AIR WAR IN SOUTH SEAS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 75, 25 May 1943, Page 7

AIR WAR IN SOUTH SEAS

Reality shatters many illusions in the popular conception of the South Sea Islands as places, of glamour, romance and beauty.

The islands on which the various R.N.Z.A.F. units .serving in tlic South-west Pacific are based difl'ei

greatly in climate, appearance, population and geographical position, and for that reason it is impossible to lump all the island groups together for the; purpose of a general description. The conditions under which personnel live are varied In the same way.

In the Solomons, for example, there is an intense humid heat, and the islands 1 for the nio.st part are covered with dense jungle consisting of huge trees laced together by heavy vines and creeping plants, fvith heavy undergrowth. It is, indeed, close to the average conception of the jungle and heat of Darkest Africa. The sole concession to the popular novelist is the. parade t.f coconut palms about the shore, and the tropical blue sliies and sea.

Far-away another R.N.Z.A.F. unit carries out its work in entirely different surroundings. Here the soul can find a greater faith in the perfection of reality and the achievement of anticipation. Here there are white coral beaches and graceful paims, fruits in abundance, and the scent of l'rangipani and the

glory of hibiscus. Here, too, the. trade winds play, and the nights are cool and made glamorous by the tropical stars. And here, also, unromantic flight mechanics curse in the okl familiar Avay at recalcitrant valves and clerks fill in the okl familiar forms.

In yet another island a sweating air gunner may be engaged in the prosaic task ol' scrubbing a shirt, quite oblivious to the colourful picture presented by a group of lives weaving the fascinating pattern of a palm-thatched hut. At Home With Islanders The natives of islands of the South-west Pacific may be divided broadly into two groups—the Melanesians and the Polynesians. The latter, of course, are of tlie sainc 1 race as our own Maoris, to whom they bear a strong resemblance in many ways. The New Zealanders are""instantly at home with these people, and. the. greatest goodwill exists between them. As a rule, the islands inhabited by the Polynesians. come much closer to the rotmantic conception of the South Sea Islands than do those inhabited bv the Mclancsians, which are 'usually hotter and closer to the Kquator. The people of Melanesian stockare much less uniform in type than the Polynesians. The Solomon Islander is .short, wiry and, primitive in his habits. Further south the Melanesian is taller and more stronglv-built, and in Fiji lie is a magnificent individual. They are extremely -dark-skinned, and. their language i'.s divided into a great number of dialects. It is virtually impossible for a Melanesian from one group of islands to understand the language of a native from another, whereas the. Polynesians have similarities in language in most parts of the Pacific. The culture of the natives of Polynesian stock is not dissimilar from one island group to another, but the Mclanesians may range from Stone Age. simplicity to well-org-anised health, educational and social services. It may be seen that one cannot obtain a general picturc of the conditions under which R.N.Z.A.F. personnel in the. Pacific arc liying. In fact, each unit based on a different island lias conditions Avhich are peculiar to that island, and have littie in common with, any other unit. |