Papuan Service Loses Mr.

W. H. Halford-Thompson

AFTER 40 years of “correcting” canni bals, evading arrows, and patrolling thousands of miles of Papuan jungle, Mr. W. H. Halford-Thompson says that he is returning home to Devonshire.

He arrived in Brisbane recently in the Bulolo from Port Moresby, on the first leg of his journey home.

In 1911 he went to New Guinea as a young patrol officer fresh from England.

The first three years, he said, were rather an adventure, as his job was catch ing cannibals and “weaning” them from certain items on their menu.

Mr. Halford-Thompson told the Press he was the first white man to enter the then hostile Kikori territory, 200 miles west of Port Moresby.

Four years which he spent away from Papua from 1914-1918 were occupied in fighting Germans in the Cameroons. West Africa. For the last 20 years, which he described as peaceful, he has been an administration officer at Daru and Yule Island, 60 miles west of Port Moresby.

Now finished with New Guinea, Mr. Hal ford Thompson said that his main regret was that he was leaving his boy, Pete, whom he described as being a faithful servant to him for 15 years.

Twice in 40 years Mr. Halford-Thomp son has visited England—once in 1914 to rejoin the Gloucester Regiment, and two years ago to “refresh memories of De vonshire.”