"German Submarine"

By “Amel”

IT was just after the outbreak of war, and rumours were flying thick and fast.

“This one reached me through the medium of the Fijian Bush Wireless”, said our neighbour’s wife.

Mentally extracting a grain from the salt cellar, I gave my attention to the tale. It was certainly very interesting.

The Fijian who circulated it had not lacked imagination with which to embroider the details.

It seemed that nothing less than a German “submarine” had appeared from nowhere and anchored off a village on the east coast of the island. Oh, yes, it was a submarine. . . No doubt about that. It was long and grey, and had a conning-tower. And it must have been German, because the crew could speak neither English nor Fijian!

They rowed ashore in their dinghy (!), and made signs to the Chinese store keeper that they wanted tins of meat and biscuits. Then they rowed back to their “submarine” and went aw ly. Of

course, they submerged. All the Fijians who were watching saw them submerge!

Next, the “submarine” —which had by now become famous—bobbed up outside the Government Station, several miles along the coast. But the most import ant officials were absent, and only returned in time to see the “submarine” heading out to sea again.

The DC. the PM, the DMO, and all the other local abbreviations piled into the Government launch and gave chase; but the “submarine” was too swift, and eluded them. They could see it vanish ing in the distance.

“Isn’t it a thrilling tale?” asked our neighbour’s wife, when she had finished it.

“Yes,” I agreed. “It’s a real credit to the Fijian Bush Wireless. But I would like to know what the ‘submarine’ really was.”

Next day. our curiosity was satisfied.

It was a Japanese fishing launch from Suva.

Two sections of the Papuan Adminis tration—the Department of Native Affairs and the Government Secretary’s Depart ment—have been combined and hence forth will be under the direction of the Papuan Government Secretary, Hon H. W. Champion. The Native Affairs Department was established when the territory was first being settled, to super vise the policy of contact between

European employers and native labourers —a job nowadays involving purely routine work that can be handled by magistrates and patrol officers of the Service.