Lavish ‘War Damage’ To
p. 10 · Read in the full issue
New Guinea Natives
STORIES of the way in which “war damage compensation” has been lavished upon New Guinea natives by the present Administration continue to reach Sydney.
“An incident I saw in Bougainville is typical” reports one planter. “A certain native told the officials that he had lost four blankets in the war, and he claimed for them at the rate of £l, £2, and £3 per blanket. The officials paid out without argument. Before the war, I never knew a native to pay more than 6/- for a blanket—a thing made of cotton. That native collected altogether £l5O as war damage for various things. He had been informed that he could not collect more than £lO in any one day. So he kept on calling on the officials, at different times, until he got about £l5O altogether.
“That sort of thing has been going on all over the Territories. There must have been a great deal of fraud and there are many tens of thousands of pounds, in Aus tralian currency, hidden away in the villages. It does not come out of the special War Damage Fund —it is provided direct out of Australian common funds, contributed by the taxpayers.”