Liunry Trip for Chosen Group of Hiih Officials

Bungling Of P-Ng War Memorial

Preparations

AT latest count, about 47 people will arrive in Port Moresby by special Skymaster on October 18, to witness the unveiling of a war memorial there; and, later, they will fly on for similar cere monies at Lae and Rabaul.

The ceremonies will be performed by Sir William Slim, Governor- General of Australia. Sir William also will land at Moresby on October 18, but in his own RAAF plane.

About 30 of the Skymaster’s passengers will be “official” guests; the remainder will be the widows or parents of men who lie among the 8,000 war dead buried in the cemeteries.

New Guinea has had official visitations before, but few as large as this one; and, in late September, Administration officials were having difficulty in trying to arrange accommodation for them.

The number of relatives was hastily increased from nine to 17 after a blast of publicity from ex servicemen’s organisations in Aus tralia. They said that it was a scandal that the unveilings were to be turned into just another holiday for politicians and their wives and

staffs. In addition to the relatives, these people are going: • The Australian Ministers for the Interior, Defence, and Terri tories, with their wives and secre taries. • Two generals from the CMF and three generals from the per manent forces. • Four High Commissioners and six members of Parliament. • Two State Governors. • One RSL representative, one Air Force Association represent ative, one ex-Navalmen’s Associa tion representative.

Following the outspoken indigna tion of the Returned Soldiers’

League, there was the usual plat itudinous buck-passing at Canberra.

Australians usually put up with almost anything from their pol iticians; but one of the things of which they now are heartily sick is the way in which the politicians of all parties have turned Parliament into a glorified travel bureau for arranging luxury tours to all parts of the world.

There are in this latest NG party

at least 15 people who would not be missed from the unveiling ceremonies, and readers are at liberty to work out who they are.

The parties of political “visiting firemen” who are everlastingly galloping across Papua-New Guinea these days can only be described as a pest to the harassed officials who have to take time off to entertain them. rjTHE whole affair appears to have X been bungled. The three war cemeteries in Pa p u a-N e w Guinea are magnificently laid out and kept; those to whom they mean most are the many thousands of widows and parents in Australia who have sons and husbands buried there. Yet, few of these people appear to have been aware that they were eligible for the Govern ment’s free trip to the unveiling.

It has been stated that, up until mid-September, only 20 people had applied to go.

A correspondent in the Sydney Morning Herald, on September 25, said that an intimation that he was eligible had come from the War Graves Commission on Sep tember 16; this letter had stated that the “Commission is unable to afford financial assistance to enable relatives to visit New Guinea.”

It has been known for months that these ceremonies were going to place. If adequate notice of the pilgrimage had been given to bereaved relations, and if it had

been clear that expenses would be paid, it is likely that thousands would have applied—not 20. (It was announced in Canberra on Oct. 9, that 23 relatives would make the trip, and that 1,000 had made apolication—apparently since the scheme got publicity at the end of September).