Goes To Bulolo
p. 63 · Read in the full issue
Kruse’S Gallivanting Jeep
This is the last story written for PIM by the young American jour nalist, Clifford Kruse, before he died so tragically and suddenly from Polio in the Trobriand Islands on August 6. 1A ORA . NA, the travelling Jeep, has come to rest. After 30,000 miles of travelling across the Pacific, the dogged little vehicle will take up its new residence at the Bulolo Gold Dredg ing Settlement in New Guinea.
This post-war civilian-model Jeep ac companied me aboard the MV Malaita, from Sydney, in June, and was unloaded at Lae and driven up the famous road to Bulolo.
The Jeep, which saw more Pacific Islands than most of the Jeeps which saw military service in the late war, was popular with many native groups. Of
particular interest to the natives who saw and rode in the little vehicle was the artwork that formed part of the Jeep’s paint job.
Done by American artist Mike Barthell, the paintings included a native Tahitian girl, done in oils on the vehicle’s hood; a beckoning palm tree on a coral atoll on the jeep’s right side; and a list of all the islands the Jeep and I have visited, inscribed on the left side.
The Jeep got its name from the three Polynesian greetings painted on it in various places.
On the Jeep’s endgate appeared the names of a number of my friends, done in a sort of autograph-book fashion.
Brought originally from America, the Jeep had a look at Panama, French Oceania, Fiji, New Hebrides, New Cale donia and Australia. Half of its 30,000 miles were done on its own wheels, the other half on the decks of ships when it was transported around the Pacific.
Through it, I learned a good bit about the restrictive political economics of the South Seai Islands, especially when I tried to sell the Jeep, after I had finished with it. Customs and import regulations in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, the New Hebrides, the Cook Islands and Tahiti prohibited my selling it in those places.
As I have said, it found its new owner in New Guinea.
Clifford Kruse and his jeep, in an Islands setting.