Madang Is Clean
pp. 45-46 · Read in the full issue
Again
rOM an Australian officer, a former resident of New Guinea, who has been engaged on the job of restor ing Madang (after it was re-taken from the Japs) and establishing a base there: “Believe me, this has been a man-size job. In the beginning, there were only ruins. The Jap, as usual, had- done noth ing in the way of construction or road building, and our bombing, over many months, had been heavy and accurate.
The place, as I first saw it, was just a stinking ruin—the Jap had left every thing in an insanitary state, as he usually does when he vacates.
“However, the job has been done, and order has been restored. The roads have been re-covered, and the place is looking clean and wholesome once more.
“The old cricket oval was found with the concrete pitch intact, and is now in daily use for sports of all kinds.
“Horrible Experience”
“QOME of our fellows have had a rather >5 horrible experience. One of our units set up its camp in Madang’s former Chinatown —which had been obliterated —all but the concrete floors.
After about six weeks, some of the Chin ese, who had been rescued from the Nips further on, returned to Madang, to inspect their former homes.
“After probing around for a while—it was difficult to locate the sites of former buildings—they began to dig. Our fel lows got interested and hung around. The Chinese then unearthed various sums in silver, which they had buried before the blitz; and neither the Nips, who had been here in swarms, nor our fellows, who had literally lived on top of it, had sus pected its presence. Some of our bright est boys have been depressed ever since.”
The R«v. Father W. Hagen, American born member of the Society of the Divine Word Mission, Northern New Guinea, was recently in Melbourne conducting an ap peal for the mission. He spent 14 months in the Wewak area after the Jap occu pation; was later captured by the enemy and taken to Hollandia, from where he and others were rescued last April.
M. Lambert, a French Judge, has been assigned to the New Caledonian judicial
service. He will replace M. Jeanson, who has been transferred to Tahiti.
The Rev. W. Green, chairman of the Methodist Mission in Fiji, is in Australia at present on a six months’ furlough.
He is accompanied by Mrs. Green. Dur ing his absence, Mr, W. S. Pidgeon, of Taveuni, will act in Suva.