US Army Guide to New Caledonia - The George C. Marshall ...

cidc, from more crowded lands where it was difficult t o
make a living . About 12,ooo of these laborers are in th e
island according to latest available figures . They are usually
Imported on 3-year contracts . Some of the laborer s
renew their contracts and eventually become permanen t
residents of the country . About two-thirds of the laborers
are Javanese, from Java_, and one-third Tonkinese, fro m
French Indochina .
Some Javanese women work i n the mines along wit h
the men, but most of them do not like it and preter domestic
service . Almost every white family in the islan d
has a Javanese servant . You can usually recognize th e
Javanese women by their gaily colored sarongs-not quit e
like Dorothy Lamours, but more like a skirt, with a
blouse covering the upper part of the body . The lava -
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nest are Moslems . At home they have been brought up to
be h ighly disciplined, very polite, and respectful of ahthorny
. The French regard the Javanese as intelligen t
workers, but trigger-tempere d ,
The Tonkinese are from the Tonkin region of Indochina,
and are similar to the Chinese . in appearance and
customs . They also are regarded as reliable workers, an d
n-arie of them are tine artisans in metal and wood . l d
religion, the Tonkinese may be Confucian, .Taoist, o r
Buddhist, since all three religions are followed in thei r
homeland .
Japanese . The fourth mayor group in New Caledonia,
until Pearl Harbor, veere the Japanese . There were abou t
1,100 on the island, The dcv after Pearl Harbor, General