Coastwatchers

Us Praise For The

Fifteen officers of the us Marine Corps arrived in Aus tralia on November 3 to take part in the dedication of a memorial gateway at Camp Balcombe, near Melbourne.

The officers were members of the Ist Marine Division which rested at Balcombe after the battle of Guadalcanal—the first American offensive of World War 11.

Leader of the party, General L. C Shepherd, spoke highly of the Aus tralian Coastwatchers’ work in New Guinea and BSIP during the war and made a substantial donation to Coast-watchers' Memorial Fund The memorial will take the form of a navigation light at Madang, NG Other American donors have been Richard Nixon (Vice-President of the USA), Lieut.-General R. L Eichelberger, Fleet Admiral William S. Halsey and Mr. James A Michener, who praised the watchers in his book, Tales of the South Pacific.

H Miss Dilys Rowlands, principal of the Queen Salote College for Girls in Nukualofa, Tonga, and Miss Liu Tongilava, a senior Tongan teacher at the school, will be dele gates to the women’s Pan-Pacific Conference, which will open in Manila on January 19.

Passengers departing from the Cooks per Maui Pomare in De cember on vacation included Mr and Mrs. Leon Pitt and family; Mrs. Paget (Health Department Registrar), Mrs. Leopard (whose husband is Union Steam Ship Co manager), Mrs. Tiare Foster, Mrs K. Andersen, and Mrs. Wilkinson