THE FIJIAN TROOPS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 7, Issue 48, 11 February 1944, Page 2

THE FIJIAN TROOPS

(By Lieut. Jack M. Tucker, U.S. Forces) The best insight into the utterly fearless: character of native Fijian troops now in action against the Jap on this northern Solomons base is the following story their commanding officer relaties :— "Discipline among the Fiji boys is excellent," he says, "lout like all troops, occasionally one of the Fijians will get off the beam. "We have one standard rule of punishment. It is this: 'All right, soldier, we won't let you go out on patrol for a, while.' '"This, is the one 'punishment' a Fijian doesn't want. I' have even seen them cry when told they couldn't go Jap-hunting. I think they would rather hunt Nips than eat." Most of the tales you hear about the Fijians arc true. They are as much without l'ear as a human being can be. They are alert, intelligent, polite and hardworking. Their endurance is amazing. They are death on Japs, and the Japs know it (Guadalcanal, for instance). Japs mortally fear these big, muscular, aggressive descendants of a lighting stock that goes back many years to the days of cannibalism and tribal blood-<spilling. On their first Bougainville reconnaissance, a small Fijian patrol was instructed to try to> bring in some Nips alive. It was a tough order lor the Fijians. Instinctively they want to kill Japs as fast as possible. But they tried hard to capture a, breathing Nip. The first one they spotted gave one terrified look and took to his heels. He was tommy-gunned. The second one encountered was bayoneted. Finally the Fijians ran down a third Nip. He was a huge man for a Nip, near'y six feet tall. The Fijians .surrounded him and shouted for him to give up. Whether or not the big yollow man understood the warning will never be known. He popped out oi' his foxhole like a Jaek-ivi-Uic-box and began yelling at the top of his iungs.

Reluctantly, the Fijiarts. explained to their C.O. they were forced to "liquidate" - him also. AH the Fijians speak some English. Many of them speak • it very well. Fifty per cent of their officers can speak Fijian. I had a long talk with their C.0., Major Geoffrey T. Upton, who told me many interesting things about his native troops. Major Upton, who is 32 years old, was a former newspaperman with the "Auckland (New Zealand) Star." He was educated at Cambridge, and just recently took over command when his senior officer, Lieut-Col. J. B. K. Taylor, was evacuated, as the result of serious head wounds incur-, red Avlien a Nip bomb exploded inside his tent. Major Upton said that the primary mission of the Fijians is longrange patrol work inside the Jap lines. He said that it is practically impossible for a Fijian, long familiar with bush country to get lost. They can orient themselves automatically. They have no jungle phobias. An idea of their physical strength: While training in the, Fijjis', they covered 100 miles: in six days with full equipuent consisting of mortars. machine guns, ammunition, etc. Five days of. the. march were spent climbing mountains and ploughing through dense jungle. Only one man dropped out. The Fijians are all volunteers. There. is no conscription for them. To a man they volunteered because they love to stalk Japs. With tfco exceptions the officers are New Zealanders. The two exceptions arc especially well-educat-ed native officers who can speak fluent English and command high respect from their fellow natives. , You must remember that the Fij ! ; Islands, generally associated in the minds of people back in the States as a wild and woolly and illiterate place, have for many years' been under Eng'ish contro 1 . Some Pr>, 000 natives and 85.000 Hindus live in i the Fi;jis,