Native Ex-Servicemen On The

March Oyer 'Colour Bar' Fuss

Prom a Port Moresby Correspondent A long-standing feud between the Papua-New Guinea Ex- Servicemen’s Association and the Returned Services League flared up again late in April and, fanned by charge and counter charge, had by mid-May reached new heights of bitterness.

IHE first shot in the latest outburst of fighting was fired on Anzac ay by Daera Ganiga, president of e P-NG Native Servicemen’s Asso ation, who bitterly complained his embers had been barred from enter g the Port Moresby Ex-Service en’s Club for a drink following the aditional march.

He accused the RSL (which be use of its influence on the club’s ecutive, does in fact control its fairs) of allowing a colour bar to Ist at the club.

Surely it wouldn’t have hurt the Lib to invite native ex-servicemen for a convivial drink on the one iy of the year when comradeship ould be at its highest, he protested.

Many of Ganiga’s 80 members who ok part in the march that day hoed their leader’s hurt complaints.

The club replied to the charges ying, “Only members are allowed the club on Anzac Day, and none ' the native ex-servicemen are mem ;rs.”

They're Eligible

In fact, native ex-servicemen are igible for membership, but so far me has applied. Although they be jve some of them would be suc issful applicants for membership, ey say they wouldn’t feel welcome a club which they claim for years is been little more than polite to em.

The inference is, quite clearly, that the club now accepted, some native L-servicemen it would be doing so ir political reasons only.

A second complaint Ganiga and s men voiced on Anzac Day was iat they were barred from member lip of the League itself.

It was this complaint which drew the fire of RSL officials.

They angrily snorted that native ex-servicemen couldn’t become RSL members because they weren’t holders of the “Returned from Active Ser vice” badge. And this, pointed out the secretary of the P-NG State Branch of the RSL, Mr. Jim Knight, was not issued by the League, but by the three branches of the Armed Ser vices.

But this argument hasn’t meant much to Ganiga’s men.

“We fought here in exactly the same way the Australians did. No one asked us to go away and fight, if they had we would have” they say, and, of course, they have a very sound argument.

Frightened

But they also point out that the real qualification for RSL member ship is the “39-45 Star”, a medal showing that its bearer served in a theatre of war. And they argue that the Returned from Active Ser vice Badge has been “no more than just an excuse” to keep them out of the League.

“They were frightened to let us into the RSL directly after the war be cause they were frightened we would ask for repatriation benefits,” says Ganiga.

Ganiga adds, and he is backed up by many an old Territorian, that the badge has been promised them on several occasions over the years.

Until last year the matter of native ex-servicemen entering the club for a drink on Anzac Day had not arisen, for last year was the -first

zac Day to follow the lifting of nor prohibition.

Until then the executive of the -Servicemen’s Club on Ela Beach 1 always invited the men from the ive contingent to enjoy “lolly ter” and buns in some back room the premises, while they and their mbers enjoyed beers at the bar.

Sfaturally enough the natives ex ited that with the lifting of the nor ban they would be invited to nk with club members. But not m the lolly water and buns were ered last year, and officers of the :ific Islands Regiment came to the cue when a scene looked like de oping. They invited the men to the £ Mess.

Phis year the native ex-servicemen ren’t going to take it lying down, ey saw the club’s failure to invite ,m in for a drink as an insult, and In’t hesitate in saying so.

Following reports in the Australian jss of the Anzac Day incidents in rt Moresby, members of the Native -Servicemen’s Association received flood of letters from sympathetic servicemen in Australia.

Encouraged by this support and by : growing body of opinion among rritory RSL members that native servicemen should be admitted to : RSL, Ganiga has now decided on irm stand.

He has said his association will proach native members of the mse of Assembly asking them to :k the withdrawal of liquor licences >m RSL clubs throughout the Terri •y until the RSL alters its stand. If » matter is raised in the House — d there’s nothing to prevent this— » RSL is going to be placed in an tremely embarrassing position.

There’s no doubt that Ganiga and suporters know this, and perhaps 2 threat of action will be enough.