Tropicalities

THE transfer of the 167 natives of Bikini Atoll, to Rongeria Island, has already begun.

Bikini, of course, is the saucer-shaped atoll in the Marshall Islands which the United States Government has chosen for the joint Army-Navy atomic bomb test next Mav. It is assumed that after the tests are' over there won’t be sufficient of Bikini left to worry about. Hence the migration.

The US Government is helping the natives to rebuild their new homes on Rongeria. There will be churches, store houses, a meeting-house and each native will receive as many food trees as he had back home on Bikirl. Concrete cisterns for water catchment will be pro vided —because there is, of course, no water on the low coral islands. * ADMIRAL W. H. P. Blandy, who is organising the atomic bomb experi ment, has had a tough time re cently. He has become the target for thousands of letters from apprehensive people who feel that atomic bombs are best left alone. To quiet some of their fears he has made the following statement about the things the bomb WON’T do: — • The bomb will not kill half the fish in the sea and poison the other half so that all the people who eat fish hereafter will die of poisoning. • It will not start a chain reaction in the water, converting it all to gas and letting all the ships on all the oceans settle to bottom. • It will not blow out the bottom of the sea, thus letting all the water run down the hole. • It will not cause an earthquake. • It will not push up new mountain ranges. • It will not cause a tidal wave. • It will not destroy gravity.

EVERY Cook Islander is well aware that among various other “shalt nots,” he may not keep rabbits —they are strictly forbidden. There is, however, a local tradition that in the Days of Hayes some misguided wight accepted from “Bully” a litter of young bunnies, and raised these to adult size. Then, trouble began!

The released rabbits, according to their custom, ate up every growing thing they saw; attacked orange trees (for the bark) and were getting a taste for palm bark, too, when at last the island, aroused to the danger of the innovation, made a concerted drive against the invaders.

After several weeks’ intensive rabbit hunting, they were “liquidated.” And they’ve never been replaced. This is a chapter of local historv that never got publicity; and Mangaia “keeps it dark” still.—E. G. * BRIDES, near-brides, mothers of toddlers and infants-in-arms—Bl9 of them, all Australasian and all be longing to American Servicemen, invaded Suva on the morning of February 22. when bride-cum-stork-ship “Monterey” called there for a few hours en route to San Francisco.

They overwhelmed shops, searching for merchandise long rationed in Australia and New Zealand; bought curios (but not as lavishly as their American husbands had done); plucked the hibiscus from

roadside shrubbery and decorated them selves a la Polynesienne; draped them selves on coconut trees and among the local scenery and photographed one another: and then returned to the “Mon terey” hot, sticky, and full of plunder, and the joy of having visited the tropics —which, as everyone knows, are full of romance, adventure and strange “foreigners.”

The ship—and the brides —later went on to Honolulu, where the brides were permitted to lean on the rail and look —but not to land. The New Zealand con tingent was not permitted to land in Syd ney, either, the reason given being that they were travelling under American Army care, and that in a large, strange city, they might get themselves into trouble.

Presumably the US Army considers Suva to be safe and respectable.

Suva has seen many tourist ships, in its day. But never before had it been invaded by hundreds of young females— glamour girls, hand-picked by the Yanks who take some pride in their accomplish ments in this direction.

Fiji will probably see other bride-ships.

The Americans married or became en gaged to, between 10,000 and 12,000 Aus tralian girls while they were in Australia.

Many of the girls have already sampled life in those United States; some of them are making the return journey, slightly disillusioned. m mERRITORIANS who watched the X bride-ship, “Mariposa,” leave Brett’s wharf, Brisbane, last month for San Francisco must have wondered how much longer thev would be in “exile” before being allowed to return home to the Islands.

The Islands are still home to them despite the scars of war. It is natural that they long to go back if only to gaze on the site where their homes once stood.

The love of home is a strong instinct of the British race and to destroy that love is to smash the very foundation on which the British Empire stands.

The writer has formed lasting friend ships with many evacuees in Brisbane, and when the time does come to say Aloha, it will be with a tinge of sorrow. — “Jay.” ♦ ONE never sees now in Mangaia a per formance of the “ute,” a once-popu lar pastime This “ute” is sung and danced by a male chorus, to the music of an accordeon, the performers remaining seated upon orange boxes. Thev clap their hands; “arms bend” and “arms-stretch” as in physical jerks at camp, varied bv right and left ditto with the legs and feet.

I often used to wonder how they stayed on their boxes, especially as “utes” and bush beer are so closely related.

The “ute” is our best form of musical expression; and I’ve often suspected that the brief, jig-like tune that the accom nanist plays was originally borrowed from Cook’s sailors, though now twisted out of all recognition. It is obviously nautical.

As to the words —these are “made to order,” and consist of laudatory phrases eulogising the man who foots the bill.

For, as Gilbert’s Duchess noticed, such entertainers are mercenary people, and want remuneration.

Our Uteans used to get about 1/- each and double for the accordeonist. They don’t get it now!—ETT.

WHO put the cigarettes in the peanut tins? Sydney Customs officials in sist that the foul deed was done by “a gang in Suva.”

When a ship arrived in Sydney from Suva, Fiji, recently, Customs men re covered some thousands of American cigarettes neatly done up in salted pea nut tins. The tins carried a well-known Yankee brand, and had presumably left the States filled with nuts. In Suva the nuts were removed —or so Australian officialdom says—the tins filled with cigarettes, resealed and sent on their wayward way to Australia.

Suva citizens need not blush at such wickedness, however. “A gang in Syd ney” is cooking up something even more potent for the undoing of Customs offi cials. Eight bottles of opium were re cently seized on a ship bound for Noumea.

The drug is believed to be smuggled in, in its raw state, from China or India, prepared for use in Sydney, and then sent off to the islands in the north. * C CYNICAL, but amusing current com- J ment on the present condition of affairs in the Mandated Territory of New Guinea; The Army steals from ANGAU; ANGAU steals from the Administration; the Ad ministration steals from the civilians: and the civilians steal from everyone!