across, often enough, the picturesque fantasies of Islands life, as portrayed in the writings of novelists. However, it seems a disquieting factor when reputable writers of serious literature plunge into unguarded assertions about the inhabi tants of these islands.
Thus, Professor Joad, in his book, “Why War?”, one of the Penguin Spe cials which has had a remarkable sale during the past year, makes this state ment; “The natives of the South Sea Islands did not resist the white man. but the fact that they did not, did not prevent them from being transformed from noble savages into fifth-rate imi tation Europeans, sodden with gin and rotten with syphilis.”
I have been here nearly three years, and my experience of South Sea islanders is limited to parts of Fiji; but, from conversations with old-timers, I have gathered that the “noble savage” of certain historians is rather a myth and, from personal observations, I should not consider the race either rot ten or sodden.
However, if space for correspondence in your excellent journal could be snared, it would be interesting to learn whether readers, with longer and wider experience of these regions, consider that there is any justice in Professor Joad’s comment.
I am, etc..
R. L. Crampton.
Labasa, Fiji. 29/2/1940.
Editorial Note: This was not a state ment by “a reputable writer of serious literature”. Few people, if any, ever have heard of Professor Joad; and his statement about South Sea natives is typical of those rotten little catch-penny books (to use his own expressive adjec tive). This writer personally knows every South Sea territory, from New Guinea right across to Tahiti, and the professor’s description could not be applied, in any degree, to even one of the South Pacific Islands communities, which have made remarkable progress under Anglo-French-American control.
Mr. McGill Brown has succeeded Mr.
Humphrey at the Wau branch of the Bank of N.S.W., New Guinea.
Mr. Frank E. Chase, an Englishman, who settled on Norfolk Island 12 years ago after having been in business In South Africa and New Zealand, died at NX recently. He was 77 years of age.