Cash Elusive

Papuans' "Impressment" Orders

WHEN bombs began to fall regularly in Port Moresby, and military officialdom made it clear that civi lians would be cordially farewelled, store managers were faced with a pretty prob lem They were in charge of thousands of pounds worth of merchandise—what could they do with it in an evacuation?

Some was looted, some was destroyed, some was taken by the military authori ties under “impressment”, and most was stored away, in the slender hope that, it may be kept safely, and restored to cir culation when the invaders are driven off.

The store managers leaped with joy when they got impressment orders—the army wanted the goods, the Common wealth would pay, and their worries were partly solved. Actually, their worries were just commencing.

One well-known Port Moresby com mercial man, who arrived in Sydney with a pocketful of impressment orders, de clares that he has been referred, in vain, to every Federal Department in the city; and now he thinks that, if he is ever to get the Commonwealth cash, he must go to Canberra and roost indefinitely on the steps of the Treasury.