R.N.Z.A.F. HELPS TO REBUILD AIR BASE

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28399, 4 October 1957, Page 19

R.N.Z.A.F. HELPS TO REBUILD AIR BASE

Royal New Zealand Air Forpe men and aircraft in Malaya are helping to rebuild the remote World War II air base on the island of Gan in the Indian Ocean. A Bristol freighter of No. 41 (Transport) Squadron last Sunday was the first land plane to put down at the airfield since 1945. Its fnur-hour flight from Ceylon with supplies for an R.A.F construction team building a new runway was the first of many supply flights to this island in the Maidive group. Gan is about 600 miles south-west of Ceylon. The 'aircraft was captained byFlight Lieutenant M. C. Preece, of Christchurch, with Flying Officer G. A. Parkinson (Auckland) as navigator and Signaller Sergeant J. M. Flesher (Auckland). Gan was a key link in the World War II air chain from England to Australia and New Zealand after Singapore was captured. The base is being reopened as a result of the British Government’s decision to relinquish its air bases in Ceylon. It is needed as a refuelling/and staging point on the route from Singapore to Australia and New Zealand Gan is one of the eight islands that from the Addu atoll in the Maidive Island group. It is 42 miles south of the Equator

The base was shut down when the war ended but with the recent closure of the Ceylon bases the British Government wanted to buy the island outright but could only obtain a 99-year lease. New Runway

Since last year, construction workers have been clearing scrub from the old runway and building a new runway for long-range transport aircraft. Gan is a low, flat pear-shaped island two miles long and threequarters of a mile wide. It is only 6ft above high water. ' It was covered in scrub and palm trees and inhabited by only a few fishermen when the Royal Air Force went there in 1942 to build an airfield and flying-boat base. The lagoon was used as a staging point for flying-boats making the long trips between Ceylon and South Africa by way of the Seychelles, Zanzibar and. Madagascar, and from Karachi, Aden or Nairobi and thence to Cocos Island and Australia when Singapore fell and cut the old Emprie air link.

The Maidive group, being away from the main sea lanes, is visited only irregularly by native trading ships from Ceylon and India and even today few inhabitants have seen a white man. The natives are expert navigators and fishermen who live largely by their fishing, mainly bonito which abound in the surrounding waters. Coconut palms

are plentiful and there is trade with Colombo in copra, coir-yarn, coconuts, fish, tortoiseshells and cowries. The cowri shells are still used on the island for money.

Most of the islands are small and sparsely inhabited with a population of about 70,000. Most Maldivians are Moslems, although Christianity has reached there. Mal’e Island, the only one of any size in the whole group, is the seat of government. Formerly a dependency of Ceylon, the Maldives attained their independence as a republic after World War 11. The republic, however, was short-lived and rule has now reverted to the Sultan, who is the proud possessor of the only motor-vehicle in the sultanate.