Care In Handling Natives
p. 63 · Read in the full issue
Letter to the Editor IT was reported in your January issue that 11 young men had been appointed to be Patrol Officers in New Guinea. The indica tions are that those new officials were too young. No PO should be under 25, and all should have at least a year’s service in New Guinea, under tuition, in charge of NG natives, before being allowed out in strange country, on their own.
They should not have to deal with
the natives as PO’s until they have some understanding of the natives.
During the last 50 years I have employed natives in South Africa, Tahiti, New Zealand, New Guinea, Australia, Uganda and on Luzon, in the Philippines. I once employed 20 Kikuyus on my plantation in Africa, and they were good, honest men. Now the Kikuyus, influenced by Reds, are dangerous rebels.
In their natural state, natives are like children—easy to control, by those who take the trouble to understand them, and very easy to mislead.
I am, etc..
Richard E. Vernon,
Cardwell, Q.
Mr, Vernon beside his gold-sluicing: claim at Black Cat, New Guinea, in 1935.