Still Going Strong
p. 73 · Read in the full issue
German South Seas Veterans Still Going Strong
Back before World War I, Germany had a colonial empire in the Pacific Ocean which took in Western Samoa, New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, and the Marshall and Caroline Islands. Much of the German colonising effort came through Hamburg, and today, nearly 50 years later, a number of distinguished old Germans still maintain a South Seas Club in that city. Mr. Fred Archer, of Rabaul, recently sent us the above photograph of some of the club members. They are, from left to right, Mr. Heinrich Rudolph Wahlen, General von Lettow-Vorbeck, Dr. Helfferich and Dir. Gust.
G. Hardorp.
Mr. Wahlen, who made his fortune in New Guinea’s North west islands, bought much of the valuable New Britain property of Messrs. E. E. Forsayth & Co. (“Queen Emma”) in 1912. He is now 89 and in magnificient fettle. He says he expects to reach his century. General von Lettow-Vorbeck was the commander of the German forces in East Africa when World War I broke out. Dr.
Helfferich, a former German consul, was in the Netherlands Indies when war came. Mr. Hardorp is an old associate of Mr. Wahlen and a director of several Hamburg companies.