Suva “Welcomes”

Tahiti’S Mayor

SUVA, July 15.

M. ALFRED POROI, Mayor of Papeete, leader of the Right Wing political coalition of French Oceania, and leading citizen of Tahiti, will probably not quickly forget Suva, Fiji.

He passed through there recently on his way to and from France.

It might be thought that some one in the Colony of Fiji would be well aware of M.

Poroi’s status in the community, but when he arrived from Papeete in June no one in Suva made the slightest move to welcome him officially.

On his return to Tahiti by TEAL via Auckland and Suva in July, he arrived in Fiji to find himself with out so much as a bedroom, although PlM’s representative had passed the word to several interested quarters that M. Poroi would be in Suva.

Inquiry revealed that TEAL’S booking department, noting that the name on the passenger list “appeared to be that of an Islander,” booked him in to the poorest hotel in town and one of the few that will accom modate “natives.”

This error was rectified to the extent that M. Poroi was trans ferred to the Grand Pacific Hotel —and given a bed in a passageway, and the use of a bathroom-lavatory in which to hang his clothes.

Sir Alport Barker, a resident of the GPH, and Mr. W. H. Grove did some pleading on his behalf in vari ous quarters but it appeared that nothing could be done.

If nothing better than this awaits a distinguished visitor it seems high time that Suva looked into its machinery for showing a little more hospitality to unexpected guests.

The slight offered M. Poroi would certainly never happen in Tahiti.