Jungles

The Ng Patrols

Good Work in the Jungles

A TIMELY word from a former well known resident of New Guinea:— “The newspapers in these days carry much about the courage and initiative of the AIF, the AMF, the Americans, and so forth—all thoroughly well deserved— but I do not think nearly enough recog nition is being given to the splendid ser vice rendered by the New Guinea Patrolmen.

“These are the men with the know ledge of the country and of how to use the country and the native workers, and it is they more than anyone else who deserve credit for the Japanese set-backs along the north-eastern coast of New Guinea. That hiding inflicted on the Japs at Milne Bay was by no means the first they had had in that quarter. Wait until the. story of operations at Sala maua and the Markham Valley can be told—and great kudos then will go to the members of the NG Patrol.

“When the Japs landed at Gona and Milne Bay, all our calamity-howlers insisted that these ‘marvellous Jap jungle-fighters’ would find their way through the bush and the mountains to Port Moresby. But it was not the Japs who conquered the problems of the jungle and the mountains—it was the Australians. They were the real jungle fighters, and it was the Japs who col lected all the hurry-up about the place.

And I’ll bet my last bit of twist that the men of the NG Patrols were right in the front line of all those operations.

“I wish I could tell your readers some of the things accomplished by the Patrol men in New Guinea and New Britain; but I suppose it will have to wait until after the war,”