Guest of the Solomon

Folk

South Pacific Base, June 3.

IN one respect the situation in which Lieut. Shields, from Seattle, found himself was ironical.

Only two days before, he had been on a rescue mission, in which he had located some lost airmen who had been living among the natives for a couple of months. He had remarked to his co pilot that it might be a lot of fun to go native for a while. Little did he realise that he would so soon be in the same predicament himself.

And now there he was among the Solomon islanders. Homeward bound, following a long-distance raid, high wind and torrential rain had forced him off his course, until eventually he had run out of gas and been obliged to make a water landing.

After being adrift in his life raft for many hours he eventually made the beach. A brief exploration led him to a village whose inhabitants greeted him kindly and, in their simple way, did what they could to make him comfortable.

Some of them could speak English.

The day following his arival they held a big feast for him in typical native fashion. He found them to be fanatical smokers. They were so fond of their own home-grown tobacco that everyone in the tribe smoked, including children.

Their customs regarding women were not very complimentary to the fair sex.

Their boy friends did not spoil them; in fact, they were made to do all the hard work, while the men looked on. If a man passed along a single path, they were expected to get out of his way, and pronto.

The day arrived when Lieut. Shields

began to feel that they carried their hos pitality a little too far. He gave one of the chiefs a knife, as a present, and the chief, in return, offered him one of his wives. It was an embarrassing moment, for she was no Lamour. He refused, as politely as he could; but the chief became angry, and so to pacify him the pilot had to give him another knife.

Nevertheless, the lieutenant declares he does not regret his experiences, which lasted for a week before he was contacted by a rescue plane and brought back to his base.