The first barefoot doctors

That They Might Live, by Ellen Kettle, Published by F. P.

Leonard, 110 Bathurst St, Syd ney. SA2O

That extraordinary, imaginat

ive Australian, Dr ‘Nugget’

Coombs, arranged for the Commonwealth Reconstruc tion Training Scheme to be used for the communities of Papua and New Guinea. In Australia the scheme was to train individual returned ser vicemen, in Papua and New Guinea it could be applied to those communities affected by war. Was there one that hadn’t been?

And so in 1946 the Depart ment of Public Health was able to set up what became known as the aid post orderly training scheme. It had its own cash funds, and the department could deal directly with the Commonwealth War Disposals Commission. Five special schools were rapidly set up, and then a sixth. The idea was to promote in the quickest way

possible a widespread grass

roots net-work of village aid posts.

Four principles were estab lished: a village would volun teer to enter the scheme; they would select a trainee, who need have no lingua franca indeed, he would be illiterate; they would build him a house; and plant a garden. The Department of Public Health would train him to treat the killer diseases: pneumonia, dysentry, malaria cerebro spinal meningitis. He would be

taught to give intramuscular

injections and if found adapt

able enough, intravenous injec

tions.

He would work for his own

community and those adjoin

ing, otherwise he would lead a normal village life. He would be paid about half the wage of the hospital assistant. The training would take a year at least, or as long as was re quired.

In 1946 the population of

Papua and New Guinea was estimated to be in excess of 1,000,000. The aim was to train one of these special orderlies for each 1000 of population.

Years later, China using the same principles, launched the ‘barefoot doctor’ and earned world wide kudos, when in fact it was a marked first for Papua and New Guinea.

Matron Kettle, in her That They Might Live, seems to miss the main thrust of this 1946 scheme. Matron Kettle’s book is dedicated to the Christian missionaries of Papua New Guinea.

Anything that brings back

memories of friends and ac

quaintances is always pleasant.

How well I remember Sister Clematia, of Anelaua Leprosy Hospital, with habit flying be hind her like some great white bird of prey, as she came hurt ling down the hill on her bicycle to greet and not to repel her visitors as their ship ap

proached her island’s jetty.

Then there were Constance Fairhall of Gemo, and Sister Camillus of St. Theresa’s Hospital who got what they needed by their obvious de votion. Give them their inch and they could stretch it to their mile! And Theodore Braun and Agnes Hoeger splendid doctors; the industrious sur vivors of the horrors of Ramale; and Jean Henderson and Pat Durdin, heroines of the disastrous Mt. Lamington vol

canic eruption; Dorothy Beale

and many, many others. They are all in That They Might Live.

The comings and goings of other nursing pioneers are recorded: whom they married and what children they had.

There are anecdotes and many stories, some of which I’m sure are apocryphal. When put together it is the saga of brave people wanting to serve - suf

fering hardships, and indigni

ties, improvising, and seldom if ever giving up.

Matron Kettle has managed to put together not only the activities of individual missionaries but some of the history of their church’s secular role. She has taken more than 300,000 words to do it,

although included are only

brief mentions of government activity, which are sometimes critical and often incorrect, especially when she accuses the late Senior Matron Thorburn of being interested only in

European hospitals.

In fact. Matron Kettle’s comments about the development of health policy in 1946-47 made from hearsay and 23 years afterwards, are at the best her own views. Matron Kettle did not herself encounter the social and resource problems of that time, and the priorities.

It is unfortunate that she should misspell the name of Mrs D. E. Ure, so well re-

spected. who laboured greatly

to relieve the lot of the Hanuabadans in those early days, as ‘Ewer’.

That They Might Live

although well worth-while, very badly needed a competent editor. The layout into regions and towns and missions is la borious; there is much rep etition we are told at least three times that Dr Cleazy trained as a reconstruction sur geon in Vellore, India. There are many errors of fact Sogeri was not a jungle but a well developed plantation area before the 1939-45 war; there is much misspelling; some maps are almost impossible to use; the 300,000 words should be cut to 120,000; and it is a pity the covers were not of bet ter material (those on my copy after three days are bent and disfigured). On the other hand the index seems excellent, Matron Kettle is back in the Northern Territory. I wonder why the Commonwealth and the State governments have never used Papua New Guinea’s medical teaching facilities to train aboriginals to care for their own. John Gunther.