Solomons Nurses Hide in Jungle
p. 40 · Read in the full issue
For Five Months
AFTER spending five months -hiding from the Japs in the jungles of the Solomons, two Melanesian Mission nurses arrived in Wellington late in December. They are: Miss E. Field, of NZ ; , and Miss C. M. Woods, of London.
They escaped into the bush when the Japanese landed at their mission centre on Malaita early in 1942.
“It was a terrible journey through the steamy dense bush and mud,” they said.
They were well off for food, as they took sugar and milk from the settlement and received many gifts from natives. For seven weeks they lived in a bamboo grove, where it rained almost unceasingly.
The nurses said they were never afraid of capture. When the Americans arrived and drove off the enemy they helped at the district’s mission station before com ing to New Zealand.
Wing-Commander W. J. Duncan was awarded the OBE in the New Year Honours List, for distinguished service in the Middle East. Four years ago he was Mr. W. J. Duncan, planter, of Buka, New Guinea; but he joined the RAAF as soon as war came. His father, the well known Captain James Duncan, of New Guinea, has been engaged on hazardous war duties during the past year.