Clearing Away
p. 29 · Read in the full issue
The Debris
Japanese Return To
Rabaul
THE Japs are back in Rabaul to assist in clearing up the mess made by their sunken ships in the harbour in 1942-45. For years, Rabaul residents have been com plaining about the unsightly junk littered about the harbour and along the foreshores.
Nobody wanted to do anything about it. Now has come the realisa tion that the Japs are the only ones, anyhow, who can do the job on an economic basis.
The first contingent of the salvage men arrived by two chart ered aircraft in the last week in February, and others were to follow.
Rabaul will have these Japanese for company for the next two years. It is expected that after clearing Rabaul waters, they will use Rabaul as a base for clearing away wrecks from elsewhere in New Britain, around the New Guinea mainland and Bougainville.
The compound now prepared for these Japanese workers is only a few miles from the spot where the Japs first landed when they invaded New Guinea in January, 1942