"Montoro" Will Go to Rabaul

Rabaul After All Sailing Despite Mis-information of Australian Shipping Board in Sydney

a t this writing (March 10) the “Mon- A toro” is scheduled to sail from Syd ney to ports in Papua and New Guinea' on March 22. Last sailing was on January 13—which will mean that over two months will have elapsed be tween shipments of goods, freezer sup plies and sea-borne passengers to the Territory Nor is it by any means certain that she will get away on the 22nd That depends upon the whim of the Sydney watersiders. * “Montoro” will go to Rabaul this time —despite the solemn assurance last month bv the New Guinea section of the Aus tralian Shipping Control Board that, it would not go this trip—or any trip—be cause it was impossible for the slow moving “Montoro” to carry sufficient coal to complete the trip. Our informa tion comes this time from Burns. Philp & Co., who operate the ship, and it pre sumably is more reliable. We do not know how the coal difficulty is to be overcome; perhaps in her long weeks of resting in Australian ports, the old “Mon toro” has been mysteriously rejuvenated. mHE question arises at this stage as to how rpfiphle is the information supplied bv the Australian Shipping Board with regard to movements of ships between Australian and New Guinea ports.

A month ago we were informed by the Svdnev office of the Board that posi tively the only three ships which could go to Rabaul in the next month or so were the “Salamaua.” the “Reynella” and the “Malaitq” (when she comes out of dock). Casual conversation with an offi cial of a shipping company the next day revealed that the “Merkur. then loading in Sydney, would carry essential food stuffs to Rabaul on he way to Japan; and that she would do so had been known in shipping circles for over a week.

At the beginning of March, the Board was still insisting 'that the “Montoro” would not, and could not go to Rabaul.

However, pressed to do so by an irate would-be passenger, an official of the Board consented to ring Burns, Philp and to his evident astonishment he found that “Montorc” would this time call at Rabaul.

It would be interesting to know who decides the movements of ships. The shipping companies do not and obviously no official of the Sydney branch of the Board is competent to give correct information concerning those movements.

Presumably the power of direction is in the hands of some rarified “authority” who sits in Canberra and whose belief is that the less the travelling public knows about the movements of ships between Sydney and New Guinea ports the better for all concerned.

Residents of Rabaul, and of outports in New Britain and New Ireland will, at all events, be glad to see the “Mon toro” when she does arrive. It will be their first real relief from isolation since the “Duntroon” called at Rabaul in Nov ember.

♦Sydney wharfies are again on strike and the ’’Montoro” is unlikely to sail until later In the month.