Papuan In Abyssinia

AN Australian officer, with four spe cially-selected Australian sergeants, is in charge of the first army of native Abyssinians, which has been formed in the Soudan under the eye of the Emperor, Haile Selassie, and which has now marched into Abyssinia to attack the Italians. It was reported in the newspapers on January 23 that one of the four sergeants is “a rubber planter from Papua”.

Captain A. S. Fitch, well-known head of Steamships Trading Co. Ltd., Port Moresby, returned to Papua recently af ter one of his periodical visits to Aus tralia.

Mrs. P. Coote, wife of the manager of Burns, Philp and Co.’s Rabaul branch, returned to the Mandated Territory re cently after holidaying in Australia.

Mr. W. J. (“Billy”) Candler, one of the best known “knights of the road” in the Pacific, paid one of his periodical visits to Fiji in January.

Mr. J. McAdam, who is well known in Papua as a member of BNG Ltd.’s staff, married Miss Monica Faith Matthews, of Port Moresby, in St. John’s Church, recently.

Tamasese, son of the Samoan high chief of the same name, who was killed at Apia on December 29, 1929, will enter the Central Medical School at Suva early this year to train as a native medical practitioner. The Acting- Administrator (Hon. A. C. Turnbull) announced during his visit to Sydney in January that young Tamasese had quali fied for entry in the ordinary way, and that his admission would be entirely on his own merits. His father, whose mem ory is honoured by Samoans, was one of the leaders of the Mau.

Dr. Giblin, who is to be the new Medi cal Officer there, left Port Moresby, for Kariava (the new oil town that has been carved out of the jungle on the Vailala River, at the back of the Gulf of Papua) on January 11.