Adorable Aitutaki

Back to Seattle's water front last week came the story of another Pacific island paradise* known to a few fortunate U.S. fighting men. This heavenly spot is Aitutaki, one of the Cook Islands, northeast of New Zealand and about 700 miles from Tahiti. It is four miles long by one and a half miles wide and has all standard equipment, including a magnificent lagoon, snow white sand, sapphire blue water, emerald green foliage, lush fruit trees, beautiful and amiable women.

The teller of the tale of Aitutaki was Archie Campbell, onetime hard-boiled Seattle Post Intelligencer newsman, now second engineer in a Liberty ship. A world-traveled cynic, Campbell had always scoffed at South Sea legends. But now he testifies: New Zealand owns the island, but has governed it by leaving it alone. The normal population includes 2,000 Polynesians--strong, handsome men & women. Aitutaki has no commercial value and in peacetime is almost never seen by white men; now it has a holding force of blissfully happy U.S. troops. Venereal disease is unknown among the natives; the major commanding the force saw to it that only healthy soldiers went ashore. Life is pleasant, with plenty of tropical fruits and vegetables; wild pigs occasionally provide fresh meat. Love is taboo until after sundown, then the unattached girls doff their tapa-cloth shirts, shake out their grass skirts and smile fondly about them.

"You can't overdescribe it," sighed Archie Campbell. "After the peace the War Department will have to send troops there to drag those guys home . . . it's a soldier's dream." Less explicit, less expansive than Campbell, the Pacific Islands Pilot, Vol. III, Sixth Edition, nevertheless concedes that Aitutaki's people are "hospitable and well-disposed."

*Previously reported paradise: Sikaiana, in the Stewart Islands (TIME, June 14).

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.