The Editors' Mailbag
p. 20 · Read in the full issue
Eddie's Walkingstick
A New Guinea “old-timer,” now residing in Auckland, read in his local newspaper a description of a brawl in the Labour Party caucus room in Canberra, wherein (accord ing to the faithful reporter) “Eddie clocked Les Haylen.” This stirred his memory, and he wrote PIM as follows: “I wonder if Eddie Ward remem bers the occasion when some of us, at Finschhaven, respectfully greeted ‘the Minister for Territories’, and formally presented him with a walk ing-stick made of New Guinea cane.
It was a perfectly genuine gift, and a good article; but what Eddie did not know was that that stick had long and honourable service as a means of keeping boongs in order.
We belong to the old school, which believes that an ounce of corporal punishment, promptly administered, is worth a ton of UNO chatter about the rights of primitive man.
If Eddie could persuade that stick to talk to him, he would learn an awful lot. We still chuckle when we think of the solemn presentation, and the equally insincere Ministerial reply.”
Memory of ‘Bill’ Korn
A note from Mr. H. W. Brown (who was with the Ward Williams expedition, on the upper reaches of the Fly River, Western Papua, in the late ’3o’s) refers to the late Bill Korn (also a Ward Williams man), and the PIM efforts to trace him after he disappeared in World War n.
We learned after the war that Mr. Korn and Mr. Evenson were captuVed by the Japs at Pondo, soon after the invasion, and taken to Rabaul. It appears they were not kept continuously with the main body of prisoners: and then came a day when a small party of about ten, including Korn and Evenson, simply disappeared and were never seen again. They probably tried to escape—they were of that type—and the Japs simply murdered them (as they did so often in the lands they invaded) and disposed of their bodies.
Mr. Brown recalls that, while goldseeking, he spent some three years in the now notorious Tele fomin area, working from a base camp on the Fly River called Kiunga.
Not a Pretty Picture
From a valued correspondent in London : “Herewith I send you the leading article from the News Chronicle of August 31, ‘Nehru and the Giant’ —indicating how Communist China plans slowly to swallow India—and
a statement from the Soviet News Agency, which says that if Indo nesia will join the Southeast Asia Pact, America will be prepared to consider sympathetically Indonesia’s claim to Dutch New Guinea.
“All this has a direct application to the infiltration of Asiatics into the countries of the South Pacific.
Not that that worries the present British Government in any way. The British do not understand the situ ation as it affects the South Pacific and don’t want to. . . . If and when the worst comes, the United States will be the only defender of the British Dominions, Colonies and Protectorates Down Under.”
And the United States do not do it because they love us, but because it is vital to the United States that they build, far out in the Pacific, something to protect the western coast of America against the ever growing menace of Red Asia.
Where the PIM Goes
“Your PIM has a reputation for popping up in the most unexpected places,” writes Mr. Paul Kamsler, of Cairns —the man who sold the Tiare to the Enterprise of NG expedition, and delivered her to Mr. A. E.
Jentzsch, at Lae.
“Three or four years ago I went into the house of the chief of a vil lage in the mountains of Vietnam, south of Saigon, and there I saw the walls of his room completely papered with PIM covers. I could not ima gine how on earth they got there.
But I found out that the French Resident in the District was a
former Tahiti official, and he got the PIM to keep in touch with Pacific friends, and he doled out the front covers as a favour to de serving native chiefs. . . .
“Incidentally, please inform your readers that my boat, Tiare, has been sold—l am still getting in quiries from all over the Islands, as a result of that For-sale adver tisement.”
Fiji's Big Game Fish
The recent PIM article about the way in which the Japanese have been catching big fish for the Van Camp establishment at Pago Pago has aroused the interest of Sir Henry Scott, of Suva. He says he cannot understand, from the pub lished description (which indicates the absence of a barb) how the big fish are kept on the hooks of the Japanese apparatus.
Sir Henry Scott, the late Sir Maynard Hedstrom and the late Mr. E. G. Theodore spent many, many hours trolling for big fish in Fiji waters; and Sir Henry has been making plans to get the present Fiji Governor (Sir Ronald Garvey) more deeply involved in this great sport. There are places on the launch run, between Viti Levu and Makogai, where fishing history can be made.
“I often took the late Mr.
Theodore out into these waters,”
Sir Henry told the PIM. “He was a keen fisherman. His only fault was that he was too severe—he wanted to land his fish too quickly—and consequently he lost many.” The fishing technique of the famous founder of Emperor apparently was well in character.