CARELESS NATIVES

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30274, 29 October 1963, Page 3

CARELESS NATIVES

T reatment Delayed <By a Reuter Correspondent) TARAWA. Some islanders in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands—and even in Tarawa, their capital —seem to prefer untrained “medical” help to the experts of the Medical Department. The Colony's information department gave the five examples of this oddity as follow’s: A 10-year-old boy broke both thighs and hips in falling from a tree Although living only 500 yards away from the hospital, the parents took him there only after heavy persuasionthree days later.

A week after suffering an open fracture of the left arm, tvhich turned septic, a 16-year-old youth was taken to hospital “in a dying condition” after his family had been persauded by a doctor His arm was amputated but he recovered. “a needless cripple for life.” A woman died in childbirth —no help was called for until “days too late.” A little girl was recovering from having both arms broken “by blows” after police took her to hospital over the objections of her mother. A man fell from a tree and reported for treatment three days later.

Tlie Jesus Urueta Theatre to be opened in Mexico city soon has been built as a home for the Works of Mexican playwrights. The stage is Elizabethan, similar to those which Shakespeare used, jutting out in a complete semi-circle. The orchestra pit is constructed along the lines of a Greco-Roman amphitheatre.—Reuter.