"Pounders"—

Not "Powders"! (A Letter of Correction to the Editor)

YOUR issue of December, 1945, contains an article entitled, “Was Bergmann a Spy?” which is causing me great an noyance, is detrimental to my reputation, and, in view of my extensive trade in south seas curios in the area in which your magazine circulates is, I am advised, ac tionable.

The article to which I refer is a rambl ing narrative concerning a mysterious Ger man recently engaged in “exploring” the Mangaia coral-limestone caves ostensibly for business purposes, but actually as a Nazi-Nipponese spy engaged in war ac tivities in which communication with the Axis Powers, in a “strange language” by means of a black box, figured, and of which the product was a “powder” infer entially of a dangerous nature which later was “seen in Spitz’s Papeete curio shop.”

So far as I am concerned, I only dealt with the Bergmann of the narrative as a curio dealer and collector, for he had in his possession some hundreds of native stone implements, of which 23 he pre sented to the Papeete Museum, and was authorised to take away the rest.

Can it be that the “poi powders” re ferred to in your article were designated in his copy “poi pounders” by the writer of the article? The hard stalactites of the Mangaia caves would afford admir able material from which to construct such harmless Polynesian household uten sils, but their pacific nature could hardly entitle them to classification as up-to date warfare equipment, nor does their manufacture require such accessories as German spies, mysterious black boxes and the use of unknown languages.

To the ordinary reader the erudition of the eminent Fellow of the Royal Geo graphical Society who presides over the destiny of the “Pacific Islands Monthly” carries with it such authority as to pre clude the perpetration of such a typo graphical blunder in his publication as that referred to above.

The effect of his article is to convey to the public that I, Georges Spitz, of Papeete, Tahiti, was in some way con nected with an Axis spy in communica tion with the enemy in war time, and engaged in the manufacture and distri bution of a highly dangerous war material mysteriously alluded to as “powder.”

As a Free French citizen who figured actively in the De Gaulist movement in Tahiti in 1940, and who has sacrificed a son in the late war, I strongly resent of its detrimental influence on my affairs, the article to which I refer, and, in view I demand that this letter be published in full in the next issue of the “Pacific Islands Monthly” with as much promin ence as that accorded the Bergmann spy story.

Without prejudice, I am, etc.,

Geo. Spitz.

(NOTE: The editor so flatteringly re ferred to does state, as a fact, that the author of the article did write “poi pound ers”; and that, as his caligraphy is very poor, the compositor made of it “poi powders”—which of course made the whole article absurd. The typographical error was not noticed until after the journal had been published. We apolo gise unreservedly for whatever inconveni ence and annoyance the error caused Mr.

Spitz. No one who knows anything of Tahiti ever would associate German es pionage activities with the name of Georges Spitz.—Ed. PIM.)