Alleged

Colossal Waste

That Manus Base Again

The Queen and The Territorians . . .

AFTER working for 18 months at the Australian naval and air base on Manus Island. New Guinea area, a carpenter, Winston

Ashley Henderson, has submitted

to a Queensland newspaper sworn statements in which he makes the

following allegations:

Fourteen huge Quonsett huts (erected by the Americans and worth thousands of pounds each) were allowed to rot away; Thousands of tons of scrap iron jeeps, barges, trucks, refrigerators, left by the Americans with motors intact— w r ere loaded for Japan; Cypress pine weatherboarding for the entire Manus project was scrapped be cause it arrived from Australia, split and warped; Tons and tons of first-grade fibre roof ing were left uncovered in tropical rain and sun for seven months (it cracked!); The entire 100 x 30 feet hospital build ing arrived pre-cut from Australia.

Nothing fitted, 50 per cent, was scrapped: Woodworking machines and valuable equipment were burned to ashes because a building was not fire-proofed; Men, without supplies of materials, took off and yut on weatherboards when officers passed, so as to at least appear to be working; Inexperienced officers (some former pilots) were in charge of building pro jects. Labourers were receiving tradesmen pay; Construction dragged endlessly for months, because of officer interference and “plan changing.” One concrete floor was pulled up three times, and the hospital building altered seven times; Building plans from Australia were vague and inaccurate, and “contrary to good building practices, sometimes ridiculously so”; The entire building project was planned in two straight lines, making it extremely vulnerable to straffing and bombing attacks; Special officers’ fare such as kegs of beer, poultry, salad foods, etc., was flown to the island in Service aircraft; Officers and their wives took numerous RAAF crash-boat cruises; No public inquiry or court-martial inquiry was held into the death of an airman who allegedly took a truck to forage for “party” beer.

The way in which the newspapers concerned have presented the charges has some of the earmarks of political propaganda: but the charges themselves are so circum stantial that the Canberra authori ties cannot afford to ignore them.

H Mr. John Keenan left P-NG per manently on March 6 and will go into business on his own account in Sydney. He was a member of District Services, and has spent 18 years in the Territory—during the war as a Coastwatcher. This popular ADO and his wife Phyllis will be missed in the Territory.

THIS remarkable photograph of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was taken by an amateur (with C. H. Meen’s camera) in Cairns on March 13.

The Queen and the Duke of Edin burgh, on their way to board the Gothic, noticed the little group of Papua-New Guinea Territories men and stopped to talk with them —a happy incident that was not in the programme.

In this photograph the Queen is seen chatting with the Chinese rep resentatives; and the latter are, from the extreme left, Messrs. Ah Wong, of Kavieng; Tang Kam Hong, of Lae; C. H. Meen, of Rabaul (to whom the Queen is talk ing) ; and You, of Bougain ville. Mr. Brown, a District official

from New Guinea, who happened: to be in Cairns on leave, is seen i rr the line beyond Mr. Wong You.

On the right, beside Her Majesty.' are Mr. R. Brennan and Mr. A. A..

Roberts (head of the Department of District Services), who were in: charge of the party.

The Duke of Edinburgh, on the other side of Her Majesty, was also talking to the Territorians, but his figure is obscured.

UMr. Donald Sharp arrived in Aus~ tralia en route to the British) Solomons in March. He has just; completed two years in Assam pro-i vince, India, as a farm manager. In the BSIP, as a UK Colonial Office agricultural advisory officer, he will “assist native agriculture.”