of Peace

Link With the Days of Peace Young Fiji Airman Remembered in US

WHEN Mr. Harold Cooper, of the Fiji Information Office, was in Phila delphia during his recent American tour, he was asked by the British Vice- Consul there, a Mr. C. G. Chaplin, whether he knew a young resident of Fiji named Ernie Canard. (P/O E. H.

Canard, RAP, was killed in a flying acci dent in South Africa about two years ago.) Mr. Chaplin had met Canard in the West Indies years ago, and had spent some time with him aboard a yacnt in which they toured some of the out-of-the way islands of the Caribbean.

Later, when Mr. Chaplin and his wife called at Fiji on a Trans-Pacific liner, they visited the Canard home. When Mr.

Chaplin heard of the young man’s death while serving with the Royal Air Force, he offered to send a number of photo graphs taken during the sailing trip in the West Indies to his next of kin. These reached Suva in May. They show Canard as a bronzed and muscular member of the crew of the tiny yacht, the voyage 61 which was described in Eric Muspratt’s book “Going Native.” In a covering letter Mr. Chaplin speaks of the affection in which he was held by his sailing com panions in the West Indies, most of whom also entered the Services when thQ war began. The photographs are being sent to Mrs. Ernie Canard, who was Miss Sybil Monckton, daughter of the former Ad viser on Native Affairs. She is at present in South Africa, awaiting an opportunity to return to Fiji.

Mr. W. Parsonage, a NZ School Inspec tor, recently visited Fiji.