Honiara Prepared For Big Bang

But It Did Not Go Off

From Our Own Correspondent

Honiara, June 24.

HONIARA was thrown into some consternation on June 19, when a fire broke out in a small ammunition dump on which the Australian Services Bomb Disposal Unit, at present in the Solomons, was working.

Most of the ammunition being handled is in a potentially dangerous condition owing to age and exposure to the weather, and an Oerlikon shell is reported to have exploded and set alight some cordite which scattered and ignited further shells.

One native labourer was killed and three injured, and one European member of the unit was admitted to hospital for observation suffering from shock and minor shrapnel wounds.

The small dump where the trouble started is about half a mile from the big dump locally known as Hell’s Point, some 10 mies from Honiara, where an accumu lation of shells roughly estimated at 37,000 tons, is heaped up. With the drought weather prevailing it was pos sible that a grass fire, or hot shrapnel fragments falling on the Hell’s Point dump, might send the whole collection up, and in view of the considerable blast effect to be expected if Hell’s Point went up, precautions were hastily organised.

A road block was established between Honiara and Hell’s Point. A 24-hour watch was set up at the Honiara Radio Station. Police and members of the Bomb Disposal Unit kept a constant watch on the dumps, and a warning siren which has replaced the old Public Works De partment “bello” was to be continuously sounded in the event of danger.

It was planned to evacuate European women and children to the Rove Police Depot and Training School, where they were to remain confined in the Rove prison area, which is sheltered by high hills.

Natives in the vicinity of Honiara were told to assemble in the Cruz Creek area, which is also sheltered, if the siren sounded, and the Chinese settlement was instructed to take shelter between the deep banks of the Matanikau River.

These precautions fortunately did not have to be put into action, the fire at the smaller dump being brought under control and extinguished, and by the morning of the 20th the “alert” was dis continued, without any further damage or casualties having occurred.

The excitement while it lasted was con siderable. There are, however, many valleys running towards the sea between the coastal hills, and these hills provide excellent natural obstacles to any blast from explosions, though it was thought that Honiara buildings might suffer. All Public Works Department Trucks were “grounded” and lined up in readiness to evacuate hospital patients and provide transport generally. The P.W.D. philo sophically took the opportunity of getting all their heavy vehicles oiled and greased during the “standby” period, the trucks being freed for once from their almost continuous normal duties.

THE odd grenade embedded in a road surface and shells and other bombs in gardens and ditches, were a com monplace in Honiara life before the arrival of the Bomb Disposal Unit, and a red-painted sign which read “Unex posives—Keep Clear” or just a couple of sticks crossed as a tambu sign were often called into use.

The township area has now been

cleared but the large dumps, which contaln a bewildering variety of all kinds of shells, bombs, grenades, flares and so on, present an awkward problem for disposal.

Residents who arrived shortly after the war got used to the presence of all this within 10 miles of the township and are inclined to be perhaps unduly fatalistic, ' They’ll go up, or they won’t” being a fairly usual outlook, but it is recognised that the Government must take all possible precautions if there is any chance of a major explosion, particularly in one of the drought periods which occur now and then in the Honiara section of the coastline.

Mr. P. A. Richardson, has been ap pointed Secretary to Government, British Solomon Islands Protectorate, succeeding Mr. \. J. Andersen who is shortly going on leave. Mr. Richardson, who amved m the Protectorate at the end of May, was formerly with the administration in Tonga.

Mr. K. Maesepp, managing director of Island Electric Co., Suva, Fiji, is at present on a lengthy business trip to Australia, He emphasises that there is enough hydro electric power in the mountains of Viti Levu to run all the machinery, transport and kitchens in Fiji—if only the equip ment were made available.