86 
We arrived at Graciosa Bay, opposite the airstrip, at 7 a.m. and by 
8 a.m. the first mate had located Dr. Lee and brought him on board to 
clear Paul Brown's for the shore, to catch the SOLAIR flight to Honiara. 
The plane was due at 9 a.m. for departure at 10 a.m., and Paul is booked. 
I have never learned why he decided to desert us, and I will miss his viery 
competent and devoted service, greatly. He says he is not heading back for 
Paris, but to Bethesda, and I cannot believe that his family really need 
him that badly. Thus, to all of us his decision to leave how is strange. 
It is a strange move, since he never really discussed it with me and 
simply left it a.r.uBior and a p'ossibility for the last two weeks. I never 
really objected or openly complained to him about it, but I do in fact 
feel deserted. I would much rather he stayed with us; I need him and had 
counted on him. I now feel that I should have explicitly told him this, 
rather than leaving it unstated, and the option open to him. Paul may 
have felt insufficiently needed or appreciated. It is likely that by not 
openly expressing my extreme pleasure in his performance with us, giving 
him more explicit authority, and not explicitly stating to him how lost and 
disappointed I feel to be without his help, that I actually encouraged 
him to leave. If some other aspect of the trip has displeased him or 
left him dejected, I have not noticed what it might be. 
We have met Mrs. Tom (Diana) Hepworth, whose family owns 
Pigeon Island in the Reef Islands, where they have been living for the 
past fourteen years, as the only Europeans there. There are some three 
thousand people in the Reefs, and part of these are Polynesian, and the rest 
are Melanesian. The Polynesians live on the "outliers" and do not mix or 
intermarry much with the Reef Islanders and Diana Hepworth explains that they 
are not even called "Reef Islanders" locally, and that some ten to twenty 
years ago rarely crossed the channel separating Pol 3 mesian islands 
from Melanesian. The Hepworths are building a trade store and residence 
here, to be occupied by a Canadian couple who they have requested to 
come. The side fore the wonderfully built home is below the station 
grounds... we do not like it and wonder why such a fine house is being 
built in such a hot and sultry hollow. I suspect it is because the 
usual feuds between the kiaps and government people, and the private en- 
terprise and the missionaries. Diana fully confirms this and claims that 
the District Officer simply is against free enterprise, and does not let 
anything be built on the current station grounds, which were set aside 
for commercial enterprises. She is prompt to tell us that it is a private 
feud between her and the District Officer, who wants no commercial acti- 
vity on "his" station. 
I have purchased with Australian dollars with over $400 U.S. with a 
personal check authorized by the Accountant General whom Paul tracked down 
and brought to the radla. He authorized the Alpha Hel^ to give the District 
Officer $400 U.S. in personal checks— my own — for receipt of Australian dollars 
from the Sub-district Office at a poor rate of .79 Australian per $1.00 U.S, 
