It Wasn't Expected of the Navy

Residents of Honiara, BSIP, ioho on Queen’s Birthday week-end were pleased to see RN sailors marching “for the first time in the Solomons in 50 years’', didn’t go on being pleased with the sailors for very long. Later in the week-end some of these lads from HMS "Cook” almost took the local hotel to pieces, and generally made themselves unpleasant. They broke up the furniture, and attacked the licensee. Local native policemen, not being used to Europeans who act this way, couldn’t cope. A Naval shore patrol was called and did not fare much better.

But a Honiara correspondent, writing about the incident, says the boys from “Cook” are not all hooligans; the ones he had to lunch were all nice blokes, who deplored the behaviour of the two or three trouble makers.