Letters

Dictionaries and the scent of gardenias I read with interest Carolus Ketsimur’s excellent and per ceptive review of Robert Stuart’s book Nuts to You (an unfortunate title: I think the book deserved a better one). I also read with affection and amusement the reference to my dear late Paul. I thought a few comments might clear up one or two points (though I can hear Paul saying: ‘What does it matter, dear?’).

I quote first from the bio graphical notes Paul himself was preparing at the time of his death: ‘Bob Stuart and I were about the same age, we may even have been born on the same day. But what a different background! Stuart was a tall dark handsome young man, born in India and sent to school in England when he was nine years old, to a preparatory school, and then on to the

English public school of

Tunbridge. From there it was intended that he go to Sandhurst, but he did not make the grade, and was sent to

Hawkesbury Agricultural

College in New South Wales ... ‘Bob proved to be the best assistant I ever had and he took over Inus after I left. We had a hard battle together getting the place cleaned up and in order.’ It is to be remembered that the previous manager had been murdered on the beach front at Inus, and Paul had been asked to come and ‘clean up’ more than literally. The plantation work line was a rabble. Bob was always con cerned that Paul walked inno

cently amongst these tough

specimens and not on a horse as he preferred. It is nice that Bob is here to take the bow

or perhaps, more rightly, give

a bow.

I also read with interest his reference to Paul’s affection for

the dictionary. He always wrote with one beside him: he loved the right nuance of a word. Paul had left school at the age of 14 to help support

his parents’ large family.

Though I had had the good for tune of a university education I was always humble (as I was in my father’s presence) at Paul’s extraordinary wealth of learning. (I don’t note here his tremendous and inventive mechanical and engineering skills; someone else may be able to write of that and its postwar contribution to Papua New Guinea.) We all loved the dictionary: some of my fondest memories are of us as a family sitting around the Inus breakfast table, the scent of Cape Jasmin gardenias outside (Paul always put the first of the larger gar denias beside my breakfast plate) and, in turn, choosing words while the others guessed at the origin and derivation of the word.

As I wrote to Bob thanking him for his suitably inscribed copy of the book: ‘lt is a simple story of achievement well told.

Paul I think might have told some of the stories a little dif ferently. But then he was on a plane above us poor ordinary mortals.’

Noelle Mason

Kundiawa PNG

A choice cut on

Solomons’ beef

I refer to ‘Pitfalls in a promis ing Solomons scene’ (PIM Tradewinds May). Your Honiara correspondent was quite wrong in stating that ‘while Solomon Islands looks like becoming a sizable rice exporter, it is not likely to be come a major beef exporter as was envisaged until recently’. It has never been the intention that Solomon Islands becomes a major beef exporter for although it was envisaged that in the early 1980 s the necessity may arise to seek markets in

adjacent countries for superior

cuts surplus to demand here, the primary intention is to be come self-sufficient in beef.

This point was recognised by

the author later on in the article but it hardly reconciles with

previous observations.

I am especially dismayed by

the statement which claims that ‘the government has failed to

provide adequate transport,

stockholding and marketing

facilities’. This again is quite wrong in every respect for these functions fall to the Cattle Development Authority which has done an excellent job in fostering the cattle smallholder and developing a reliable and

regular marketing system. The

authority is funded by overseas aid donors and I am very dis turbed indeed by the thought that they will read these damaging and totally inac curate statements in your

magazine.

Waeta Ben

Minister of Agriculture and Lands Honiara Solomon Islands

Questions about

French nuclear tests

What a pleasant surprise to read in the May issue of PIM the Moruroa newsletter by the French charge d’affaires in Fiji, Bernard Malandain,

heralding a complete reversal

of the long-standing French in formation policy in the nuclear weapons field.

As a matter of fact, for 13 years ever since nuclear test ing began at Moruroa all French cabinet ministers, governors, admirals, generals, ambassadors and other diplo mats have stubbornly refused to furnish any information whatsoever about the health hazards resulting from 41 ex plosions of A and H bombs in the atmosphere and about 20 underwater blasts.

To ensure complete secrecy, the French Government has even forbidden the French National Radiation Labora tory to send observers to the islands and entrusted the radi ation control to the very people who explode the bombs the French army. Not very surprisingly, the admirals and

generals have never publicly

critised their own undertak

ings.

Only once in the past has a high-ranking French official deigned to depart from this

strictly enforced hush-up pol

icy. This was in 1973, when the then deputy for French Polynesia, Francis Sanford,

sent in the following question to Minister for Health Michel Poniatowski: ‘Mr Sanford asks the minis ter for public health and social security (1) if he is able to indi cate the exact number of deaths due to cancer that have oc curred in French Polynesia during the last 10 years, and (2) if he can undertake an evalu ation of the amount of radioac tive contamination existing in the following three French Polynesian islands: Hao, Tureia and Mangareva.

To everybody’s surprise, Mr

Poniatowski on this occasion took time off to answer although not in a very satisfac tory manner. This is the com

plete reply, dated September

15, 1973: ‘The minister for public health and social security informs the honourable mem ber of parliament that he has no direct responsibility for the territory of Polynesia. He is nevertheless able to state (i) that the frequency of cancer and leukemia has remained

unchanged in Polynesia during

the last 10 years, and (ii) that the radioactivity in the islands of Polynesia, taken as a whole, has stayed within the limits of the fluctuations of the natural

radioactivity.’

Since then, however, all French officials, both civilian and military, have maintained the traditional stony silence.

That is until Mr Malandain showed by his letter to PIM that he knows perfectly well what is going on at Moruroa, and that he is ready to publish the facts.

Incidentally, it is very sad to hear that some ‘residents’ at Moruroa have been hit by a

viral hepatitis, probably caused

by seafood poisoning that had nothing to do with the radioac

tivity produced by the tests,

and I sincerely hope that they

will soon be back again at their

peaceful tasks.

But what about us other 150 000 inhabitants of French

Polynesia who seriously fear

that the long-lived radioactive fallout from all these bombs may have affected our health and that of our children? All we have heard so far are flat de nials that French bombs are harmful. Which is exactly what

the American officials said in Micronesia until the Bikinians, all severely contaminated, had to be evacuated in a great hurry last year. It is therefore a great relief to discover at long last there is at least one French official willing to tear asunder the veil of secrecy surrounding the French tests.

So I trust that Mr Malandain will answer the following simple questions that countless anguished men and women here in the islands have hith erto asked in vain: • When was the last health sur vey made in French Polynesia to ascertain the radioactive body contents of the inhabi tants, and what were the re sults? • It is a well-known fact that certain marine and land ani

mals absorb unusually high

quantities of radioactivity, and among these are the following,

commonly eaten especially in

the Tuamotu islands: turbo shells, tridacna clams, squid, sea turtles and coconut crabs?

What are the doses measured in the samples studied, group by group and year by year? • What studies have been made of the amount of rain water, collected and preserved over long periods in concrete cis terns and regularly consumed by the inhabitants of the Tuamotu Islands, because there is no other drinking water? • What is the annual incidence of cancer and leukemia in French Polynesia since 1966? (The only paper published so far is a short list of cases dis covered by chance, solely be cause the patient came to the Papeete hospital and asked to be examined.) • On certain islands, like Man gareva and Pukarua, the popu lation has on several occasions been locked up in huge atomic shelters. On others, like Tureia, all inhabitants were evacuated for several months in 1968.

According to official state ments, in between the blasts, these islands were decon taminated. How was this dif ficult task that the Americans never mastered in Micronesia accomplished, and what is the present environmental radio

activity?

• Where can I find a copy of the

geological survey of Moruroa, allegedly showing that it will take 1500 years for the radioac tivity, produced by each ex plosion, to leak out into the ocean?

As a French citizen, ashamed of these deceitful and disgraceful tactics, used in the past by my government, I sin cerely hope that this is the start ing point for a steady flow of useful information from Mr Malandain’s office in answer to the great number of similar questions that have accumula ted over the years.

Marie-Therese Danielsson

Co-author of Moruroa, Mon Amour Papehue Paea Tahiti

Chatterton and ‘My

Reluctant

Missionary’

Undoubtedly Dr Chatterton considers his review of John Kolia’s My Reluctant Mission ary (PIM June), to be lively and tolerant, coming, as he does, from the establishment side of missionary circles. But it is a pity that he could not perceive the wit and sympathy with which Kolia handles both his character Judy and the contexts she finds herself uncomfort

ably placed in.

For a start, Dr Chatterton ignores two-thirds of the novel’s title the ‘My’ and the ‘Reluctant’. To be unaware of

the disguised autobiographical

elements in the novel is forgiv able, but to judge Judy as a missionary of the ordinary sort is inappropriate to the book’s intentions.

She, like many who make wrong choices, finds that her best intentions for others lead to the worst situation for her self. Judy’s saving grace, her honesty with respect to her own passions, is the cause and cure for her dissatisfaction with the missionary life. Dr Chatterton likes the ‘evangelical ring’ of the chapter title ‘Saved’, but he cannot concede that saving oneself from a life of dis honesty and hypocrisy is as good a personal solution as undergoing an orthodox con version.

Paralleling his inability to

comprehend the vacillations of the half-devoted Christian, Reverend Chatterton’s amaze

ment at Judy’s flaunting of ‘the nursing profession’s code of conduct’ stems from his appar ent faith in people’s ability to wholly commit themselves to an elected cause. A nubile nurse’s manner has been known to go further than the bedside more than once be fore.

As for his assertion that Kolia’s novel peters out with a whimper, Dr Chatterton here shows a surprising lack of sym

pathy for distraught humanity.

The story’s close is a most pain ful affair. Judy’s achievement of devotion to a house full of mixed-race orphans provides her with not a sense of triumph but of suffering martyrdom.

Neither the Christian nor the hedonist in Judy is ultimately satisfied. She remains doomed to a surburban limbo.

Thus puzzled by the novel itself, it is not surprising that Dr Chatterton found its Coda (the ‘Memo on Missionaires’) ‘neg tive and defeatist’. Here, unfor tunately, Dr Chatterton’s sense of humour has let him down.

It is no good being upset by a satirist’s barbs, for that is exactly what the satirist wishes to achieve. Kolia’s wry look at the Old and New Testaments, supposedly from an uncon verted Papuan point of view, was meant to embarrass the

foreign faith. Apparently it

has.

Dr Chatterton ends by attacking Kolia’s English and the Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies’ publishing policy. I agree that Kolia would benefit from a tough editor, and I am sure Kolia would agree too, but there is a home grown rawness and honesty about his books which reflects exactly the way things are done in many areas of endeavour in

Papua New Guinea today.

Hopefully, the interest of pro fessional editors will return to Papua New Guinea soon.

Meanwhile, a perusal of other publications from the Institute will show Dr Chatter ton that Kolia’s novel is con sistent with past publishing policy, an aspect of which is the airing of topics relevant to the contemporary scene. I don’t believe any blame lies with the Institute for refusing to concen trate on the past, and refusing

to bury its findings in mouldy

archives. Creating discussion on topical issues through publi cation in various styles and media has allowed the Institute to produce, as part of one of its roles, a vitalising effect on the intellectual life of the Papua New Guinean community.

Nigel Krauth

Brisbane Australia

Lieutenant Bell,

coastwatcher

I am seeking information con

cerning events during the

World War II period in the Southwest Pacific.

During the war I was a cot respondent and for a time wa. in Emirau, in the St Mathias group, where there was a PT boat base. I occasionally went down on a PT boat to cover the raids on New Ireland. On one such raid we were to pick up a Lieutenant Bell, formerly of a family of planters on New Ireland.

The US PT boat skippers seemed to keep in touch with Bell, who was on the island, hidden by the locals, picking him up, then dropping him off later, after he had delivered

intelligence information.

On one trip, we were sup posed to pick him up for deliv ery of intelligence reports, but he failed to show.

The June 1946 issue of PIM reported that the Australian Department of External Terri tories was making investi gations into the fate of 68 civilians missing in New Bri tain and other islands. Among the names of the missing was J. W. Bell, planter, Penipol Plantation, Kavieng. Much later, in the October 1971 issue of your magazine, there was a reference to ‘coastwatcher Stan Bell, brother of Lincoln Bell’,

telling of wartime occupation

intelligence activities by Aus tralians in New Ireland.

I wonder if any readers can help me to find out more about the Lieutenant Bell whom we

dropped off and picked up by

PT boat off New Ireland so many years ago?

Wilmon Menard

PO Box M Honolulu Hawaii