SITUATION IN NOUMEA

Evening Star, Issue 23683, 17 September 1940, Page 11

SITUATION IN NOUMEA

NO SIGN OF REVOLT STRONG PRO-BRITISH BIAS [Per United Press Association.] AUCKLAND, September 16. No indications of unrest likely to lead to open revolt against the French administration of Noumea were noticed by travellers in the American Clipper which arrived from Noumea to-day. They reported that the island seemed quiet, though the strongly pro-British opinions reported by former Clipper visitors' to Noumea had in no way abated. “ I saw no sign of revolt at Noumea,’- said Mr Julius M. llapaport, of Pennsylvania. “ I was told that a very large majority of the people there a’re for General de Gaulle and are strongly in sympathy with Britain.” Confusion in the nickel industry was also reported. Statistics and vital information had been prepared and entrusted to M. Paul Vois, who had viaited Australia. He was returning to Noumea on a ship that was thought to have fallen a victim to an enemy raider, and with him had disappeared the important documents he was carrying, together with much-needed information about the results of bis mission. Stocks of nickel were now accumulating, and those on the island did not know how to dispose of them or what action to take.