America’s Pacific

Tourists Two Points of View

Letter to the Editor I HAVE read with disgust, and very deep regret of the visits to Tahiti of the American cruise-ships, yet I am not at all surprised at what happened.

It will always happen when this sort of expedition appears; and, if the Chinese and others so bilked the tourists as to disgust them with Tahiti and keep them and their ilk from ever coming again, whv that is all very much to the good.

Nothing worse could happen to Tahiti than to be made an objective of these American cruises.

I read with interest, and the keenest sympathy, the comment of my valued friend, Rowland, that the island is “re turning to something like the quiet and peace we knew before the tourist ex ploitation”. That gives me a keen nos talgic pang.

I am, etc.,

Marc T. Greene.

Hong Kong, Feb. 1.

Letter to the Editor YOUR January issue at hand and, as usual, full of good things—calling a spade a spade, hewing to the line, and letting the chips fall where they may.

However, there is one sour note which I cannot help referring to—the squawks of “Our Own Correspondent” in Papeete in regard to Americans, over a long period.

In January issue, he reports the de parture of the American colony and de cries the California bungalows which have been left behind. All well and good; that’s news. But when he launches forth upon the objectionableness of Americans outside their own country, it is something gratuitous and unneeded at this time. Incidentally, this is not the first time your Papeete corres pondent has put in his little dig concern ing Americans.

All of us who have the common Eng lish language have something much more pressing, these days, than saying nasty things about each other, and letting pre judices govern what we write. We have a common enemy—Hitlerism—and un less we are to be swallowed by that msnster, which opposes the democratic way of life, we must have a common understanding. The spleen of your Papeete correspondent toward Americans serves no good purpose at this hour.

Let’s adjourn our pettiness for the present, swallow our dislikes, and try to build up understanding among those who speak English. That will go a long way toward strength in facing what we must in the Pacific.

At least Americans are not Japs.

Neither are they Nazis nor Fascists. The Papeete writer gives the idea that Americans might be more objectionable than Axis thieves. Pettiness such as this defeated France, and it might defeat the English-speaking democracies if we let it flourish.

I have seen objectionable Australians and New Zealanders outside their own countries. I have met up witn objec tionable Englishmen away from home.

I’ve run across plenty of objectionable Americans. Nevertheless I do not suffer from the idea that any of these people were anything more than individuals.

The ratio of objectionable people is about the same the world over, regardless of nationality. It’s just plain human nature

for some of homo sapiens to be offensive.

So why pin it on the millions of others who are decent?

Feed your Papeete correspondent arsenic, for the duration. After that, let him yowl all he wants at Americans.

Tnen it won’t matter. But, in tne mean time, let’s hold our tongues and face the common enemy.

Thanks for the chance to get this off my chest.

I am, etc.,

John Hungerford, Jr.

Reseda, Calif., USA, 3/3/1941.

Editorial Note: Our Californian friend is a little too severe upon our Papeete correspondent—who, also, is a good American, The latter has not anim adverted upon Americans generally— only upon that tourist class which, now and again, comes milling into his be loved Tahiti, and, so to speak, upsets the balance of nature.

The eldest son of Mr. A. M. Gurau, of Apia, Samoa, is apparently a prisoner in German hands. He is a marine en gineer, and his ship was torpedoed in the Atlantic. He was among survivors who reached the French port of Lorient, now in German hands

Rev. J. W. Dixon, of the Teachers’

Training College at Salamo, Papua, is at present engaged in revising the New Testament in the Dobuan language. He intends to retire from active Mission work in the Territory next year.