Mouldered

[?]er The Wartime Trails [?]he Top Secret Files Had Mouldered

rom a Rabaul Correspondent an underground room at

il where once the brains

5 Japanese Navy planned

; strategy, a former United

Marine recently brushed

the dust of 15 years.

the communications equip ;nt that once lined the walls d gone; the maps and top s t files had long-since jred; and the busy urgency d longer there. their places were lines of » and rows of bottles, for the ;round room which was once Dp South Pacific Japanese intelligence centre is now f the liquor store of Rabaul’s ruinea Club. former Marine who made the j pilgrimage is Lt.-Col.

C. Hayes, who served on Icanal and is now re-visiting Pacific battle areas, is writing articles for the ;s’ magazine, Leatherneck, hting changes which have >d in former centres of war.

Home For Christmas (S hopes to be back at his in Washington for Christmas an absence in the Pacific >, Australia and New Zealand rly six months. ! scars of war are healing,” d on his arrival at Rabaul Santas flight from Bougain >aid: “Where the great air were once filled with life I today only wide swaithes cut h the trees and already i with dense undergrowth. ! tunnels and caves at Rabaul lling in, although it is nice some of them put to good e such as your liquor store n the biggest landmarks of ittle, the wrecked ships, are earing as the salvage teams work or as the rust eats lem.” ss expressed deep apprecia >f the assistance which his n had received from Pacific residents, from governments administrations, and from s Empire Airways.