Unofficial history of the Australian & New Zealand Armed Services 

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Category: WW2/Pidgin English

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Australian Government Documents in Melanesian Pidgin-English

During WW2 the Australian Government and the Australian Army had to deal with natives that came from a huge range of different tribes, who spoke many (up to 800) different languages or dialects, who in most cases could not read in ANY language and who had no understanding of the "white man's world".

They did not have access to modern weapons, buying and selling was not common, barter was.

Their needs were simple, their demands were virtually non-existent and they came to hate the Japanese as much as the Diggers did.

Some tribes (or individuals) took to "going bush" and ignoring the war but the great majority that were in a position to helped the Allies tremendously.

Dealing with these people with written documents was terribly hard.

My translation which may be incorrect.

All men ??? big ???? your newspaper (poster).

Wewak: Our soldiers have beaten the Japanese.

 

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Digger History:  an unofficial history of the Australian & New Zealand Armed Forces