French Anthropologist Safe

M. OSCAR MEYER, a member of the Pacific Islands Society, is now safe, after having been a prisoner of war since the Japanese occupied Indo-China.

A cable received by Mr. Eric Ramsden (now of Wellington, New Zealand, and formerly the Society’s secretary), stated that he was now with the French Military Mission at Kunming, South China, and “free.” M. Meyer did anthropological work in the Marquesas and in New Guinea, and was also known in Tahiti, where he resided for some time. He left Sydney to join the French military forces in Indo-China. For a time he was em ployed by the Australian forces on special duty in New Guinea before the Japanese invasion.

The death occurred in Suva, Fiji, in early February of Mrs. D. G. Canard after a long illness. Mrs. Canard was very well-known in Fiji and had many friends.

Her youngest son, Pilot-Officer Ernie Canard, went away with the Fiji RAF contingent and was later killed in a flying accident in South Africa. Her other son, Harry, is attached to the Public Works Department in Lautoka.

Mrs. C. P. Purcell, who will be remem bered at many Pacific Island Society’s gatherings in Sydney in the early period of the war, is now at Delhi, India. Cap tain Purcell, her husband, has been a prisoner in Japanese hands since the fall of Singapore; he was formerly head of the Education Department in the State of Johore.