Mystery of
p. 149 · Read in the full issue
[?]At Was
That Box?
Mystery of H-Bomb Island
[GINEER Les Livingstone, of the Cook Islands vessel Melva, who was one of the very few Euro i outsiders to visit Penrhyn I during the British Pacific omb tests, series No. 1, told sthing of the excitement caused e, at that time, when his ship hed Auckland, in November, i probably the nearest inhabited to the test area, quite a lot nterest happened at Penrhyn, a whisper of which reached the ide world’s press at the time, i British and American military s set up camp near Omoka ?e, radio masts shot up, canteens led, and for a while the atolls ilation was swelled by several Ired outsiders. What the Ameri were there for no one outside ialdom, which never releases information, however innocent, i quite figure out. Considerable ’est surrounded an American ” —not a “little black box”, a huge stainless steel or alloy sr, devoid of windows, which parked at the airfield a mile ) from the main camp, is was trundled out of the gap naw of a big American freighter aft which dropped in, and tually it left the same way. ’. Livingstone said that one ;ing sidelight of social life dur the condominium regime was while the Americans, with their rs, were ever welcome in the sh canteen, the “Limeys” with “soft” currency were totally ceptable from a business point ew in the American canteen, dollars, no service—so the only ce that British servicemen had ijoying some of the amenities present in the British canteen as the guests of Americans who prepared to find the necessary i” currency.
Mr. Livingstone said that people were apt to forget all about the Pacific’s war-time built airstrips.
Penrhyn airstrip, of plain packed coral, virtually abandoned when the Americans left after the war, proved to be capable of handling very large aircraft with practically no prior preparation for use.
Islanders In Sydney
These Islands people visited the Polynesian Association recently in Sydney: LEFT; Charles Poircuite, Pierre Pelletier, Robert Maestracci.
CENTRE: Miss Louisa Chan, of Rabaul, NG, who is training at St. Vincent's Hospital, Sydney.
RIGHT: Mr. and Mrs. Maafu Wilbanis, formerly of Tonga and Suva, now of Sydney.
Photos by Telephotos.