A Nazi And His

Money

DOCTOR Steglitz arrived in New Heb rides in the earlier days of Hitler’s rising fame (1934). He was collect ing curios, he said, for a Berlin museum, and was also interested in native lan guages and folklore. He could drink with the best (or worst) of us; and when it came to his turn, he could stand up and treat us to a German love song.

He never seemed to “shout”; but he would pay a Fila Island boy five shillings for a few words of the local dialect. We considered this a wilful waste of money and would have been willing to discover enough native words for him to build a New Hebrides Webster’s, if he would only roll out the barrel.

When Thompson was going out, very sick with fever .and stoney broke, he told the Doc. that he had a few Santo curios to sell, including a Kanaka skull.

When the Doc. saw the skull he beamed and said, “I gif you twenty for him.”

Thompson thought twenty francs— then worth about six shillings—rather light, considering the trouble he’d had getting the damned thing; but, as beg gars cannot be choosers, he accepted.

When the Doc. drew out his roll and counted out francs to the tune of £2O Thompson nearly had a fever relapse.

He “threw” the Doc. a bow and arrow, a club and a few grass skirts as a kind of backsheesh, and made haste aboard the steamer.

Several months later something of the Doc’s real mission in life became apparent. Several inhabitants of the group received through the post a par cel of Nazi literature, printed in Eng lish and German. It contained photo graphs connected with the Hitler Youth Movement; and, to an extent, advertised Germany as a tourist resort. Other

pamphlets had a political trend.

D.