The editas Maillay

Neither '"Apathy Nor Fever" At

Bsip Elections

Sir, —As a Honiara resident I was rcterested to read in PIM (July) that most people knew little or nothing” bout the recent general election here.

Whatever the reason for the poor oil in Honiara one wonders if it ould really have been that. Election meetings were held by all candidates i the capital; one of them, at the )cal cinema, was packed to over owing. For the first time a candidate sed a loudspeaker car to patrol the reels, and posters and exhortatory gns of all sorts were to be seen iroughout the town.

Perhaps the real reason for the iw poll in Honiara is one for the biologist, and it may or may not j coincidence that the place with ic smallest turnout is also the place ith the largest number of European sidents. However this may be, the 1.46 per cent, poll in Honiara was at reflected in the Protectorate as a hole. The average over all electoral stricts was 52.56 per cent., and in ►ur districts it was well over 60 :r cent.

PIM appears to suggest that •0,000 people were eligible to vote, it the official estimate of those igible to register was 64,033. Of ese 39,101 did.

These figures seem to indicate a ilance somewhere between the two tremes of “apathy” and “fever”, though it has been noted that the elanesian is disinclined to admire e latter characteristic of many iropean societies. As an elected with one of the larger ajorities put it, “We don’t want to Europeanised. We want to be dlised”!

David Tudor-Pole

lief Information Officer, aniara, BSIP. • Yes, but only 17,689 people ted.

Dealing With Pirates

Sir, — Jane Gregor’s story, “But 2 pirates are not all dead” {PIM, ay, p. 20) does indeed expose the re spot of housewives all over the irld, and most particularly touchy those housewives who must do sir daily shopping in free ports, have lived in two such places, nama City and Hong Kong, and thought the good ladies of Hong >ng in the early 1950’s came up th a stunning solution.

Sponsored by a church group that is actively concerned about the y in which visiting soldiers, sail > and tourists were being cheated, ' volunteer ladies made up a list those merchants whom they knew

through personal dealings to be emi nently fair.

The list was mimeographed and distributed through hotels, army and navy clubs, to shipping and airline offices and tourist bureaus, and it was, of course, the reliable merchants who soon began getting the lion’s share of the business.

The ladies’ group had set up its own Better Business Bureau with splendid ethical leadership which re vised the list bi-monthly, and bene fits were enjoyed by the local people and tourists both.

Perhaps someone has already sent Jane Gregor the Hong Kong solution (I’m afraid it takes PIM quite a while to reach me). Anyway, I, too, like to shop when I am in Fiji.

Barbara Kennedy

Atherton, California,

Usa.

"Bounty" Relics

Sir, —Among the good things in July PIM were the articles by F. B.

Holloway and Robert Langdon on the Bounty relics (pp. 88-89).

The pintle and rudder-gudgeon, referred to are in the Otago Museum, Dunedin, New Zealand.

I saw them there in 1961 and took a few notes about them at the time.

They are described on the exhibit card as “pintle and rudder-gudgeon of HMS Bounty ”. Underneath is the information that they were “secured by Mr. Parkins Christian” and pre sented to the museum. No dates are given. Near this exhibit is a fine model of the Bounty made by Mr. H.

Chennells.

Merval Hoare

Norfolk Island.

Bauer Field

Sir, —Welcome word has just been received that New Hebrides Condo minium officials have agreed to retain the name of Bauer Field at Vila, in stead of mis-calling it Bauerfield Airport.

I am indebted to Mr. Ken Hutton of Santo, member of the New Hebrides Advisory Council, for an extract from minutes of the Council’s 13th session.

In it, the French Resident Com missioner, presiding, exnlains lin guistic confusion over “field” and “airfield” and affirms that “its name will continue to be Bauer Field, just

as it has been in the past”. Proper names are important heritages of every country. Especially should names with historical values be re tained.

Bauer Field was named in 1942 for Major Harold W. “Indian Joe”

Bauer a US Marine Corps aviator who won his nation’s highest military honour (posthumously) for his role in defending the South Pacific.

In the spirit of its New Hebrides neighbour, it is hoped the British Solomon Islands will continue to honour the deeds of Marine Major Lofton R. Henderson, whose name has identified Guadalcanal’s airfield for 25 years.

Perhaps others can be inspired to revive the name of an Australian hero, Sir Charles Kingsford-Smith, when referring to Sydney’s inter national airport.

Robert C. Hayes

Lieut-Col., US Marines (retired).

Mercer Island.

Washington, USA.

U.S. Trust Territory

Sir, —I enjoyed Judy Tudor’s article on Saipan ( PIM , June, p. 26).

Between 1920 and 1945, the majority of immigrants were Koreans, Formosans and Okinawans whilst the officials were metropolitan Japanese.

Immigration by Japanese nationals was stepped up and would, if un interrupted by war, eventually have brought about complete Japanisation of the Marianas. Carolines and Mar shalls, as the following table shows:

Most of the commercial activities during the Japanese Mandate were in the hands of a few Japanese cor porations. Nanyo Takushoku Kaisha (South Seas Exploitation Company), with an initial capital of 20 million yen in 1936, was primarily interested in phosphate mining on Angaur and Fais, but also managed more than 30 affiliated or subsidiary companies engaged in bauxite mining, pineapple

Percentage of Japanese in total Year Micronesians Japanese population 1920 48,505 3,671 7.3 1930 49,695 19,835 28.5 1940 51,106 84,478 62.3 1945 52,000 147,314 74.9

using, pearl fishing and processing larine products.

The powerful Oriental Exploitation ompany held the controlling interest i the sugar industry on Saipan and i other enterprises throughout the landate. The sugar industry was itablished on marginal soils, un ified for production competitive ith other countries.

“Second class” Japanese nationals, ve Formosans and Okinawans, were ettled”, given blocks for subsistence rming and made to spend a good :al of their time growing cane and orking in the sugar factories, on inimal wages. The sugar was not ;ed for food or liquor but as in jstrial alcohol, to save Japan foreign :change.

Judy Tudor’s article is too brief to low mention of the tremendous gistic problems of the US Trust erritory, which consists of about >,OOO people on 64 island units in i ocean area of some three million luare miles, roughly the land area ! Australia.

Nor has she been able to mention at the US Government’s financial ipport per head of population is / far the highest of any administer g authority anywhere in the acific.

Harry Jackman

art Moresby, apua.