Ava-Ava Islanders Were 'Jarred'

Don't Win an Island!

By Fiji Tabus

From Notes Supplied by a Californian Correspondent Fiji got some of the publicity it deserved when those two atives of Ava Ava Island, Kent Shelby and Douglas Howard, ot back home to California in late May; but the poor old British impire (or Commonwealth) got some cracks it didn’t merit.

spite of the fact that two lilllon Americans found us Dlerable during the Pacific War, ' newspapers insist on following same old line that down here are a lot of Colonel Blimps regularly wring a couple of ve necks before breakfast.

Fiji was just looking for ble when it agreed to co-operate he Win-an-Island contest last —a contest in which Shelby lied the winning line of a rick that entitled him to a interest in the mud-sand-and grove islet normally called alu, and kindly put at the )sal of the competition’s sors by the Fijian government. iart from the fact that it had the hallmarks of Hollywood which mixes with British rnments like oil and water, the of the affair could have been rately written a year ago when is first mooted.

Fijians or Indians live on alu (or Ava Ava), which gives ry good indication of its com ial worth—yet someone seems lave allowed the winner to ve that something could be 3 of it. In his off-moments, is still yammering about :ens, fruit farms or tourists, ne who knows anything about I the life primitive beneath a h of coconut trees would have led this crazy idea with a barge pole, w comes the pay off.

Never-Never Land

ji Taboos Jar Californians” the headline used by San cisco Chronicle when it inter ;d Shelby and Howard on va on May 20. ’s the never-never land,” they

Shelby saying.

id that’s just about the way eel about going back,” agreed foward. d for why? It wasn’t because were short of funds or had ve tough. “. . . While other ngers in the dining salon of British vessel ate their breakfast :rs and pretended not to hear”, ’ told all: was the small number of Euro -3 who ostracised us because we

associated with Fijians,” he said.

“They wouldn’t let us into their clubs. They wouldn’t even let us

work when we were broke and needed money.”

Said Howard modestly—and you can put it in your beer and swill it, you stiff-necked Kai Vitis—“We made more friends amongst the islanders in a few weeks than the white colonials have in their whole lives there”.

Most of the trouble was about Suva clubs. At first they were told they couldn’t enter because they wore beards (Naval types please note); but even when they promised to shave these off they were barred. (Probably someone forget to tell them that barring non-members from clubs is an old British CUStom) . (Over)

Disillusioned it disillusionment had begun i before the two young men had California, outward bound. This irently was because Shelby’s had decided, like a sensible tan, that she didn’t want any of it and this had, in turn, ed Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to ird the escapade as unsuitable icity for their zany film, The e Hut.

GM didn’t come through at all, ed Shelby. st to be fair, the Chronicle re er interviewed a Fiji planter

also happened to be on Orsova. planter tried to explain how ; s in the British colony: e just can’t have beachcombers ig the natives a bad example,” iid. “You have a similar situa over here, you know, in the lern States.” ’d certainly like to meet that planter.

Stony Broke

2lby and Howard threw around w credits, however: to the ic Area Travel Assn., the Fiji )rs’ Bureau and the Orient ten they got back home they stony broke. They had, another newspaper, to borrow y from Orsova passengers to ugarettes. viously, they told reporters in lulu they had taken $4OO with and had gone through the lot. hundred dollars is roughly £2OO :r money; about £25 per week ach of the lh weeks they were ji. They probably don’t know it there are plenty of “white ials” raising families respect on that kind of dough at Fiji really thinks about the ilous episode only Fiji knows, i who had most to do it have refused to be drawn.

The Fiji Times latterly contented

itself with two dignified items: One

in April asking if anyone had a job that would tide the young men over until their ship sailed, and if so to contact the Times office. The other was this, from the Beach comber column, on May 6: People In Suva stared agog yesterday at two men who looked strangely like Americans, strutting around the city garbed in loud bula shirts, sulus, coloured waist sashes and of all things, armed with a war club.

To cap things off the two men wore thick moustaches and beards.

Their names? Kent Shelby and Douglas Howard.

Shelby, it will be remembered, was the

winner of the “Win an Island" contest staged in the United States last year.

They left in the “Orsova” yesterday to return to California but before they sailed away from us they left a very nasty taste in a lot of mouths.

More than one resident was heard to comment that their behaviour recently in both Suva and Lautoka was no credit to either of them.

It is obvious that they leave our shores with a “chip on their shoulders” and it is also certain that Fiji is going to get a thorough lambasting through the Press when they get back to San Francisco.

It appears that if the Ava Ava

Islanders didn’t think much of Fiji,

there are a couple of people in Fiji who don’t think much of Messrs.

Shelby and Howard, either.