Joy On Makogai

High Chiefs Find A Mixture of Tragedy and Hope

Suva, Apl. 30.

THERE were unprecedented scenes on Makogi Island to-day—and some thing, probably, that never will be seen again.

In this model leprosarium, there are patients from Fiji, Tonga, Cook Islands, Samoa, Gilbert Islands. At noon to-day, gathered here and there on neat lawns, under the shade-trees, there were eager, excited groups. The Samoans were meet ing High Chiefs Tamasese and Malietoa; the Tongans were gazing with something like ecstasy upon their two princes, Tugi and John; the Cook Islanders were being greeted by their Makea and Dr. Tom Davis, the group’s medical director; Mr.

T. H. Cude, high administrative official from Nauru, was giving words of cheer to some Gilbertese men whom he knew.

The idea of giving the South Pacific Conference delegates a chance to visit the 750 lepers on Makogai was a very happy one. Nothing has greater terrors for the home-loving Polynesians than isolation; they literally hunger for news of their own islands. Their excitement as they saw their own rulers and chiefs coming ashore off the sea-plane was a touching thing.

The Polynesian leaders spoke words of encouragement and cheer. Some of the lepers have been there for many years; a proportion are beyond cure. But, to day, there is more hope for the stricken ones than ever before. Chaulmoogra oil has come, and given some relief, but has been swept away, in the last year or two, by the new “Sulphone” type of drugs, which arrests the dreaded disease in a miraculous fashion. Scores of men, women' and children, who seemed doomed to a horrible living death, may now hope to go home cured within a couple of years. But it is a tough treatment, with which doctors have to be extremely care ful. The drug is taken by mouth, and every individual reacts differently—and some dangerously.

AS the visitors came ashore, they walked between lines of shy and smiling children, girls on one side and boys on the other, more than 70 of them. These are the real tragedy of Makogai. Children, when the foul disease fastens upon them, have less hope of re covery than adults.

The medical superintendent. Dr. C, J.

Austin, and his helpers, 17 very com petent Catholic nursing sisters, had made elaborate preparations for the visit. The delegates were shown every detail of the amazingly clean and orderly township.

A magnificent job has been done by the Fiji Government in the planning and construction of this place. An even finer job goes to the credit of the Lepers Trust Board, directed by the tireless Mr.

P. J. Twomey, of New Zealand. The Board has given this stricken community almost all the amenities it could wish for.

One sees ten times more happy faces in Makogai than one would see among the same number of people in Sydney or Auckland. They have only one general complaint—they have seen their 35 mm films so often that they are beginning to loathe the sight of every character there in. They urgently appeal for new films . . . . But don’t we all! Someone should explain the dollar shortage to Makogai.

Although the Europeans have done so much to fight leprosy here, they are not to blame for the introduction of this par ticular scourge to the South Seas.

Leprosy was here long before the white men’s first ships entered the Pacific. This thing—one of mankind’s oldest curses— probably was brought here by the Poly nesians from ancient Asia.

While it is not a dangerously contagious disease, it is such a terrifying thing that the authorities on Makogai wisely take extraordinary precautions against infec tion.

Normally, the Islanders are among the world’s greatest hand-shakers. But to day’s visitors were not allowed to shake hands with the people ashore. They were requested not to touch anything used by the patients. Every building is wire screened. Beside every door stood these pathetic, smiling children, to swing the doors backwards and forwards as re quired, so that the visitors need hot handle them. The cleanliness of the floors, pavements and gutters has to be seen to be believed.

It is just possible that these new drugs will alter the whole outlook and technique in relation to leprosy—but it is too soon to say. Twenty years ago, the big drum was beaten over chaulmoogra oil. The oil marked a big advance —but it is not the answer to leprosy—the incidence of the disease has not lessened. A great authority has said that if, for one genera tion, children could be entirely separated from lepers (leprosy is not in any way hereditary) the horrible thing would dis appear from the earth.

Recently, experts in charge of leprosy laboratories have been cabling each other, urgently asking for “nodules,” the un pleasant swellings, full of bacilli, which

are a feature of the commoner form of leprosy. The experts need these things for certain of their tests. But nodules are in very short supply—the unexpected, quick effect of the general use of the new drug. The doctors seem to think that this is very significant.