Those Japanese

Medical Cases

There was an implication in a despatch from a P-NG “PIM” corres pondent recently that an excessive number of Japanese fishermen suffer from appendicitis—and is it merely an excuse to put in to some port?

Actually by no means all cases, and perhaps not the majority, are appendix cases.

It should be remembered that there are about 600 licensed Japanese fish ing vessels in service, involving possibly about 15,000 fishermen, of which possibly 2,000 are manning vessels of the Line at the height of the season, and that tuna long-lining is not the safest of occupations.

We do not know what the incidence of appendicitis is among Japanese; we hazard a guess that it involves 10 per cent, of South Pacific Europeans; so the dozen or so Japanese cases that are landed in the Islands each year seem fairly normal.

A non-appendix case was landed at

Suva in October.

Jps.