Do You Re

From PIWI of 20 Years ago

ON the surface, anyhow, Pacific

on t life 20 years ago appeared to be going on much as usual, with the Cook Islands worrying about its orange shipments, Fiji about its Public Service reorganisa- Guinea talking about its gold and volcanoes. . . But through it all passed some ominous

paragraphs, dealing with Japanese

in the Pacific, Pearl Harbour defence and the future Of the

Philippines.

TT . ' j TjTji/r Here IS a round-up from PIM of November, 1937, showing some of the troubles: Suva's Fijian and Indian communities were up in arms, not unexpectedly, over a circular put out by a big tourist liner for the benefit of its passengers, asking them not to fraternise with Indians and natives when ashore. tl* *:,,„| ar ca ;j /'|» : c -X rniircp recognised that fraternisation has generally been the result of thoughtlessness and a spirit t ourists U r 3 T he' *a u t hoVi tie s" point 'out, that anything in the nature of social intercourse between Europeans and natives is to be deprecated, as the latter have not been accustomed to it and, therefore, do not understand it, and it might lead to unpleasantness".

We think the company must have got its countries mixed; after some nasty letters by the Indians, the company withdrew the circular.

A correspondent in Papeete was condemning, with some heat, the "flood of unwholesome literature" that was making out Tahiti as a "place of unbridled license", and as a result the wrong kind of tourists were being attracted. Tahiti people wanted to know why tourists couldn't get hold "of really good and of the tt)e wor d we inhabit in the South PaciflC Ocean". Which is a continuing trouble, not confined to Tahiti, * * * In New Guinea, Ivan Champion was flown by seaplane to the newly discovered Lake Kutubu; Port Moresby's water was being rationed again; and Enterprise of New Guinea Gold and Petroleum (NL) had again—and this time finally—been refused an oil prospecting P ermit ( the V 9 ot !t almost 20 V ears ,ater >' * * * Tonga got a visit from its first Japanese ship, the "Caroline Maru", which had 13 male passengers aboard, "who, according to their own story have chartered the vessel for a '?i su , r , e Vj'P am °". 9 d ° f S d ° ut t h Pa^ f,C ' nil A a h ld N a " rf.si?

J;P a "e f e settlers were proving the possibilities of cotton growmg * * * There appeared to be what was described as "world-wide anger" at the neglect of Robert Louis Stevenson's tomb behind Apia, in Western Samoa, and requests were made to have the New Zealand Government care for it in

perpetuity.