Officials

Colonials And French

“Not On Speaking Terms”

IN an article in a Paris paper, French journalist Chegaray, who spent some weeks in New Caledonia, about a year ago writes of the hostility between the two sections in Noumea society, repre sented by the inhabitants bom in the Colony and officials from France.

At the local races, which are attended by “le tout Noumea,” he noticed that the two groups kept rigidly to themselves, and no word was exchanged between them.

He quotes the “metropolitans” as telling him that in reality the orbit of the Colony is Australia rather than France; Europe being so far away, New Caledonia is on the way to becoming “a little Canada.”

He also refers to the fabulous “dollar age” under American Forces’ occupation during the war, when the inhabitants reaped an undreamed of harvest. But this source, he says, is running dry; the Colony is living beyond its means, and a crisis seems in the offing.—HELP