Gave To N. Guinea

Adjustment

Perspective

At The Germans

Gave To N. Guinea

'olala,” himself a pre-1914 New iea pioneer, revives a few cries.

TH the passing of the years, perspectives are corrected and war-time prejudices are ad d. When memories of War I fresh in TNG, and official pro nda still rife concerning the il treatment of the natives by lan planters,” you seldom heard od word for the work of the Jerman settlers. the remarks passed at the ng of the Headquarters of the ;ers’ Association of NG in ul last January, by no other an ex-President of the Asso n, came as a welcome indica of a more mature mentality i greater appreciation of true s, transcending national dices. d the ex-President (J. C. ,ly, OBE, of the Light Horse ar I, and a Lt.-Colonel of the n War II) ;

“ To-day , after the passing of many years, me can look back on the men (the former German planters) and analyse objectively what they have done. They were fine men and worked hard to open up this land. I mean it when I say that our success to-day can be traced back to the start these men gave the copra industry .”

And let me here add that those foundations were solid and sub stantial.

THERE were no hit-and-miss tactics when these systematic Teutons started carving out homes along the coast-lines of the islands of the Bismarck Archipelago or the mainland of Kaiser-Wilhelms land. The Big Firms extended to them generous credit and, in the majority of cases, the plantation homes were solid structures, the like of which has seldom since been seen. The reasons were that labour and material were plentiful and cheap, and the Germans loved their creature comforts, even in the most isolated spots.

Two houses I recall; both located on remote plantations—Singaua and Iboki. They were most elaborate structures of hardwood timber, well designed and erected for permanent use—so unlike the average Aus tralian, who is quite satisfied with

primitive housing and the minimum of home-comforts; desirous of putting it* all into crop production or “a trip South.”

This is very well up to a point, but it does not tend for home building or permanency, which is how the Germans looked upon their NG homes.

JT was these same men who, when they returned to Germany after having been deprived of their properties, were defrauded by their

own Government of their com pensation for the years they spent in laying the foundations of the NG copra industry.

The story is a long and sad one.

In a nutshell: Under the Peace Treaty of Ver seilles, they were “expropriated.

From the Expropriation Board m Rabaul they received a full state ment and a valuation of their assets.

These values were credited to the German Government’s Reparations Account, on a gold basis. But when the planters applied to their Gov ernment for payment, they were paid in the deflated German currency. Result: Germany’s Rep arations Account was credited by thousands of pounds for a planta tion, while the owner received only a few pounds.

One can imagine how bitter (to put it mildly) present Australian owners of flourishing plantations would feel if, by a throw of the in ternational dice, they suffered in a like manner.

Yes, the very least we can do for these old-time German planters is to accord them credit for the work they did in ex-German New Guinea.

SOME of the ex-German planters were more fortunate.

With typical British justice, there was set up an Appeal Tribunal for those expropriated persons who felt they had legal grounds of appeal and, with the juggling of the map

of Europe following War I, some of them found themselves to be nationals of Powers friendly to the Allied Nations.

One such was none other than the Postmaster in Rabaul during the German regime. His appeal was up held and he retained his property.

Others, married to Pacific Islanders, were also allowed to remain and

retain their estates. Some, althoc expropriated, were allowed to main if they had adequate me of livelihood within the TerritoD ON the same subject, the good meat, into which t newly-formed Historical Soo of New Britain could get its t© in the “No Snakes in Herbertsho

y (Nov. PIM, p. 86). dually, the plan of small settle rs in the Bainings, dreamed up r rederick Wilhelm von Ploennies le early 1900’s (which the article i “came to nothing”) was re id, as “Time eventually proved, hen the Exproboard, in 1921, over the Bainings properties, e was, without doubt, a closely ed community along the coast at any rate, from New Mobis (at the top end of Ataliklikan • to Rangerere (the nearest tation to Cape Lambert). can recall 16 plantations, in ing three inland estates (Gunt- Dehe, Lessul and Upper Seeberg) he time the Board took over the German settlers—most of m were German-Australians Queensland. The plantations sawmilling were well established the mining potentialities came , with the discovery of gold and ore near Rangerere. But these never developed to any ex ch names as the Bolten lers (sawmillers at Nambung), ;e at Neinduk, Werner at im, Batze at Lilinakaia, are all niscent of the German-Aus m settlers who came in the 1900’s and (if I am not mis -0 were given special con ms to take up land in this area ving the massacre at St. Paul’s Mission, in the Bainings, of » and natives, in 1904. lowing this massacre the Ger ■. Government sent out a ive expedition, captured those ?cted with the massacre and ;hem on “calaboose” work on tfassawa plantation (belonging Neu Guinea Compagnie), ( the very intensive terracing of alls on that estate, it the Bainings are not a wellarea, as mentioned in the e, is, I think, due to the fact all communication with Rabaul

has been, more or less, by sea. The hinterland of the Bainings has cer tainly been neglected. The coastal area, however, has been well

developed and some of the Terri tory’s best cocoa has been produced there.

The spirit of the man who

med those dreams back in the f 1900’s can rest assured that )lans have long reached fruition, cidentally, it was the Bainings’ which received such wide [city in a Sydney daily paper he early 1920’5, when Malcolm (now CMG, and a noted Aus an historian and “Ek Dum” of Bulletin ) drew a bead on the ©board for its alleged neglect of sx-German plantations in this ict. It was headline news. . R. H. T. Beaumont, Corn oner of Police in Fiji, was in Zealand in February attending iference of Police Commission from New Zealand, all Aus n States, and nearby Island cries. » NSW Anti-Tuberculosis Asso n is to make its first overseas y on Nauru Island. It will send m of six to Nauru in May, led Ir. Humbert Wilson. All of i’s population of 3,600 will be red and skin-tested. ’ahitian soccer team may make sit to New Caledonia this i to return a visit paid by New onia to Tahiti two years ago. rangements fall through, Fiji !w Zealand will be invited to a team to New Caledonia.