The Editor's Mailbag

Biology Of Lake Wisdom

For the past several years I have been studying the process of re colonisation, by plants and animals, of a small volcanic island created in an eruption in 1968. This island lies in Lake Wisdom which fills the central crater of Long Island (Arop), Papua New Guinea.

I have had a great deal of trouble getting any reliable information on the fauna of the lake and on the history of the islands in the lake and I thought your readers might be a potential source of information. I would greatly appreciate any informa tion on either of these matters or on the history of Long Island as a whole.

Eldon Ball

Research School of Biological Sciences,

Anu,

Canberra.

Phoohey Fiji

Having made almost 20 visits to Fiji during the past 10 years, I feel that I can venture some criticisms without being labelled an “instant expert”.

My criticisms are not aimed at the local shopkeepers, taxi drivers or the people in the Fiji Visitors Bureau.

Also, I continue to be amazed at the way the local people suffer the tourists and still manage to smile as though they mean it. Unfortunately, the boom in tourist hotel building has improved nothing but the availability of accommodation. The standard of food and entertainment is appalling and totally lacking in imagination.

One suspects that the chefs are drop outs from “greasy spoons” in Aus tralia and NZ, and that the entertain ment would grind to a halt if the power were disconnected.

Apart from several Indian restau rants it is virtually impossible to get a decent curry any more. Kokoda appears to be the only “indigenous” dish worthy of inclusion on a menu Do tourists travel thousands of miles to Fiji so they can enjoy the exotic pleasures of baby lamb chops, Vienna Schnitzel and Chicken Maryland? 1 think not. Fiji waters abound with marine life, but grilled walu appears to be the only fish to make the lourney to the hotel kitchens.

Mangoes, coconuts and bananas are everywhere, seemingly reserved for

chutney and inclusion as sambals for the alleged curries that are served.

Have none of the hotels discovered that people actually like eating un pickled mangoes, or that the meat of the green coconut can be transformed into delicious desserts? Perhaps they could write to the Australian Banana Marketing Board and obtain a free banana recipe book!

Still in the imagination department; why can t one of the local importers organise a competition among the local barmen to find some Fijian cocktails based on coconut milk pineapple, mango, etc? White rum added to coconut milk is both delicious and refreshing, and I am sure that the prices charged would more than compensate for the loss m copra revenue.

T° move on to entertainment.

Although I have attended more than enough Touristised Mekes’, the one I last attended in a Nadi hotel was by far the worst. White shorts and petti coats underneath the performers’ grass skirts were bad enough, but the group leader’s use of a trailing microphone hooked up to a stereo system added the fina touch. In a Fitzpatrick IraveLalk accent he managed to talk his way through Isa Lei, then an nounced that the group would end their performance with another Fijian song. Would you believe—the Maori Farewell?

I could go on ad infinitum with criticisms and, I hope, constructive suggestions, but feel that the fore going will suffice for the moment, i still enjoy Fiji more than any other area of the Pacific, thanks to friends among the indigenous population who help me escape the boredom of the hotels and their cuisine.

L. Marshall

Paddington, Sydney.

The Great 'Flu Epidemic

I have been commissioned by my publishers, Macmillan of London and Athenaeum Press of New York, to prepare an authentic narrative account of the great Spanish influenza epidemic of 1918/19, which took a world toll of 20 million lives m little more than 17 weeks. The fatalities were especially great in Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, Fiji (where 7,070 deaths were reported), the islands adjoining

Pago (8,500 deaths) and Samoa (7,542, a quarter of the population).

I am seeking the hospitality of your columns to ask all Pacific Islands survivors of the epidemic— whether doctors, nurses, patients or descendents of those involved—to get in touch with me, with a view to reconstructing the epidemic’s devasta tion as accurately as can be. Diaries, letters, photographs and word-of mouth reminiscences will all be most gratefully received and acknowledged.

Richard Collier.

None-Go-By, Burgh Heath, Surrey, England.

Micronesian Independence

I would like to thank PIM for the excellent rebuttal of John Dorrance’s rather strained attempt at a defence of the US position in Micronesia (PIM, Dec., 1971). It is clear that one of the fundamental obstructions to any resolution of the Trust Terri tory’s political status is the question of ultimate sovereignty. The American Government and, by ex tension, its negotiators, still operate under an assumption of Manifest Destiny—the belief that it has a sacrosanct right to any territory it can get its hands on.

In 1953 Senator Hugh Butler, chairman of the US Senate Com mittee on Insular and Interior Affairs, told Congress “that our primary title to the islands rests on force of arms, and that the United Nations Trustee ship Agreement represents little more than a fait accompli ... I believe that it should be made perfectly clear to all concerned that the US Govern ment must for security reasons retain absolute control of the entire area forever, or for as far as we can see in distant future”. The position taken by US negotiators at Hana echoes those same sentiments.

Until we Americans realise that Micronesia belongs to the Micro nesians, just as South-East Asia be longs to the South-East Asians, and make a concerted effort to acquaint our Administration with this funda mental truth, the people of Micro nesia will have little chance of re ceiving genuine independence. And until this basic change in our position is made, I, for one, cannot look for ward to future political status talks with the same optimism you voice.

But my pessimism does not still my hopes for an ultimately Free Micro nesia.

Glen Petersen

New York, NY.

More letters on p. 107