Yacht Ordered Back To

Tahiti

Prom Our Own Correspondent

Papeete, Aug. 10.

THOUSANDS yearn for a yacht and the open sea and freedom from war scares, food short ages, taxes and all the other horrors of civilisation. But Captain Ronald

J. Frost has discovered that even blue-water yachtsmen are not en tirely free—there are rules to which they must conform.

When Captain Georges Bailly, harbour-master at Papeete, arose on the morning of August 2, he noticed a blank where, the previous night, there had ridden, in the harbour, the British 8-tons yacht Axelle, registered in London —and

sailed out to Tahiti by her owner skipper and his brother, via Cowes, Madeira, Barbadoes, Saint Lucie, Panama, the Galapagos and the Marquesas. They had gone without clearance.

Captain Bailly called the pilot boat, and went out to sea. Ten miles away, he overtook the Axelle.

He ordered the yacht back to -port —and the Frost brothers obeyed.

They were dealt with promptly —fined 200 francs and forced to conform with the international law, which affects all ships. Before leav ing a port, a voyager must notify port authority, health department, post office, customs officers and the national consul concerned.

But, three miles out, he is free. (The yachtsmen (Messrs. Frost), who are now in Suva, have quite a different story to tell. See their statement elsewhere in this issue.) Mrs. Flora Stewart, owner of the fine new Hotel Cecil, at Lae, New Guinea, left by air for Europe and America, in August. She is seeking a change, after two very strenuous years—and also seeks new ideas in decoration and management for her hotel, which should be open for business by the end of the year.

British Commonwealth Pacific Airlines Ltd. have now opened their own office in Suva, Fiji. Previously BCPA worked entirely through travel agents in Fiji.