ESPIRITU SANTO

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23968, 8 June 1943, Page 6

ESPIRITU SANTO

ADVANCED BASE IN SOUTH PACIFIC GROWTH OF ALLIED AIR STRENGTH SYDNEY, May 25. It is in Espiritu Santo, in the northern New Hebrides, advanced naval and air base of the Allies, that the tropic war really begins in the south Pacific Command, writes the war correspondent of the Sydney "Sun.” Here, the farthest point south that Japanese bombs have fallen, soldier, sailor, marine, and airmen are called on to pit their resistance against enervating heat and humidity, to combat malaria, blackwater fever, amoebic dysentery hookworm, and dengue. New Caledonia, where thousands of fighting men have sweated off the surplus weight they put on aboard transports, seems cool and civilised by comparison. Here in the Hebrides the “rookies” first become acquainted with strange tropic .flora and fauna, the exotic butterflies fluttering their four-inch wings, the spiders and other strange crawling things that no one seems able to name. Here the new hands drink themselves sick on coconut milk and munch the white kernel—then return to cami to find for dessert a sweet sprinkled with desiccated coconut. sent out from the states by a kindly Government. The coconut, incidentally, is the first "war hazard” the soldier encounters. Coconut plantations make ideal camp sites. They are clear of undergrowth and provide shelter. The tall, straight trunks of the palms rise high overhead until their sweeping fronds intermingle. But the plantations have not been able to harvest—and here lies the hazard. Untouched since the war began, the palms are shedding their nuts. And a coconut dropped from a height of 50 feet can brain a man. Dull thudding and an occasional sharper note as a nut hits a tin roof are a constant warning either to wear a helmet or wall, with one eye cocked aloft.

History of Island Espiritu Santo (sometimes called just “Santo”) is the largest of the 80 New Hebrides islands that torn? a double chain stretching for 550 miles up to 12 degrees from the equator, it is 76 miles long and 45 miles wide. It was discovered in 1606 by the Spanish explorer Quiros. who, under the impression that he had found the longsought southern continent, called it “Terra Australis del Espiritu Santo. He founded a settlement which he called Vera Cruz, but because of disease and trouble with the natives it was abandoned. _ . ... The French navigator Bougainville proved Quiros wrong 160 years later when he sailed between Espiritu Santo and the adjoining island of Molekula Then tha' thorough navigator. Captain Cook, cleared up all mysteries in 1774 when he discovered and charted tne greater part of the group. , Until government was established the white scum of the Pacificpreycd on the New Hebrides. Sandalwood gatherers and whalers debauche - natives and ravaged the islands with vice and disease. Then the. blackbirders came and thousands of natives were "recruited” to labour in the plantations of Queensland. To : day the native population of the only 40,000—a fraction of the original tot ln' the middle of the last century British and French began to settle i the islands as planters aod Any tropic plant will and also many fruits and vegetables from temperate climes. With Brit . planters brought the law. A joint Bn ish-French Naval Commission established in 1887 and thisled tothat unique experiment in New Hebrides Condominium. 1907 until the war France and Britain carried out joint government of the New Hebrides, and administered the law for British, French and natives alike in a joint court consisting of Brit ish and French judges and a neutrai president.

Strategic Value This, briefly, is the history _of the New Hebrides up to December 7. 194Xwhen the Japanese struck at Harbour. Then came the swift and terrifying march of events. .u p^ Tav y a was overrun, Singapore fell, then Java Australia herself was threatened and the New Hebrides out on her tianu became of vital strategic importance United States forces were dispatched to the New Hebrides to help build up a last line of defence of communication between the United States, New Zealand, and Australia, Out of the jungle they carved airfields. On the shores from which natives had waded out with copra they built landing piers. Month by month the concentration of shipping grew greater. Warships, transports, supply ships called at Espiritu Santo—part of the great armada that is being bum up at widely separated points in the Pacific. To-day Espiritu Santo and the waters about the island and the skies above it swarm with activity. Our air strength in this area is iotmidable. The great bomber strips carved out of the jungle are lined with bays, in which stand giant Flying Fortresses and Liberators. Allied dispersal of aircraft every where in this area is good We have learned a lot since those bad days in Java, when time and again the Japanese destroyed Allied and Dutch aeroplanes standing unprotected on airfields. We disperse our aeroplanes well now, and we are learning more about camouflage all the time. The dividends this practice pays are indicated by one raid on Espiritu Santo, in which although many aeroplanes were on one particular field attacked, not one was damaged. Coral, packed hard, is proving a good surface for aerodromes. But in addition we are using steel matting, which ensures a first-class all-weather surface. Here, as elsewhere, there is evidence of the scale on which the Americans are planning in the south Pacific. It is a firm basis, for morale is high, in this area where the only speculation about the future is: “How soon can ws lick them?”