Spoils To The Vanquished

IF, in 1942, a man had said that Japan would eventually be paid for the materials to rebuild New Guinea, he probably would have been labelled a defeatist or worse.

But, in 1951, that is what is hap pening.

By far the greatest proportion of building materials now used in New Guinea comes from Japan, and at exorbitant prices. As one ex ample, iron, which in the normal course of events should come from Australia, is being imported from Japan and is sold at about £290 per ton retail.

The fact is, of course, that if the material were not forthcoming from Japan, New Guinea simply would have to do without it. Aus tralia is incapable of supplying her own domestic wants in any build ing commodity, and is, in fact, im porting also from Japan.

We have reached such a state of national turpitude that few find it strange that, although Japan smashed New Guinea materially, Japanese manufacturers are now reaping huge profits to supply the materials with which to rebuild, it.

Reparations, like many other old fashioned institutions, are now re garded as somewhat wicked. In the case of Japan and the Pacific Islands, however, it should not have been regarded as too reactionary if she had been made to supply the materials and the labour for re storing some of the damage she wantonly caused.

M. Bordarier, General Secretary of the New Caledonian administration, has been appointed Chevalier of the Legion of Honour.

According to reports received in Western Samoa from New Zealand 30 Samoan boys have joined the newly-formed watersiders’ union at Auckland and are pleased to find congenial work at very good rates of pay.

Mr. H. Bonneaud, president of the New Caledonian General Council and managing director of Maison Ballande, has been appointed by the French Minister for Overseas Affairs as one of the French representatives on the South Pacific Commission.