Hide-out

Water from a Wartime Hide-out

By Mrs. Marjorie A. Long, Bonis

Plantation, Bougainville.

THERE was no running water on our plantation: and, during the first two or three years after the War, we had to rely on a few small tanks for household water.

Corrugated iron was scarce and dif ficult to procure, and we had only a small catchment from the iron roof over the kitchen and bathroom of our bungalow, the rest of the roof oeing sacsac.

During one of the dry spells, when our tank water was very low, one of our house-boys said to my hus band : “Masta, me savvy one pella hole ’e got plarnty water ’e stap.”

“Dis pella hole ’e stap where?”

“ ’E no long way too mus, ’e close to!”

Further questions brought the in formation that the “hole” was a cave where some of the natives had hidden from the Japs during their occupation of Bougainville. There was, apparently, an underground spring in the cave. Taking a supply of food, natives who had been un willing to co-operate with the Japs had there found a successful hidl ing-place.

The cave was in a rocky cliff, ris ing above the beach about 11 miles from the boundary of our planta tion, and was accessible from the Government Road, which runs along the top of the cliff above the sea shore.

My husband decided to investi gate; and, one morning early, several large petrol drums and some smaller ones were loaded on the tray of the plantation truck and a number of native labourers were de tailed to be “water-getters.”

Our truck was a hybrid affair, built up partly from a war-time Chevrolet Ambulance, of which the housing portion had been replaced by an ordinary tray. One of many such ambulances remaining after the War in a military camp at Torokina, in Bougainville, it had suffered the ravages of a tropical climate, in addition to the wear and tear of war service. Its springs were worn out and, except for a dilapi dated horse-hair cushion on the driving seat, all upholstery and/or padding were gone from the cabin.

However, it was a useful vehicle for plantation work, if not quite suit able for lady passengers.

My husband drove and our body guard of natives stood rigidly on the tray behind us, holding the drums and supporting each other over the very rough road. One of our house-boys stowed away and was not discovered until we arrived at our destination. He was made to “work his passage” by helping to fill the water drums. . . (Over)

SUDDENLY we stopped. “We hav* arrived,” said my husband. “Tin track to the cave starts here.”

The thick growth on both side; of the road seemed forbidding anc impenetrable.

“Oh”, I said. “I’ll take your wor« for it! Can you see any track?

“No, but the boys know and they’l guide us. I’ll go behind the leade: and you follow in my tracks.”

In a few minutes we found our 1 selves on a narrow foot track. I was clear enough when we got t it, but invisible from the road an» the bush around it. Several native went ahead with bush knives t: cut a wider track for us and prei pare a return path for the wate carriers.

A quarter-hour’s walk brought u to the top of a cliff, above a bead bounded by a flat, coral reef. Ther was a narrow track down the clil side, which I negotiated by a sit ting-sliding motion; then we earn to a deep hole in the ground. I was about four feet across and gav access to a cave, feebly lighted b daylight through the opening.

It was impossible for anyone bu a native to climb down insid 1 without risk of broken bones, and was glad to be informed that then was a second opening into the cav lower down the cliff, near the beac level. A further short scrambl brought us to a low, narrow open ing in the face of the cliff, we hidden between boulders. We ha torches, and there were two hurr cane lanterns to light us into th interior, which was pitch dark, WE had to stoop to enter th tunnel and, inside, we coul not stand upright. We crawle along in a crouching position, ou torches lighting up the dusty rocr walls and floor strewn with stont and some big rocks, which mao our progress slow and awkward. Fin coral sand that had settled everj where gave the tunnel a dirty, dust appearance. It was obvious that til natives were still using the cay< empty tins, bottles and othu rubbish were lying about in the wa that the native always leaves tiring when he has finished with them..

Suddenly, we came to the end ■ the tunnel, which opened into larger portion forming a cave ataon eight feet high, with a number 1 boulders and rocks in a tumbl* mass on the floor and along til walls. We were able to extinguis. our torches, as the daylight froc the opening we had seen as v climbed down the cliff was immedt ately above the centre of the caw There was .a spring of crystas clear and very cold water in a depression in one corner of tic cave, half hidden under some rocbJ We had a cup and a kitchen dippe with us. and my husband climbu down to the pool to sample tic water. I watched the proceedinr from a higher rock and awaited in turn as official taster. As the cvc

is being passed up to me, a native locked it against a rock, breaking so a second sample was handed i in the dipper. The water was ghtly brackish.

He crawled back through the nnel, and my husband set about ?anising the line of carriers to ing out the water. In the mean le, I decided to have a look round 5 beach reef. A rag-and-bobtail dyguard of native children fol ded me, for by this time we ;med to have collected all the al piccaninnies from the villages, ne of the bigger ones were pressed X) service to aid the water Tiers, but the smaller fry, whose ;s ranged from about five to eight, fled along behind me. The eldest 1 the youngest both carried bush ives—one about sixteen inches g. The youngest, aged five, drew jer figures with it in the sand my edification, but I found them ntelligible. The older lad showed artistic prowess by drawing a loe with a sail on a slender mast, ecognised that one. As conversa i between my followers and my f was only possible in pidgin ?lish, which I then did not know, had little to say to each other, ried to make them understand, yever, that I liked the drawings, ad nothing with me to give them a reward and they soon drifted ly, the novelty of my presence ing worn off.

'AME upon the wreck of a small barge, half buried in the sand; its engine, apparently intact, submerged. It was a Japanese c, aground on the reef, which tched widely away from the ch. There was a rolled-up ana leaf hidden in the wreck, taining some native food, which : probably been put there by e native women as a hiding je from the other thieves and Ders of her kind. n my way back I discovered the ains of a Japanese patrol camp, len behind a natural barrier of Iders above the beach. A fissure yeen two huge boulders, so 'ow that it was a squeeze to pass >ugh, led into a small cleared le, outside an enormous shallow 3 in the cliff side. There were remains of fireplaces, cunningly ened jn the cave and ends of i sticking out of the rock face cated that there had been some 1 of telephone connections. There J a number of bottles, tins and ;r rubbish lying about and a ered Japanese army helmet re ned, a mute relic of defeat, lere was ample room in the le to move around and, from □us points, one could see parts ;he beach, and bush, and out ea. It must have been a good ng place for a patrol during the mese occupation of Bougain surprising feature was the p’s proximity to the cave with

underground spring. The dist ;e was not more than 300 yards i the fact that natives could iroach and hide there without Japanese knowing, as the ives maintained, was astonishing. ;re must have been a more ctive means of disguising the ranee than appeared when we ■ it.

Tien I returned the water •iers were toiling up the rough :k with full * drums on their alders to the trucks, while an sr line was bringing back the >ty drums for refill. A bucket i rope attached, was dropped n the perpendicular opening to ves inside the cave, who filled nd returned it to those outside, re was only one bucket and ves are slow workers. d fill in the time, I went with husband into the bush, where inspected various sorry-looking ;ks of motor vehicles left by the mese, seeking parts which he it utilise in our plantation truck, found some “possibilities.” hen the large drums on the k were full, the native workers ! assembled and instructions a for the casual local hands, had assisted, to call at the tation later for their pay (twist cco). We lost some of the water he road, going over the bumps, e of it slopped down my back i a drum immediately behind one morning, I had visited a :et” cave, discovered a wreck, ired a Japanese camp site, and >tigated derelict motor vehicles; much more to the point, our sstic water supply had been re ished.