Falklander awaits news on farm

Press, 3 June 1982, Page 6

Falklander awaits news on farm

War reports from the Falkland Islands carry a special importance for a farm worker in Mid-Canter-bury, Mr Nicholas Pitaluga.

He came to New Zealand from the Falklands two months ago and has since received little first-hand information from home. A news report last month said that his father, Robyn, had been taken prisoner by the Argentines on suspicion of spying.

The only letter from home, written by his mother just after the invasion on April 2 and received about four weeks ago said that the. only sign of the Argentines at the family’s Gibraltar station, about 50km north-west of Stanley, had been two .aircraft flying over. Mr Pitaluga said yesterday that it had been difficult to piece together what had happened but it appeared his father had been made a “political prisoner."

The commander of the British task force, Rear-Ad-miral John Woodward, had apparently been trying to reach the Argentine command at Stanley by radio, he said.

Most of the farms had old small valve . radios transmitters but residents had been told they could use them only for medical emergencies..

Someone at Gibraltar must have been listening to the British, and tried to pass on a message to the Argentines, Mr Pitaluga said'. Soon after, his father had been taken from the station and was being held under “house arrest’’ at the Upplands Goose Hotel at Stanley. He.suspected that Admiral Woodward’s call on May 1 to the Argentinian Governor, Brigadier General Morio Menendez, to surrender had led to his father’s arrest rather than the use of the radio. •

Mr Pitaluga was in Buenos Aires on. the first part of his trip when the. Argentines took the Falklands, and;'he said the crowds in the streets of the" city bordered bn hysteria. z;

Cars were, painted with slogans and drums . were beaten as. crowds surged around. .' The atmospherS conveyed,’ in his opinion,' summed up the ajiproach -to life., held by most Argentines: “They live for today andwhat happened years ago. They don’t think; about tomorrow.” ( ' The fact’that the islands had been taken by force did not seem to register, nor the thought that the British would retrieve them: ’'

Mr Pitaluga left for New Zealand the next day and now works at the farm of: Mr and Mrs Jim Petrie, at Pendarves. He plans to go to Lincoln College next year and return home to the family station in, about four years. .

.The Petrie family had been most understanding during a difficult time,’ Mr Pitaluga said. ... “Young Tony keeps me

informed,’/he said of the Petries five-year-old son. who was out “helping” on the farm yesterday and who has taken a penchant for wearing “battle fatigues” since the Falklands dispute. According to Mr Pitaluga the main surprise of the Argentines’ taking the Falklands was that it had happened so soon. The threat had been there for a long time; it was almost a way of life.

There had never been a strong link with Argentina, he said. The islands had relied upon it only for the air link, petrol, and kerosene.

The Royal Navy had supplied diesel and gas for gas stoves that were being introduced. Food and goods such as motor vehicles, clothes, and furniture were imported from Britain.

Mr Pitaluga has a younger brother who was attending school at Stanley at the time of the invasion. He last heard that he had been sent back.to Gibraltar Station.