yesterday

In an editorial in “PIM” for

February, 1943, a plea was

made for the formation —after

Japan was defeated of a

South Pacific Territories

Federation, which would link

all territories from Papua and

Mandated New Guinea to

French Oceania into one strong

group to enable them to

“escape from the dead hands

of Australia, Great Britain and

New Zealand”. Other items

in that issue of 20 years ago were: — After having virtually ignored the north coast of New Guinea for a year, the Japanese had established naval stations and air fields there, especially at Wewak and Madang. • • • A “Sabbath calm” was reigning over Tahiti and its neighbouring islands—broken only twice a week when a local radio orator belabored “the already badly battered bodies of Retain and his merry men of Vichy”. • • • Miss Merle Farland, of Auck land, a nurse attached to the Methodist Mission in the Solomons, had reached the safety of Noumea after escaping from a Japanese occupied island in a canoe. She was sick with malaria and weighed only 90 lb. « • • About 50 Rarotongan girls had been employed in Wellington, New Zealand, as domestics. The girls had to understand some English and be certified medically fit before they were allowed to leave the Cook Islands. • • « For the first time in 50 years or more, the lagoons of the Tuamotu Archipelago were open for unrestricted mother-of-pearl shell fishing. • • • Two Morobe men attached to the Australian Army had achieved a valuable feat by overlanding 500 Zebu cattle from Madang to Wau so that Australian troops at Wau could have fresh meat. The men were Corporal Harry Lumb and Rifleman Danny Leahy, both former members of the NGVR. • • • An outbreak of cerebro-spinal meningitis in New Caledonia was under control, thanks to the efforts of United States Army doctors and the local medical service. There had been 12 mainland cases, in cluding four native deaths, and 12 cases at Lifou.