JUNGLE PHILOSOPHER

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 April 1943, Page 6

JUNGLE PHILOSOPHER

TREES THE WORST ENEMY A young Melbourne University student who interrupted his course to join the Army, wrote to his professor a letter which the Melbourne Argus in reproducing, described as one of the most remarkable human documents to come from the fighting zones.

“The Jap,” wrote the student, “plays a very small part in our fight; most of our energy is spent in fighting fever, weather, and mountains. Most people have no idea of the amount of patrolling that is done without ever seeing a Jap. Reports seem to indicate that life is one long succession of fighting. If only people would realise the months of mindkilling, soul-destroying searching and waiting, they would have a clearer picture of affairs. The country finally conquered me, not the Japs, and I have been in hosiptal on -and off for the last month.

“For a start, everything was interesting, nothing a trouble, for I was fit, and the scenery and natives, conditions and difficulties, were all so novel as. to be absorbingly interesting and beautiful.

“But those impressions were short lived; soon the disease called ‘troppo’ started to close our minds. What was formerly beautiful became drab, what was interesting, commonplace. The jungle began to have its effect. Nature became an enemy. “The sun is no longei’ life-giving; it burns down so that even a man’s soul seems to be parched. The moon is no longer a friend; it provides light for enemy bombers or for a sniper. “Night’s blanket no longer comforts; it means endless sentry duty, patrols and cover for the enemy. Streams of crystal-clear water are no longer refreshing; they mean crocodiles, and soaked boots from continuous fording. “Rain is no longer cleansing; it turns native pads, the only means of travel, into stinking, clinging, slippery, knee-deep mud. Butterflies of every hue are no longer entrancing; their loveliness infuriates, as does their blundering into the sweat of one’s face.

“Native villages are no longer places of interest; they mean ulcers and diseases, for one must live in them to escape the untiring sun and rain.

“Mountains are no longer citadels of grandeur; they mean breaking backs and aching legs and scorn, for we alone passed what was formerly an impassable barrier in three places. “The ocean is no longer cooling; it is always warm with the tropical beat.

“Natives are the only welcome sight for their untiring devotion and efforts to keep us supplied, and give a muchneeded boost to morale. “At first, while one can still think, minds are far away, recalling school days, studies, food—and occasional Quotations in French, Latin, or German for me. Occasionally I even found myself thinking in French . . . “But a man’s worst enemies are the trees. They hold continual mists, stand dejected and dripping, covered in moss and creepers, while the undergrowth, never touched by the sun, is dank. The tangle of the jungle seems to press down on one, and brings on a perpetual monotony. It, is always there, holding out the light j of day, and shutting in any inhabitants, until they are all turned in on themselves in an offensive solitude,

the jungle seeming to cut off the company of even their best friends. “And finally the jungle accomplishes its task and closes every man’s mind, so that he becomes an unthinking automaton, his brain a void, content to drift where the jungle dictates.”