From The Archives

September 1944

Civil administration in Papua

AFTER a delay of which there has been no explanation - except indifference of the Australian Government towards all Pacific Territories matters - the Cabinet Sub-com mittee set up to deal with Territories administration met in Canberra on Friday, September 8, with Mr Ward as chairman.

No official report was issued; but with in the next two days, various newspapers published the following, as news from Canberra: Civil administration will be restored in the Territory of Papua early in 1945.

The administration of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea will remain the

responsibility of the Army.

The Port Moresby branch of the Commonwealth Bank will soon be reopened.

The laws of the Territories will be con solidated and re-printed. Special steps will be taken to “meet the needs of 2,000 Chinese who have been liberated from the Japanese; and appropriate supplies, includ ing food and clothing, will be provided for them”.

Christmas appeal for Makogai

THE annual appeal for Christmas parcels for the lepers at Makogai and other

Pacific islands is ’being made by the secretary of the Leper’s Trust Board, Mr P J Twomey, of Christchurch, NZ.

As a result of repeated requests, the Board extend

ed its activities to other places in the Pacific this year, and for the first time 422 patients in New Caledonia, including 60 Europeans, will receive goodwill presents from NZ.

Pacific Frenchmen celebrate lib

eration of homeland

AUGUST 23, 1944, is likely to be an important date in the history of the South Pacific.

For that appears to be the accepted date of the liberation of Paris from the Germans - which really means the liberation of France. And, in the South Pacific, the free dom of their Mother Country means much to the people of New Caledonia, French Oceania and New Hebrides.

There have been joyous demonstrations in Noumea, Tahiti, Vila - wherever Frenchmen have gathered together. For four years the French territories have been

cut off from their homeland.

At first their administrative, financial and economic systems were in chaos; and, had it not been for the ready help of the British Pacific countries, and of the United States, their conditions would have been calamitous. ■

Pacific Islands Monthly