"Boys In Boots"

Letter to the Editor THE November issue of the “Pacific Islands Monthly” contains two ar ticles re natives wearing boots and other articles of European clothing. The last paragraph in the article "Boys in Boots” states; “Although the Adminis tration has now decreed that a native may wear anything he wishes, old resi dents, who love the country, resent any alteration in native attire. One reason is that it holds them to ridicule among visitors to the Territory.”

Apparently all old residents are not of one mind about this. I know of two stores in Madang, one owned by a large company and staffed mainly by old residents; the other owned by a man who has been a resident in New Guinea for a good many years. These two stores sell boots, shoes, sandshoes and other articles of European clothing to natives.

Whether they agree with the Adminis tration that natives should be able to wear anything they wish or, whether they are just interested in the profit they make out of selling such articles, I do not know. But it seems that the New Order has rebounded to this extent and that some sections of the European community, instead of bewailing the emancipation of Fuzzy-Wuzzy, have not been slow to turn it to good account.

I am, etc.,

Territorian.

Madang, January 1, 1948.