UNUSUAL FLEET

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25365, 25 October 1943, Page 2

UNUSUAL FLEET

TRANSPORT IN SOLOMONS (N.Z.E.f’. Official War Correspondent) (Rec. 7 p.m.) PACIFIC BASE, Oct. 17.

A heavy dug-out. canoe, a light canoe, two outriggers, and two collapsible Japanese assault boats are plying a useful trade for the New Zealand troops on the north-west coast of Vella Lavella. This weird assortment of mixed native and military craft was found in the waters round Uraomo Island after heavy shelling had pushed the enemy off. It is now on full-time duty fetching and carrying food and munitions between the companies of a forward battalion. There is no cash fare for the conveyance of goods or passengers. but anyone wanting a ride from one bay to the next works his passage at. the end of a punting pole or a brokendown paddle. Native members of the British Solomons Islands Protectorate Defence Force, acting as guides to New Zealand soldiers on Vella Lavella, have grown accustomed to Allied army rations, and with our forces in the jungle relish the same meat, biscuit, and drink as the whites. The normal diet for a Solomon Islander consists of sweet potatoes, yams, tapioca, taro, cooking bananas, sugar cane, and coconut, Doubtless, he will go back to this diet after the war when he returns to the clean cultivated areas round his coastal villages, but in the meantime he is thriving on the change. The native is also the very willing recipient of cigarettes, of which the troops in the forward area get a liberal free issue.