World: What Price Johnson?

A different kind of campaign is taking place across the Pacific. There, the natives of the Bismarck Archipelago don’t want to elect Lyndon Johnson—they want to buy him.

The phenomenon dates back to World War II, when a flood of U.S. equipment and food poured into the islands during the fight against Japan. The memory lingers on, stimulating the imaginative Melanesian natives to make regular demands that the headman of the U.S. be made their supreme chief.

The Australians, who rule the region as part of their U.N. Trust Territory of New Guinea, first became aware of the “Johnson Cult” last February when thousands of islanders started refusing to pay their $8.43 annual head tax unless the money was placed in a special “Buy Johnson” fund. Before long, $2,475 had been collected for the purpose. But the Australians called it tax evasion and sent police and civilian officials scurrying to the jungle villages to get the money or the delinquents.

Fortnight ago, a serious clash occurred when a patrol landed at the village of Lokano, on the west coast of the island of New Ireland. There officials found 100 natives sitting quietly on the beach in front of their huts. All went well until the police arrested one tax delinquent. Then, crying “The only authority we recognize is President Johnson,” the islanders grabbed spears, clubs and stones, which they had hidden in the sand, and attacked the Australians. Battered and bleeding, the tax collectors fled to their boats, injuring themselves further as they stumbled over the sharp coral. Three days later, when a reinforced police patrol flew in from Rabaul with steel helmets, shields, tear gas and rifles, they found Lokano deserted. Everybody for miles around had vanished into the swampy jungle to wait in safety till Johnson could arrive to liberate them.

The problem of the island natives seemed almost insoluble, but Australia’s administrators kept trying. Last week educational committees were making the rounds of isolated villages, trying to clarify the situation, and the Australians even pressed into service a nearby U.S. geodetic survey team to explain to the natives that President Lyndon Johnson was too busy and too far away to come out and operate their villages. Declared Australia’s district commissioner for the region: “We will not rest until we have restored respect for law and order.”