“The No-Hopers Are In The Minority”
p. 23 · Read in the full issue
Old Territorial! Defends Works and Housing Employees
Letter to the Editor
YOUR criticism of Works and Housing Dept, personnel in November PIM caused much comment in Rabaul (see letters page 65, this issue), although the W & H men generally have taken It in good part, referring to each other now as Frankenstein Monsters. Most of the bitterness has come from the few who, while accepting the benefits conferred by W & H, such as high wages and short hours, feel that they are socially super ior to the rank and file of this depart ment’s 1,000 workers.
I know that some of the W & H men are uncouth; that some have married native or half-caste women, or associate with them (so do other European men of the Behind brigade) and I admit that when I first met some of the types I was not impressed. But, as with other groups of people, one finds that on closer acquain tance, the decent men outnumber the hooligans.
As an example: During December there was an overseas ship in Rabaul with a coloured crew. Some of these seamen on one occasion, were throwing crackers outside the local picture show. A European policeman told them to quit and to move on, whereupon they knocked him down and proceeded to kick him. A group of W & H lads went to his rescue and were’ also instrumental in getting the seamen to the local lock-up where the Law dealt with them. During the fighting, one of the W & H lads was hit on the head with a. bottle, without very serious effects, but one remembers the [ate John Scott of Lae who, a year or so ago, helped quiet some rioting Fili pinos—with fatal results.
Possibly, one of the reasons why W & H people got such a bad name in the be
ginning was that a great many came to the territory straight from the Army Many of them had not worked in a civil ian capacity before and they seemed to imagine that they had to show us how to live up here. Another thing was that they brought their Australian habits with them—for example, the six o’clock beer swill. It was then common to see them go straight from their toil, in soiled clothes, to the hotel.
Well, the hotels do not close up here at six o’clock and it has been borne in
on most of them that there is no par ticular virtue in behaving like a hog. The consequence is that although the majority of men in Rabaul’s hotel lounges are still W & H personnel, they now are in spotless whites and behave like humans.
There are, of course, a percentage of no-hopers amongst them as there are in the Directorate of Shipping or any of the other public or private institutions.
The sooner these people go South the better for the Territory. But the major ity, although they have some rather strange ideas, would, if they stick around long enough, make FAQ Territorians.
Rabaul, NG.
December 27. I am. etc.,