Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1943-12-24
New Guinea Is
Nice---tO Visit
BY Charles Pearson
(WNU Feature-Through special arrange
ment with CollieT's Weekly.l

(wNU Feature-Through special arrange
ment with Golfers Weekly.l
New Guinea isn't exactly resort
but is far more habitable now than
it was before the Uncle Sam I'M
provement company went to work
on it. The air corps flying boXcars
have hauled in everything from
tractors to hairpins and continue
to haul in more all the time. Air
strips have made it possible for
planes to get to a lot of formerly
inaccessible places. One run that
used to take 80 days, now takes 35
minutes. Back home when some
thing like a road had to be built
you'd see surveyors, inspectors and
blueprints in huddle for days.
Here they just go out and build
the road.
All civilians have been evacuated
and traffic is strictly military.
There's one exception: an old, faded
blue sedan with the top gone and
tenders rusted away. A Port
Moresby resident gave it to one OF
the soldiers after it had been hit by
bomb fragments, and the soldier
fixed it up. His biggest problem
was fitting it with a salvaged truck
radiator. Since there is no place
to go on the island he uses it in
an official capacity during the day.
At night he carries buddies to mo-
ton pictures at other camps.
Always Wet
The dampness is perpetual. After
all sorts of experiments to combat
h ae army finally is moving up on
J Ss and into trees. Platforms are
K, Ylt of hard wood and floored with
I. slit bamboo. Pyramidal tents are
IN Mted on the platforms. You reach
n W front door by climbing up a
E-,dder. The ever-necessary air-raid
trench is built somewhere under
meath, which makes the trench rea-
sonably dry. In the past, G.l..s
who couldn't swim came close TO
drowning while sweating out jap
night raids. This way you have
only lizards and centipedes to
worry about.
Except for those who live in
Port Moresby, the natives parade
around lightly clad. Gals gener-
ally wear what amounts to the
equivalent of an old pen wiper.
Children get by ,iitE strings of
beads. These natives are gen.
orally always without bracelets,
trinkets or charms of any sort
because souvenir-happy Yanks
have bought them all. Until the
department of agriculture banned
grass skirts from import into the
United States an acre or so of
grass went down every day to
build hay dresses for the little
girls back home.
One unanswered question is
whether the natives are more Curl
Gus about the strange ways and
belongings of the newcomers or
whether it's vice versa.
Native Cooking
If you're not around at chow time
you're just not going to be fed be-
cause there is no place where you
could possibly eat. A couple Of air
force boys, or one of those rare
things, day off, went fishing and
forgot about chow time. One of
them figured it might not be a bad
idea to go back through the near
by native village and try to mooch
a meal. 1t was easier than they
had figured. The boss man said:
"You have kakai," which is one way
of saying, "Will you hang around
and put the nosebag on with us?
ne IISdi LulHSu OuG 10 De d lOuc-
course dinner, starting out with
some stalks of sweet cane, followed
by coconut meat and bananas,
which had been wrapped in leaves
and roasted For no good reason a
all the latter tasted like potatoes.
The last course could not be identi-
fled. 1t came out of the community
pot but it was reported to be good. |
These natives eat only one
meal a day, but it's so big they
spend the evenings sitting around
groaning and massaging swollen
bellies with cocOnut oil. Incident
ally, natives remove the outside
husk of a cOcOnut with a sharp
ened stick in some few seconds.