E. H. Reid . . . Austral-Frenchmam[?]

ERNEST H. REID is the best-known citizen of Vila in the New Hebrides, and about the soundest of the bi-lingual products of that Condominium.

He was born in Vila in 1911 at the Presby terian Mission Hospital on Iririki Island. His father was a boatbuilder, known as Ernest "Australia" Reid, because he was rather aggressively Australian. Ernie's mother was Jeanette Ohlen, of the well-known New Caledonia family. Ernie finished his education at the High School in Noumea, and later be came an official of the Condominium Public Works.

During the war he was seconded to the New Hebrides Defence Force, of which he was Commanding Officer with the acting rank of Ma : or. The New Hebrides was spared any land fighting, so Ernie fired no shots at the enemy, though his duties took him as far afield as Guadalcanal.

Since the war he has engaged in building and contracting and in looking after his properties, which include the picturesque little Hat Island near Vila. His family still own the only hotel in Vila, the Hotel Reid.

Ernie has built a small factory for making coconut oil and soap from the local copra, but red-tape technicalities liave so far pre vented it from functioning as a successful local industry.

In 1933 Ernie married a local girl, Margeurite Rimbert, and they have three attractive daughters, Yvette, Monique and Nadine, the last being rather a recent after thought. Despite his French education, Ernie has kept British nationality as an Australian citizen, and is the type on which a successful future for the Condominium could be built.

Unfortunately, with the present remotes trol and staffing of the Government England and France, the higher posts: mostly filled by transient men with one-9 national interests, rather than by bi-li[?] officials with some interest and loyalty t[?] co-operative ideal of the Condominium. —[?]

Hilder.