Rahaul-Kokopo Area

War Surplus Goods In Rahaul-Kokopo Area

From Our Own Correspondent

Port Moresby, Jan. 5.

A MELBOURNE man, Mr. Arthur West r\ hoven, was the successful tenderer for the right to salvage all unsold rar surplus goods in the Rabaul-Kokopo ,rea.

This tender has been let on a new sys em, that of a royalty payment for all oods salvaged, whether retained by Mr.

Vesthoven himself or sold by him. further, the Administration retains a nice in the fixing of values for salvaged oods, so it seems unlikely that the fan astic bargain rates which applied to lany deals in the early post-war years fill be repeated.

If this system had been adopted from he commencement of sales of War Dis iosal goods, the Commonwealth would e richer by a few million pounds and he glaring scandal of the whole Dis osals business would have been avoided, literally, millions of pounds worth of Imost irreplacable goods were given way at bargain prices, in the incredible ales of war goods immediately after ostilities ended.

Almost equally iniquitous was the whole ale export of valuable equipment ur ently needed in the Territory to get the slands back on an economic basis. The ehabilitation and development of the slands was set back by at least a. decade y this monstrous piece of government lismanagement. If the matter had been lade the subject of a Royal Commission f Enquiry, as it should have been, “mis lanagement” would probably have been ermed criminal negligence of the nation’s iterests.

However, Mr. Westhoven, working under he new system, will be doing the country service if he can unearth anything of alue in the junk heaps and hidden hide uts around Rabaul and Kokopo. Un oubtedly, there is still much of value to e found, but it certainly won’t be easy, ’he caves are in a dangerous condition y this time, and to locate the rest of he stuff will take the qualities of a herlock Holmes. He has a year in finch to tackle the job, and it will be iteresting to see what he salvages over hat period.