Occupation
p. 62 · Read in the full issue
Us Forces Leave
N. Caledonia
End of Historical Occupation
From Our Own Correspondent Noumea, August 20. rE United States Army and Navy officially departed from New Caledonia recently when the liner “Lubbock” left Noumea with 37 officers and 1,367 other ranks. Although the island now ceases to be an official South Pacific base, a small force of 355 other Army ranks and 47 officers has remained under the command of a colonel, and also a small Navy detachment of 3 officers and 30 sailors, to wind up affairs.
The New Caledonians see the departure of the Americans with real regret, and are feeling that the place is “dead” with out them. “Swan Song,” the last publica tion of the US Forces, carried in bold type the words, “Adieu Nouvelle Caledonie.”
The Americans first arrived in New Caledonia in March 12, 1942, in the most critical days of the Pacific War, when the Japs were thrusting southwards through the Solomons. At one period, there were hundreds of thousands of Americans in New Caledonia. The French Colony, shut off from the Motherland, was virtually bankrupt in 1940-41; but, with the arrival of the Americans, the economic situation changed sensationally overnight.—P.