South Sea Tales

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 733, 31 July 1953, Page 18

South Sea Tales

\V HEN Arthur Grimble, a new recruit to/the Colonial Service, went for his final interview at the Colonial Office.in 1914, he was divided between a sense of his own inadequacy as a Kiplingesque leader of men and his romantic desire’ to explore the lagoon islands of the Pacific described by Robert Louis Stevenson. Now Sir Arthur Grimble, and retired after a distinguished career, he tells in humorous fashion the story of that interview in the first of five Tales from the Pacific Islands, which are to be heard from National stations of the NZBS. Sir Arthur, whose appointments in the Colonial Service also included the Governorship of the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean, and of the Windward Islands, in the West Indies, has become a popular radio. personality in Britain since he retired, and these talks were first broadcast by the BBC. His stories of, the early days of his service in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands combine a close knowledge and understanding of the islands and their people, with the personality of a witty and accomplished story-teller. : How he dealt with a" madman, who was slashing around him with a 15-inch cutlass at things which no one else could see-Sir Arthur describes in his second talk. Then there is a vivid little picture of Father Choblet, a priest with a blistering tongue and the kindest of hearts, who ended his life as a leper, administering a leper colony; and an account of how the Chief Headman of Tarawa worked to keep the peace between two factions on the verge of bloodshed, even to the point of going to meet what seemed certain death, The series ends with a story about Obadaia, a prisoner, which concerns the island code of morals. Tales from the Pacific Islands starts from 4YA in Topics for Business Women on Saturday, August 8, and from 3YC at 8.23 p.m. on Sun- | day, August 9.