Fear Drove
p. 22 · Read in the full issue
Another Coastwatcher Story Fear Drove His Feet
Amongst a current flood of New Guinea books, one got special launching treatment in Australia at the end of October. The book is called “Fear Drive My Feet”, and its author is Peter Ryan, now in the Public Relations business in Mel bourne, Victoria.
AT the time the events in the book take place he was 18, a lowly member of Kanga Force that operated from Wau in New Guinea in 1942-43 and successfully bluffed the Japs from trying to take Wau for a whole year. [When the Japs did try, of course, the Australians were by then ready and the re sounding defeat of the enemy amongst Wilde’s coffee trees is now history.] A great deal has been written about the Coastwatchers and other special forces that operated in the Islands during the war; little, if anything, about Kanga Force which differed from the others in so far as men were expected to operate mostly without adequate supplies and frequently without that essential for behind-the-lines patrols—radio.
When men in the Saruwaged Range wanted to send advice to HQ, they had to send a runner or go themselves, right down and over the Markham to “Bob’s” on the Wampit River.
Trip to Melbourne
The force was supplied via Port Moresby, the Lakekamu River, seven days pack from Bulldog to Wau, and four further days from Wau to “Bob’s” (or one of the other camps on the Markham).
For the book launching in Oc tober, Sergeant Kari, of Royal P-NG Constabulary, was taken to Mel bourne. As Corporal Kari it was he who, in 1942, guided Ryan over the Markham and into the Suru waged for the first time.
How much of this book is 18year-old’s reaction, and how much the mature reflection of a 35-year old man, the reader will have to de cide for himself. There will be a full review next month.
An Agricultural and Industrial Loans Board has been established in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony and it is expected to be In operation by the end of the year.
Its function will be, like a similar Board in Fiji, to provide a part of the capital, on a loan basis, for pro jects designed to aid the economy of the Colony.