Making Way For

The Army

Nissan Islanders Go South

By Harold Cooper

rE people of Nissan Island Cone of the group known as the Green Islands, which lie to the north of Bougain ville and were occupied by Allied forces in February) have made a unique con tribution to the war effffort. They have handed over their island, lock, stock and barrel, and have themselves moved to temporary quarters on Guadalcanal for the duration. By this move much valu able shipping space has been saved, for, had the islanders stayed on Nissan, it would have been necessary to send them regular supplies of food and other essen tials.

The transfer, in which approximately one thousand men, women and children (and, incidentally, one dog) were involved, was carried out in ships provided by the US Navy. Three villages were built on Guadalcanal to receive the immigrants and when they arrived they found blan kets, mosquito nets and other home com forts awaiting them.

It was late in the evening when the reception party waiting on shore saw five LCl’s steaming in line ahead as though they would sweep straight past their des tination. Then the ships made a sudden right-angle turn and, maintaining per fect formation, moved in parallel lines up to the beach. There the five gangways went down as if at the same signal and the Nissan Islanders filed quietly ashore.

IT was no happy occasion for them (the ties that bind Pacific peoples to their land are very strong) but although homesickness was written all over their faces, they made no complaint and the officers whose job it was to settle them in their new villages said they could not have asked for more willing or complete co-operation.

The Islanders brought with them two casualties —a woman and a young girl who had been wounded by bomb splint ers. There were others among them who required medical attention too, for the Japs, during their long occupation of Nis san, had characteristically taken no interest in the health of the Islanders.

On a site centrally situated between the three new villages a temporary hospital had been built and the next morning a Native Medical Practitioner was busy giving injections there. He was joined a day later by a New Zealand doctor from British Headquarters at Tenaru.

When I asked the Headman how it was that this migration had become necessary, he replied simply. “Soldier belong you want place belong me feller.” (“Allied troops wanted our island.”) That was all he said, but there was something in the old man’s voice that made it clear that he well understood the need for this sac rifice in the common cause. Anything that “soldier belong you” suggested was all right by him.

He went on to tell me that the evacua tion had not affected the entire popu*lation of the island. Two hundred able bodied young men had been selected to remain behind as a labour force at the disposal of the Allied Commander.

Miss Doris Downing, who has had 12£ years of service as a missionary with the Anglican Mission, Papua, has volunteered for a further period of service there. The Bishop of New Guinea has accepted her offer.