LIVE WAR BOMBS CAUSE TRAGEDIES IN FIJI AREA

Grey River Argus, 19 May 1947, Page 4

LIVE WAR BOMBS CAUSE TRAGEDIES IN FIJI AREA

(Rec. 6.40). SUVA, May 17. Live bombs, deadly legacies of the Pacific war, are coming to light in South Pacific islands, including remoter islands of the Fiji group. Tragedy struck at the beautiful little island of Romtuma, north of Fiji, a fortnight ago, when what is believed to have been a 250-pound aerial bomb was found by a party of boys, who started to investigate. The bomb exploded, killing seven boys and two young men. Communication between Fiji and Romtuma by 4hip is infrequent. and until fragments of the metal are sent to Suva- for expert examination, no details are available. One theory is that the bomb may have been jettisoned during the war by a bomber returning to a base in Fiji after a mission in the west. Jettisoning over the sea was a common practice, especially if a plant had been knocked about, and the Romtuma bomb may have landed in a coral reef and failed to dqtonate, and been ultimately found by the youths whom it killed.

A Suva newspaper, the Fiji Times, has made an urgent appeal to the authorities to institute a publicity and education campaign throughout all the islands in or on the fringe of the war zone. The paper quotes the case of a Fijian killed and another injured in the Yasawa group, Fiji, when cooking food near rocks which harboured a live shell. Two years ago a European and a Fijian went “bomb hunting” in Yasawa, some islands of which were frequently used for target practice by the American Air Force. In a single day a 100-lb bomb was f»ound at one island, and seven bombs ranging from a 1001 b bomb to one of 2501 b at another.

Drifting mines also constitute an occasional menace. Two have been reported in the Fiji group within the last three months. One is believed to have been holed and sunk by rifle fire from an official search launch, and a second caused a heavy explosion on the reef of Makogai, the home of the central leper station.