NOUMEA.

Dozerdust, Volume 1, Issue 15, 18 September 1943, Page 6

NOUMEA.

$ a waterfront where shacks and 1 cantos fringe tho water edge; javanose women in nondescript garments cooking food over an open firej a cakeshift wharf where a cumberous barge is akwardly berthed; odd looking natives in tattered french uniform coats and round peaked hate? tiny hative and javanoso children barefooted in the mud; sweaty rain and an atmosphere of desertion all went to Croat our first vague impression of noumoa the morning 'we landed# from this unusual ? almost fantastically unreal - Spot' wo wore rapidly carried out into tho land of culls# * * * our second impression, almost four months later, finds the vratorefrent swell up in what appears to bo a turbulent rush of army 'waggons, trucks, lorries, cars, jeeps and motor uyuleso the simplicity’ of the first scene is gone. kictoad there is chaos/ screeching brakes, a disturbed ant hill# it is not to tho natives, but to the traffic m o p<9 we look# ha along is tho symbol of order# tho noumuan population, but a tiny fraction of tho whole., which is on army on leave, a navy ashore# tho barefooted Javanese children do not fit in* * * * in a few hours the chaos becomes orderly, one thinks of ” who do i know ?# and one turns to the u«s. rod cross, one hopes to meet n®a’ors from a former unit we were”in, from auckland, , k, Wellington, or elsewhere, or maybe someone from another part of the island. ....you 'want to'compare notes ...... ••