No "Americon-Soldier

Problem" in Fiji

Praise by Colonel J. E. Workman

THE good friend of countless thousands of American and New Zealand troops, is how Fiji’s Commissioner of Police, Colonel J. E. Workman, has been described.

Recently, as he was returning from a visit to an American military hospital, an American ’corporal standing by the roadside “thumbed a ride” as the colonel’s car approached him. The sol dier asked the cost of a ride to Suva.

“No charge. Hop in,” said the colonel.

The soldier hopped in and, for a while, surveyed the colonel with sidelong glances. He saw a trim, soldierly man in a light blue tropical uniform, a Sam Browne belt and the two silver pips and crown of a colonel in the Colonial Police Service.

Presently he said, “Are you a general?”

“No. I’m a colonel,” he was told.

“Australian or English?”

“English.”

“Shake” said the American. “My pals say you can’t talk to an English colonel —they’re too stuck up.”

And they shook hands.

This story serves as a good example of Fiji-American relations since United States troops first landed in Fiji on Jan uary 29, 1942.

Colonel Workman, who is 46 years old, served in the Army and the Royal Air Force before joining the Colonial Service in 1925. Up to 1937 he was on the West African Gold Coast. He at one time commanded the Fiji Defence Force.

“Friendly and generous,” is how he finds Americans. “There have been no Ameri can-soldier-problems here,” he says. “Co ordination with the US provost marshal, the military police and the shore patrols has been remarkable. We all work together as one group.”

He lauded the welfare organisations which are assisting in supplying the sol dier with something to occupy his leisure time.

“None of these places sells anything alcoholic,” he said, “and Servicemen would rather spend their time in these places than in the few bars we have here in Fiji. These projects are taking large numbers of men off the streets and they are filling a big want in the lives of the fighting men.”