In Papua

Cruel Waste Of Army Goods

Civilians' Bitter Criticism of Australian Officialdom

By a Returned Papuan Planter

rir «. v, SAM ARAI, April 21.

E situation here in Papua is beyond description. The whole set-up has to be seen to be believed—the half of it will never be told.

Enough building material was dumped in Milne Bay to have re-built every town, and all the settlers’ homes in both Territories. Millions of pounds’ worth of valuable material, tools, engines, oil, foodstuffs, paints and gear that it will be impossible to buy for the next two years, and that would have been invaluable for the rehabilitation of the country, has been destroyed.

A lully equipped American hospital was offered to ANGAU, with drugs, instruments, bedding, medical stores, etc.; but no ANGAU officer could be found with sufficient initiative to sign for it, or take it over. Finally, in disgust, the Yanks

obliterated it with bulldozers and ben zine. I am referring to American Hos pital No. 47, at Milne Bay.

It was situated in a beautiful position in the hills, and could accommodate some hundreds of patients. The site has gone back to the jungle.

We are urged to make copra. When the copra is made, we are informed there a shortage of boats, and it cannot be lifted. Yet vessels come out with stores for Government stations, and return to Samarai empty.

Many generous Americans allowed the needy stations to take away useful materials which would have been destroyed, or dumped in the sea The donors have left the Territories. We are now informed this material must be listed and handed over to the Administration.

What claim the Administration can have upon material which it refused to buy from the Americans, and which was given to the settlers to aid in their re habilitation, is not easy to perceive Officialdom, apparently, would sooner see the gear destroyed.

ANGAU personnel welcomed us back as cheerfully as the Devil would wel come holy water. We did not need to be mind-readers to realise that our room was preferable to our company They perhaps feared we would find out much that ANGAU would prefer hidden' and most of us have found out quite a lot. I am referring to “base-wallahs”— not the boys who did such a good iob against the Japs in the jungles.

The return of the “bloody civilians” to their homes was a nasty knock for some of the privileged gentry of ANGAU—they had hoped their nice, comfortable jobs would have lasted longer.

The budding Anthony Horderns of the RAAF scrabbled in their beards and in vented fresh curses; their private trad ing, at astronomical profits, was drawing to a close. (Where these Army traders obtained their goods is an easy guess.) The settlers, however, receiving Army rations only, had nothing to sell.

Apparently, there were two things for which “returnees” could almost be shot at dawn—writing to editors of papers, and selling goods to natives. Both restric tions have now been lifted, ANGAU hav ing departed. General Morris took his brass band away to New Guinea with him. All he needed to complete the cir cus was a barrel-organ and a monkey.

PRICES for goods purchased by settlers from Pro-Con Stores no doubt gave Mr. Eddie Ward intense satisfaction.

I paid £4/17/6 for a second-hand shot gun that, in 1941, could have been pur chased in any store in Samarai for £2/7/6 new. A bale of copra sacks cost over £3O.

The lowest grade of meat processed in Australia, in case lots, 1/7 per 12 oz. tin.

Where do the profits go?

The shot-gun referred to would cost ANGAU nothing—it would be one of the hundreds of guns taken out of settlers’ homes (for security reasons). Valuable rifles so taken were apparently regarded as “private perks” by the impressors. In quiry does not reveal their whereabouts.

Moresby natives have been informed that their villages are going to be re built of European materials—estimated

cost £168,000. Let the Australian taxpayer put that in his pipe and smoke it!

Given nails, and rations whilst they were on the job, plus a lew tools, aua the natives would have re-established themselves, placed a greater value on their homes, and have benefited in every way by the communal effort. The most suitable houses for natives are those built from local material. Many Europeans prefer them—they are cool in the hot test weather. But who is going to tell Mr. Eddie Ward this?

Mr. Ward’s callous indifference to starv ing Europe is shown in the quadrupling of the tinned fish and meat ration to native labourers, who were already amply fed on the scale designed by tne late air Hubert Murray. This unnecessary change could have been postponed until times were better.

IF the new Administrator, Colonel j. K.

Murray, has reduced the chaos in Moresby, it is not yet perceptible to “the man in the street.”

In a letter to me. an official writes: “In all my life I have never seen so much lunacy in such a small area.” nowever, having been a member of the “old Administration,” he may be slightly biassed!

In conclusion: I wish to be fair to Mr.

Ward. That Minister has been ill-ad vised by impractical visionaries and self opinionated bureaucrats. Between them, they let “Eddie” down badly. I think he is beginning to realise this, at last.

However, with all their hearts the “Re turnees” thank God they are out of Aus tralia. Latest arrivals here state it resembles a madhouse, governed by the inmates. In spite of our troubles and difficulties, we are fortunate to be living in Papua.

Mr. E. Craig, Clayfield, Brisbane, in tends leaving for Sudest Island (.New Guinea). His wife will follow later.

The Rev. Wesley Pidgeon, popular member of the Methodist Mission in Fiji, is in Adelaide on furlough at present.

Under the new district syscem to oe com menced in Fiji he will have in his charge 200 churches with a staff of five native superintendent ministers, 22 native minis ters. and 50 catechists. He will also be youth director for the whole Fijian work, Mr. C. R. H. Nott, who has recently relinquished the post of District Com missioner in the southern and eastern districts of Fiji, arrived at Auckland on the “Matua” on March 19. He was accom panied by his wife, formerly Miss Marion Macfarlane, a well-known Auckland tennis player, and his two children. Mr.

Nott is on his way to England with his family after 10 years’ service in Fiji.

Mr. Harold Gatty, accompanied by Mrs.

Gatty, arrived in Suva, Fiji, by ANA Skymaster on April 10. Mr. Gatty was one of the pioneers of Pan American Airways and has been engaged, in the past year, in re-establishing their trans pacific service, scheduled to resume about June this year. His headquarters, in future, will be Suva, where he will be regional manager for PAA.

Broken Hill Pty., Ltd., have taken options on the big New Caledonian iron deposits on the Plaine des Lacs. One corner of these deposits was formerly worked for a few years by the Jananese from the tiny south coast port of Goro.

It appears that the Australian company is seeking assurances that the export tax should npt be such as to interfere with operations should exploitation be decided on. The deposits are nearer Newcastle than the South Australian deposits at Iron Knob.