Fiji's New Colonial

Secretary

THE new Colonial Secretary of Fiji, who is to succeed Mr. Newboult, is Mr. John Fearns Nicoll, who at present is the Deputy Colonial Secretary of Trinidad. He is expected to arrive in Fiji in December.

Mr. Nicoll was bom in 1899, educated at Oxford, saw service in World War I. and went to North Borneo as a Colonial Office cadet in 1920. He became Assistant District Officer in 1922; was transferred to Tanganyika in 1925, and served in the Secretariat there on a number of occasions between 1930 and 1936. He was in the Colonial Office for a time, and went in 1937 to Trinidad, where he filled a succession of important posts, includ ing that of Acting Colonial Secretary.

A puzzle to their American rescuers on New Georgia Island, BSI, eight Chinese were surprisingly healthy and well fed, By contrast, many of the Japanese fight ing there were frail and emaciated. One of the Chinese saluted the Commander of an American Division and proudly an nounced; “Speak English.” Most of them, it appeared, came from Hongkong, and had been doing forced labour for the Japanese since a month after the fall of that city. They included three boys, about twelve years old. Asked why they were so well fed, their spokesman explained, “Me cook for Japs; me feedum all.”