Now "Consul

General"

USA Representative in New Caledonia

From Our Own Correspondent

Noumea, June 29.

EMPHASISING Noumea’s new-found defence, economic and political importance, Washington has pro moted US Consul K. de G. MacVitty to be Consul-General here as from June 22.

The vice-consul is Perry Ellis, evacuated from Singapore last April.

It goes without saying that the work of the consulate has increased since Mr.

MacVitty arrived in March, 1941, to set up his consulate in the former Societe le Nickel offices, Rue de la Somme. Then his position was somewhat invidious, for the United States had not recognised and was not for several more months officially to recognise, the Free French Administration in the Pacific Colonies.

Therefore Mr. MacVitty’s attitude at first was, “The least said about me the better.”

He was at Oxford when the last war broke out and then joined and fought with the French Army. It was stated on his arrival in New Caledonia that he had been intended for Indo-China and, only at the last moment, was sent to Noumea, where at the time the ship ping and economic position in a Colony, cut off from its major European market, was difficult, and where Japanese designs were becoming known.

Mr. MacVitty’s varied experience cov ers such widely scattered places as New Zealand, Sofia, Baghdad, Nairobi, Malta, Leghorn, Rome and Amoy (China).