Do You Remember?

Readers of the Pacific Islands Monthly of January, 1939, would have got the impression that the South Pacific was at last beginning to climb out of the doldrums of the previous years. There appeared to be increased activity everywhere—in all industries, including some new ones—except copra, but hopes were being raised even with that. Here are extracts from that issue:

Following a recently concluded sale to the G. and E. Islands Colony of BP s lease of the Phoenix Islands, headquarters at Tarawa sent off District Officer G.

Gallagher to establish Government offices in the Phoenix. * * * New Guinea people were complaining, even in those days, that the air service to Australia was inadequate. On most occasions bookings had to be made ma y weeks in advance”. * * * The New Guinea Government schooner “Sirius” sailed on January 4 from Kabaul to the October and Sepik Rivers Junction —to pick up ADO Jim Taylor and his party after their patrol right through the centre of NG, via Hagen. 5J5 $ There were reports of droiifht from right across the Pacific—from New Game* to the distant islands of French * with the Marquesas the worst hit. in Gilbert and Ellice did not escape. * * *

There was a minor stir in Apia at the activities of a small group of Germans said to have an admiration for Nazism, and who asked publicly for the return of Samoa to Germany. But the older Ger mans did not take the matter seriously. * * * Mr. S. H. Wilson, of Savusavu, Fiji, suggested in an article that it was time for Government protection of the copra industry, which had always had a raw deal in the Pacific. The time would come, he said, when Governments would realise that copra was a mainstay of Islands' economy, and if they wanted to make the South Pacific safe against aggression they would have to help residents make a safe living. Britain, he suggested, should give preference to British copra. * * * Well-known Papuan planter, the late Mr. T. L. Sefton, told reporters in Sydney that the Dutch had done little to develop their side of the Territory, and that Aus tralia should try to take Dutch New Guinea over and develop it.