Not so primitive

after all

In January, 14 American women tourists thought they were in the middle of a New Guinea tribal riot, when they heard yelling and break ing glass outside their bedrooms at the Mount Hagen Hotel.

They promptly locked themselves in, convinced that tourist publicity about primitive New Guinea was dead right after all.

Sydney’s 2GB radio journalist interviewer Brian White, holidaying at Mount Hagen, told New Guinea News Service that the tourists were wrong. The Hagen Hotel was simply on fire (eventual damage at least $200,000) and the yelling and batter ing of doors was by native firemen and policemen trying to save the guests.

One native fireman breaking plate glass to get one American to safety cut his wrist so badly he needed 14 stitches.

Steamships Trading Co. Ltd. is already at work rebuilding the gutted hotel.