Moresby Man's Rare Medal

LIEUTENANT Lampo, of Papua, has been in the Brisbane news lately.

Papuans know him as Port Moresby’s dairy farmer, and also as a gentleman of many parts, who could turn his hand to anything with versatility and success.

The Brisbane “Courier” has discovered that Lieutenant Lampo—who is at pre sent serving with an AIF coastal artillery unit—wears a decoration worn now by only two other men. This is the Croix de L’Yser, a medal struck for about 400 Belgians who, in 1914, volunteered to blow the locks of the Yser Canal in order to impede the advance of the German army through Belgium. Only 18 men survived the job and it is believed that only three of them are still living.

The “Courier” states that Lieutenant Lampo, who wears the Belgium Croix de Guerre and the Medaille de Voluntaire as well, came to Australia after the last war, as a Belgian Army liaison officer attached to British units. Later, he went to Papua, where he engaged in cattle raising and mining until the outbreak of the Pacific war.

A large number of women and their children who went to New Zealand from Fiji, last year, have recently returned to the Colony. They expressed their pleasure at being able to return to Fiji.

Mr. A. J. Campbell, the SDA missionary who became well-known in New Guinea for his good work in the Ramu country, is now living in Bundaberg, Queensland.

He got away early in 1942 in a party from the Centre which included Mick Leahy. This SDA missionary praises the Catholic missionary, Father Glover, for the good work he did in those difficult and dangerous days.