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Pir Is Back To

“The PIR trouble is dead now. The regiment is in very good order." So said a former wartime commander, Col. H. T.

Allan, after inspecting the regiment in Port Moresby in March —his first visit in eight years.

“The rioting incidents of late last year need never have happened,” he said. “But they did happen, and the following Press publicity, and the attitude of panic by some Port Moresby people, made the situation a lot worse than it need have been.

But it’s dead now.

“The new scheme for officers, which will keep them with the regiment, and make them learn Pidgin, is a good one.”

“Blue” Allan nevertheless did not waste words when he addressed a PIR parade during his visit. He told the men that their fathers and grandfathers were annoyed with them, and the young men had to do nothing to tarnish the name of the old soldiers.