Letters

Good On You

Lasarusa!

May I congratulate Lasarusa Vusoniwailala, the writer of the excellent article Stop the rock. (PIM, June, p 11). It is remark able for its scope, balance, ac curacy and depth of understanding. I hope that it will be read and remembered by our political and economic leaders throughout the Pacific area.

How good it would be if more of the Islands people were to put down on paper for

publication their thoughts and

ideas.

J. D. Powdrell

Sydney, NSW

PS: There’s only one prob lem with PIM too many

people borrow my copy!

Tourist

Promotion

The need for a regional body for the promotion of the South Pacific Islands has been con sidered at a number of meet ings and the problem remains to be resolved.

Conflicting views have been expressed by leaders of the

travel industry regarding the

role of regional organisations

such as PIDTC and even

Pata.

Due to limited financial re sources, the smaller territories in Melanesia find it par ticularly difficult to generate interest in distant markets such as Europe and North America.

The Melanesian Tourist Feder ation was mainly created for this purpose and achieved excellent results for a couple of years. There was no loss of identity for the territories members of the Federation (Papua New Guinea, Solomons, New Hebrides, New Caledonia) but due to major political changes in Melanesia

and the great loss of Don Bar rett for the whole area, I, as the last chairman, had to disband the federation in 1976. How ever, contacts between the tourist authorities were main

tained and joint promotions

were arranged at opportune times, particularly in Australia and Japan, thanks to our re

gional airlines.

Recently, I proposed a re gional promotion for the area on the European market and as a result of the full support given by the NTOs (PNG, Sol, NH, NC, Fiji), and the kind co operation of the Paris and Frankfurt Pata chapters, Melanesian presentations were held in those cities. A function was held in Brussels, and calls were made in Amsterdam and London.

Obviously, due to the nom inal financial contributions from each territory, this re

gional promotion of Melanesia

was low key. But it had the dis tinction of being the first

marketing effort staged in

Europe on behalf of Melanesia as an area in its own right.

Many valuable contacts were made, and will help to define future marketing activities.

It is most gratifying to re ceive the full co-operation and trust of all concerned, despite the communication problems between the far-flung islands.

J. Mulders

Secretary-General,

Tourist Information Bureau, Vila, New Hebrides.

When Hell’S

Point Boomed

The article Hell's Point is Booming (PIM, March, p 26) recalls to me one of the most colossal mistakes of military judgment I have known, and one that must have set our “drive to Tokyo” back by a considerable amount.

True, Hell’s Point was an ammo dump. Rumour at the time had it that 56 000 tons of ammunition were stacked there. In addition, however, some military genius had de cided that the US Army’s 197th

Base Ordnance Depot (largest,

most forward-positioned such depot in the South Pacific) be built just on the edge of the

dump and nearly 200 person nel of that depot company be tented in precise rows down the side.

Around noon, one day in November, 1943, we began to hear what seemed to be ran dom small arms fire and some one reported that a member of a work detail had fired a pistol into one stack of ammo which was then going off in all direc tions. Other stacks were soon hit and began adding to the din. Then, when heavier shells began to blast, some personnel headed for bomb shelters while others ran to the motor pool and started driving the huge

military vehicles to safety.

At 20th Station Hospital

nearby, screaming, battle

fatigue patients had to be evacuated to Koli Point and there was much discussion as to whether or not the entire unit

should begin moving. Instead,

however, everyone stayed awake all night to witness the most fantastic fireworks dis play most of us had ever seen.

When morning came, an armoured half-track vehicle crunched into the now rather quiet area to pick up those who had remained in the shelters.

Now and then some small cal ibre shell would explode from heat of the ashes and provide more excitement. But the area was razed. Trees, tents, build

ings, ammunition, depot and

valuable stores were all gone

together with many, carefully

stored and unopened Christ mas presents from home.

Nearly 35 years have passed since that event but I have never forgotten it and the ironic fact that, although a commendation of merit was given to those who helped to save the vehicles, no one was ever blamed for the brilliant decision to position men and vital stores in the middle of an

ammunition dump.

After building another depot

just south of Hell’s Point and operating it for about a year, our company then made our final and even larger depot across the Matanikau in the quonset huts around which I am told, was built the city of Honiara. I can hardly believe it.

In 1954, my curiosity got the better of me and I wrote to the British Public Relations Offi cer at Honiara asking for cur rent information. To my surprise, T was soon cor responding with a Marist Brother, Joseph Chanel, who had been an anti-aircraft gun ner at Henderson Field near us at the time of our Hell’s Point incident. During our cor respondence, he sent me a copy of PIM. My curiosity and your fine reporting have kept me a subscriber ever since.

Thank you for a publication which improves each year.

Paul W. Durbin

Los Angeles, CA.