The Editors' Mailbag

For and Against the Indonesians

Ex-Fijians, Mr. and Mrs. Frank Exon, now are in Pakistan, where he is supervising the erection of radio stations given to Pakistan by Aus tralia under the Colombo Plan. In a private letter, Frank writes in terestingly of impressions they gained when they passed through Indonesia, en route to Karachi, in December: AFTER a few days of enlighten ment, first in Sourabaya and then in Djakarta, we feel much as you did about Indonesia.

Not for generations will these pathetic peoples build a worth-while nation —unless some leader arises brave enough to mould rifles into plough-shares and their precious rubber estates (already sadly neglected) into contraceptives rather than motor tyres. For the rich fertility of these lovely islands, and the fecundity of their peoples are their undoing—and could be ours...

In a lush land, crying for agri cultural development, too many of the young and reasonably capable sit either in Government offices

pushing around files and peoples career round in military lon armed to their excellent teeth with a purpose as vague, it w t . seem, as that of the coffee-colou co-ordinators of the latest eleo platform—leaving all useful won the peons and peasants.

The waste of capable man-po< would not matter quite so muc'.c a rural community. But thi sullen, wilful, bewildered child have suddenly inherited mo« cities of up to two million se with all the complex services ne«f to keep a modern city’s head aj Its sewage.

If they are not to revert to juu their inhabitants must call in side help—and it won’t be Du For too long the Dutch have gs too little and taken too much., could be us (or our side) if n of us thought more highly of; Colombo Plan —even as highly < as Russia seemingly does, sinces is paying it the tribute of erm tion or attempted emulation Nehru and India.

I know you think that what Ij many others are doing is om drop in the ocean and that ; Colombo Plan won’t alter hiss Maybe—but it doesn’t take m Pot: Permang,, either, to tun deluged countryside red—a here and there will do it if the ing and the concentration are n Despite Dutch warnings yours—we wandered with our wod (a foursome) through dockland r fifty miles inland to lovely 80. and met with nothing but help < shy courtesy, from official civilian alike.

In the justly-famed Botar.

Gardens there we wandered fox hour, encouraged by the man ofi trees and the warm friendlines the Malayan women as they 1 changed smile for smile with oc Only from private enterprise, , prisingly enough, did we meet ; courtesy or disinterest, or botM hotels and shops—and that critii —plus one for serving fl crockery and doubtful food — for the famed Hotel des Indies,,i

Take that Amphibious

Jeep, Sisters

Ex-Islanders have a never-enr source of entertainment in pic:up “blues” in metropolitan nr papers. Because of geography, mostly come from Australia— newspapers in US and UK d<r too, when they bother to e Islands news at all.

So, according to a clipping sen by a reader of the Sydney M.\

mtly, St. Vincent’s Hospital ses Ann Ryan and Noeline Man fly to Port Moresby in mid uary and from there motor th to spend some time on a itation near Lae.

Lther the newspaper was mis rmed; or the nurses are in for itter disappointment. The only I that goes approximately north i Moresby ends about 50 miles in the sticks. From that point could walk the rest of the oda trail, over the Owen Stanleys best point about 13,000 ft.) and n to Gona or Buna (which is in Papua) . From that point could. . . but why bother? A naster service leaves Moresby larly Tuesdays, Wednesdays, lays and Mondays. Flight time: •oximately an hour. ■ the sisters are still determined mtor, the only other solution is amphibious jeep, around the t).

New Guinea

luce Tea?

ERE has been much talk re ;ently about the possibilities of 'Tew Guinea growing tea for enormous market in Australia es a Brisbane correspondent). a we doubters ask how New ea natives are to be trained to tea, in the manner followed iccessive generations of trained ackers, we are told that this be done by machines. An ex nced tea-planter friend of , now here in Brisbane, asks many machines can pick the itional two leaves and a bud.” s is more to tea-picking than Dulling off the leaves, r old friend, Bob Trent, late ie Government tea plantation le Waria River, has resigned his Administration post at ina, where he has been plant ed has bought a dairy farm Dganlea, some 10 miles south isbane. He seems settled down I think, somehow, he will feel that call of the Islands, and to go back. He is another man J an discuss NG tea possibilities

interestingly.