Teritories’ Forgotten Men

Pioneers Ignored, Amid Blurb of "War Correspondents" and Quacking of Publicity-Mongers

NATIVE help has played no small part in the Allies’ success in the New Guinea campaign. But a great deal of hysterical nonsense has been served up with the truth—mostly by “war cor respondents” who have but lately discov ered New Guinea, and are bent now on telling an amazed world of all their reactions.

A series of “human interest” stories has made the world “Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel conscious,” and we have been admon ished to see that the place of the natives in the post-war scheme of things is made secure.

It seems beyond the comprehension of those who have made the acquaintance of Papua and New Guinea only within the past 12 months that there have been Australians, and a few others, there for the last 75 years: that in those years these people learned a thing or two about the country and the natives: that they were thinking people, most of them, and having thought—as well as toiled and sweated and given their best years to their adopted country—they are the best fitted to judge what the future of New

Guinea and its natives should be.

But those whom we Australians elect to Parliament being as they are, it is safe to guess that less notice will be taken of the pioneers than of those who have the ear of a public that has suddenly become conscious—through war—of a country of which they previously knew little and cared less.

IN the December issue ,of the “PIM”

“G.H.V.”, a man whose knowledge of Papua and Papuans is founded on down-to-earth experience, writes the only constructive sense that has been given the public to date. To quote:— “The Papuan has not changed into an angel overnight. He didn’t volunteer to help chase the Jap out of his own coun try; and he obeyed very unwillingly, or perhaps only because, by so doing, his dependants would be fed by the Army. A considerable proportion of our carriers deserted; but otherwise, stoically and ever cheerfully, they have slogged on, keeping the troops supplied with ammu nition. and earning the gratitude of the soldiers by carrying out the wounded on their return trip, sometimes under fire.”

He sums un the character of the native in his advice to the Brigadier: To give the boys all they can eat and smoke now because “the unthinking Papuan’s idea of material advantage is something tan gible on the spot.” He gives the best advice as to their permanent post-war reward in one sentence: “To leave them alone for at least two years.”

ON the other hand, we have A. H. Chis holm writing in the Melbourne "Herald” to say that the New

Guinea natives gave their services, and even their lives, without thought of reward —merely because the milk of human kindness flowed so strongly in their primitive hearts!

Well, maybe they did —and maybe it does —but there are many_ ex-Territories residents who would like *to yell, inele gantly but with one voice, “Oh, yeah!”— and to wonder why our cranky, inexplic able, “me-no-like” kanaka has been endowed suddenly with all the charac teristics of an altrusitic angel.

Another Melbourne “Herald” corres pondent dashes into headlines with “Honest Dealing Pays,” and states that the natives admire Australian bravery and business methods. It may surprise this gentleman to know that these things were known to other Australians some time ago, and that it is no news to them that a native respects a hard, fair bar gain—and bargain-er. We might go further, and state that it was this prin ciple upon which those poor, misguided pioneers tried to found a European policy in Papua. Of course (we are told) Australia’s record in New Guinea has not been noticeably bad —Sir Hubert Mur ray’s administration won the confidence of the natives!

Small wonder if Sir Hubert —who spent a lifetime fighting for the right of his Papuans to live undisturbed in Papua— does not want to leap out of his grave and spit in the eye of such authors of condescension!

Who. in God’s name, we might ask, discovered New Guinea? The army in 1941? War correspondents in 1942?

Mr. Frank Clune —who by his own admission spent six weeks in Papua in 1940, and who since has written an authoritative book on the country— advocates a loan of £10,000,000 to clear land in Papua for demobilised soldiers and munition workers.

WE have heard all about the carriers on the Owen Stanley track. We have also heard of the army’s reac tion to Paoua. But we have heard extra ordinarily little of the original settlers of the Territories. Evidently, they are to be the first draft of this war’s Forgotten Men. At the present moment, they live in Australia, eating out their hearts with impatience to return to their plantations or their businesses: they go by the name of “evacuee,” and therefore have no voice.

Is it too much to suppose, Mr. War Correspondent, that these people—mis sionaries, miners, planters, traders —good men, as well as a few knaves and vaga bonds—have had an influence on the native? Or to attribute the natives’ loyalty over the last year to the fact that in the aggregate this influence has been good? If the Papuan has an innate goodness of mind and character, it has not required an army to discover it—nor newspaper men to give expression to it.

Most Territorians of long experience are agreed about one thing, as far as the native is concerned: That the more cne knows him the more one realises that there are depths—or shallows —in his primitive soul that cannot be reached by civilised beings. Any scheme for his betterment must of necessity be elastic enough to cover this factor and easily adjustable to the requirements of each district and its relative progress.

NO one realised better than the Terri tories’ resident that there were flaws in the administration of Papua and New Guinea. No one pressed harder for reforms than did they. But with what success? Canberra went its own sweet way.

For years, men in the Mandated Terri tory have cried out for stricter control, and amendments of the indentured labour system. But they might as well have saved their breath. Year by year, under a “benign” administration, disci pline among indentured labour became more lax. The Administration was run by Canberra, and Canberra was run by a “White” Australia who could not understand that, nine times out of ten, what we call “generosity” is put down to weakness by a native.

To a native, the acceptance of a gift or a favour is to accept an obligation. It is the custom of his kind, and part of his culture, that he must “back it.”

European-native relationships have been founded on this principle—plus respect.

Indentured to a “master” whom he respects, a native will serve him faith fully for the two or three years of his contract —nurse him in sickness with the gentleness of a woman, accompany him wherever he might go, put up with untold discomforts, and serve him with all of his single-track mind. In return, he expects a sort of combination Solomon doctor-regimental sergeant - major - fairy godmother. When his contract expires he may make another—but as likely as not he will return to his village and for get his late master’s existence or, inexplicably, will make a contract with someone else and serve him as faithfully.

Indentured to someone whom he does not respect—whom he considers weak or foolish —he becomes a pain in the neck.

He will desert if he gets the chance —or go missing for days—will steal and idle away time and be as cheeky, as irritating, arrogant and unreliable as his native wit prompts him to be.

TIED hand and foot by regulations that increased in volume year by year— designed for the most part to pro

tect the native from himself and every other person —the European in the South Pacific Territories found himself increas ingly at a disadvantage; while the cheeky, sophisticated, “shrewd-head” natives were springing up in greater numbers. If anyone needed protection, it was the European who lived there. If the Ter ritories were run by anyone it certainly was the native.

But what of the future? It seems likely that Time is going to do some con siderable marching-on in Papua and New Guinea, and that it will no longer stand still for the natives.

Apparently, these Australian territories and their possibilities, when peace comes, are now giving concern to many where formerly they concerned few; and it is as remarkable as it is unfair, that so little mention is made of those who have lived a lifetime there, and have a stake in those Territories.

Before Tojo and his plague of human locusts made the world New Guinea conscious. Australia’s near-northern pos sessions were —except to the very few thousands of Europeans who lived there —some vague, mysterious places where “black boys,” malaria, gold, coconuts and millionaires abounded. It must come as a shock to many to find that New Guinea has been there since the dawn of history.

IT is still, apparently, beyond the great general public, newspaper correspond ents and Army, to realise that Papua and New. Guinea have been under British rule for some time; that European men have been living, dying and fighting in various parts of that large island during the last century; that it is not an earthly paradise for a few privileged wealthy planters, who sit on shaded verandahs, drinking gin-slings, while black slaves see

that their bank accounts are maintained in satisfactory condition—but a hard, cruel, demanding country, although somewhat beautiful and fascinating, which takes the best that a man can offer before it gives him an adequate return.

No one understands the native’s place in the scheme of things better than does the average Territorian—in peace or war the country is untenable for Europeans without his help. No one better appre ciates the sacrifices, the suffering and the hardships of Allied troops who are now fighting there, or begrudges them the right to settle in the country when peace comes. But it seems neither just nor reasonable to deny these pioneers the credit that is already due to them, and to forget their claims to a life in a country that is of their own creating.—J.T.

Judge A. McCarthy, of the Native Land Court, arrived in Rarotonga in Decem ber after furlough spent in NZ.

Mr. and Mrs. T. L. Iremonger recently arrived in Auckland, New Zealand. Mr.

Iremonger, an Administrative Officer in the Colonial Service in Fiji, has been granted leave for the duration of the war, to allow him to join the RNVR.

Mr. Percy Chatterton, of the London Missionary Society, is on short furlough from his station in Papua. He reports that his native people are facing the difficult conditions of war with a wonderful heart.

He hopes to be able to return to Papua at the end of his furlough.

Flying-Officer Leigh G. Vial, formerly an ADO in the Mandated Territory of New Guinea, was awarded the American Distinguished Service Cross in Septem ber for “outstanding heroism in New Guinea.”