France

"Victims" Of Free

How Internees Suffer in New Caledonia

From Our Own Correspondent NOUMEA, August 6.

THE number of anti-regime internees now in New Caledonia can be counted on the fihgers of both hands.

Half a dozen of them have just been moved from Camp Est, on He Nou, to Freycinet Island, former quarantine sta tion, capable of housing one or two thousand persons.

The few internees are lodged individu ally, under a one-legged guardian. They have a Tonkinese cook and spend a lot of their time fishing.

Two others, in July, were being held at Camp Est, pending investigation by the Noumea Court. One, a Customs offi cial of Teutonic origin, said to have been formerly in the Saar, was found in pos session of tracts and cuttings of a com promising nature from Italian, German and Mexican sources. He is to be exam ined regarding the possession of for bidden foreign currency.

It was found that the Camp Est inter nees were making use at a nearby point

of a cache for letters, which were after wards being smuggled across to the mainland. It was also discovered that the internees had cunningly photo graphed each other, standing behind the only barred window in their dwelling house, intending apparently to smuggle these photographs to friends in Indo china, who would believe that they were living in durance vile under a reign of terror. Whereas, the facts are that they were allowed a considerable amount of liberty, with the right to walk about and go fishing, the use of a radio set and other privileges such as free milk —a commodity for which their guardians have to pay.

Such are the ill-treated victims of our Free French regime! The discovery of their photographs debunked their plans, and made them the subject of laughter.

Mr. Frank J. Stimson, of Tahiti, has been visiting the United States for health reasons. In connection with his recent work in the Austral Islands, he has been working on the material he col lected in Raivavae, and he has also aug mented the Tuamotuan and Raivavaean dictionaries, upon which he has been engaged for some years. Mr. Stimson is research associate in linguistics at the Bishop Museum, Hawaii, and has pub lished several authoritative works.