Papua-New Guinea
p. 23 · Read in the full issue
Visit of Tolala to Papua-New Guinea
Mr. Gordon Thomas—Known
to PIM readers as Tolala, writer of the monthly Talk- Talk feature—with Mrs. Thomas, will leave Sydney in mid-June in MV Bulolo to visit Papua and New Guinea.
Both are looking forward keenly to seeing what the post-war has done to the Territory, and to re newing old friendships.
Mr. Thomas first went to New Guinea in 1911 when that Terri tory was under German administra tion. He had various interests in New Guinea over the years and from 1925 to 1942, with one break of several years, was editor of the Rabaul Times. When the Japs in vaded New Britain in 1942, Mr.
Thomas became a prisoner.
But when the civilian prisoners were sent away from Rabaul in June, 1942, on the ill-fated Monte video Maru, Mr. Thomas, for some reason known only to the Japanese, was retained in Rabaul with half a dozen others to work in the freezer. He thus survived the war when hundreds of his friends were lost.
When Rabaul was relieved after the surrender of Japan, Mr. Thomas returned to Australia, where he has lived (at Campbelltown, NSW) ever since.
Mrs. Thomas was evacuated with other women residents of New’
Guinea in late 1941.