Buchanan bonanza in Rabaul

Press, 11 March 1985, Page 22

Buchanan bonanza in Rabaul

L. F. Jackson, an expatriate New Zealander, reports from Rabaul, in Papua New Guinea, on an unexpected visit by the U.S.S. Buchanan. No doubt everyone is fed up with reading and hearing about nuclear warships, A.N.Z.U.S. and all the political ballyhoo. It has, however, brought some good to this remote part of the world. Rabaul is just a small town in the Pacific: the occasional cruise ship passes through, but usually we are left to ourselves. These past four days, though, we have been hosting the U.S.S. John Young and that celebrity of U.S. warships, the Buchanan. With only four days notice, we managed to turn on a great welcome and entertained our guests to an extent that even surprised them. It was a lot of hard work, but a lot of fun too. There were no protesters. After all, our volcanic crisis means a lot more in terms of danger than the presence of two warships —

nuclear or not. Come to think of it, no-one even questioned their nuclear capability. The crew of the Buchanan are taking their celebrity status all in good humour. They have even had special T-shirts printed on the subject which they took great care not to wear in the town. We heard about them, but never saw one. There can be no doubt that this surprise visit in late February was due to the cancellation of the A.N.Z.U.S. exercise and the revised plans. Here in Rabaul we have a lot to be thankful for as a result. The sailors are happy — they’ve had a good time, much better than they expected. The local businesses and the usually hard-pressed clubs are happy — and smiling all the way to the bank. It has been your loss. You can’t suddenly drop 675 hungry and thirsty sailors in a small town without there being a profound effect. They donated their time and skills to charitable work, played

sport against local teams who are starved for outside sporting contact, loaned us their films to show at our club, drank our beer, and ate all the hamburgers we could cook. They were polite and their behaviour was exemplary. Prior to the visit many of us expatriate Kiwis here discussed lightheartedly whether it might not be a good idea to claim Aussie citizenship for the duration. However, when questioned on nationality most of us owned up. The general reaction was disappointment that they could not visit New Zealand. Some said they wanted a nuclear-free world, not just a nuclear-free Pacific, but there was no way that was going to happen. The dream world is far from the reality. So as I said, it has been your loss. As I crawl into my bed to rest my aching bones after four days and nights of making endless hamburgers, salads and coffee all I can say is — “Thanks a lot Mr Lange.”