Newspaper Page Text
Jane goes it alone on Big Witch
By TOM TIEDE
HOBART, TASMANIA—
(NEA)—Four months ago 18-
year-old Jane Cooper de
cided she was disappointed
with society. She was weary
of the assurance of war,
racism, poverty and greed.
So she made up her mind to
stop the world and get off.
She moved, bra-less and
baggage, as far from the
madding crowd as her purse
would permit. To a tiny,
mostly unexplored and com
pletely uninhabited island
below Tasmania. On the
maps it’s DeWitt Island.
Fishermen call it the Big
Witch.
At the t i m e, pessimists
shook their heads. The Big
Witch is only five miles off
the Tasmanian shore, but
much of the year it might as
well be 500. Located in a
zone known as the Roaring
Forties (in honor of the in
temperate, unpredictable
40th latitude), the wind and
waves often combine to cre
ate all but impassable
waters.
lonely \
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Anyone
for an
Easy-Riding
Santa?
The very with-it St. Nick
at right is among the new
looks in Christmas cards
this year. Although the em
phasis is heavily on the
mod in most lines, there is
still enough of the familiar
to satisfy traditionalists.
Below, the popular Night
Before Christmas and
Peace on Earth themes.
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AFRICAN THEMES are featured by CORE, among the many public service organizations with lines of cards. At
left, the three kings and an abstract Christmas star and, right, a Congo mother and child.
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“I’ve seen it hail there in
the summer,” says an area
fisherman, “and in the win
ter, well, there ain’t much
below the Big Witch but the
bloody South Pole.”
So it was that the Aus
tralian government, fearing
for the girl’s life, tried to en
tice Jane Cooper’s return.
Several Australian news
papers editorialized about
her chances of survival
“when the winds get up to
70 and the weather down to
10.” And pubsters throughout
Tasmania were betting 20 to
one “the bird won’t last a
week.”
The bird, however, as 18-
year-olds will sometimes do,
surprised the entire country.
The first day, Jane Cooper
wrote in her diary: “Dear
God, how I love this island,
but I don’t know if I’m
strong enough to stay.” To
day, four months later, she’s
writing that she’ll be on the
Big Witch at least one year.
Because of the area’s ex
treme isolation, communica
tions with the girl are im
practical or impossible. The
waters around Big Witch are
too difficult for Sunday sail
ors to navigate. Fishermen
will take the trip only after
coaxing (and anywhere from
a $l5O to $250 fee). But even
if transport is arranged, the
weather often foils every
thing. Recently this writer
hired a fisherman, set out
in calm sea at 4:30 a.m., and
had to turn back three hours
later because of a gale.
So Jane Cooper’s story of
survival must be pieced to
gether from bits of informa-
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tion: her diary writings, and
the observations of the few
fishermen who visit her (she
has an agreement with them
to bring supplies and mail
from home). Much of the
second-hand data is contra
dictory (one fisherman says
Jane is miserable, another
says she’s deliriously happy).
But in the main, the picture
is that the girl, still a kid,
is doing a man-woman-sized
job in adjusting.
She has, according to
aerial surveillance, cleared
out a small living space eJose
by the island’s only exposed
beach. She has erected a
crude lean-to to sleep under.
She has scratched out a few
yards of vegetable garden.
She has befriended a per
sistent penguin and named
it Mickey Mouse. “I get wet
when it rains," she tells
fishermen, “but when the
sun comes out I just get dry
again.”
Apparently, she has some
enemies. The island rats
nibble at her supplies, mess
up her garden, and occasion
ally run over her while she’s
sleeping. Then there are the
sandflies, which are report
edly thick, and cause a bit
ing sting that can last for
days. And her biggest worry
may well be the South Pacif
ic sea wasps, huge jellyfish
like creatures, with trailing
tentacles that can maim or
kill. (The island hermit told
one fisherman that she saw
her first wasp while fishing
in the surf and thus it was
the last bit of fishing she’s
done on Big Witch.)
Other than these creatures,
and, of course, the weather,
Jane Cooper’s principal ad
versary seems to be man.
She meant it when she
dropped out of civilization.
She has cut a network of
paths out of the forest sur
rounding her clearing, and
whenever strange people sail
up (rarely) she runs off and
hides.
Predictably, the girl’s an
tics have not gone without
criticism. Some have spread
the rumor that she’s daft.
Others claim she’s a dope
fiend trying to kick the hab
it. And many people cling to
the argument the girl should
be removed for her own
good. Says one Tasmanian
authority: “The only emer
gency apparatus she has is a
flare. She says if she needs
help, she’ll light the flare.
Well, what if she needs help
during a big fog? I’ll tell
you — she’ll just suffer
alone.”
But other observers in this
part of the world are not so
worried about Jane Cooper’s
well being. Nor are they
wasting much talk on the
possibility she may be thick
in the head. She seems to
know how to take care of
herself. She seems to know
exactly what she’s doing.
And, at last word, she even
shows some signs of worldly
mellowing: She has given up
trying to stop smoking, she
has decided to write an auto
biography of her life, and
she has allowed a semiper
manent visitor, the young
son of a fisherman, to help
her build a home.
(NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN.)
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One side of the POW
question is not complicated.
That’s the human side.
ALTHOUGH the prisoner-of
/A war question is often com
plex and even confusing,
one side of it should be very simple.
That’s the part that deals with the
treatment of prisoners of war. That’s
not a political issue, but a human
issue.
Os course, we all want the war to
end and the prisoners of war to be
released as soon as possible.
But meanwhile there is no need
for Hanoi and its allies to delay even
a day in answering this plea:
Let your POW camps in North
Vietnam, South Vietnam, Cambo
dia and Laos be visited by neutral
observers.
Let the world know the names
*• American Red Cross
National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia.
1608 "K” Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006
Page 11
of the men you have held so long
in secret captivity.
Assure the world through un
biased official observers that you
are treating American Prisoners ac
cording to humane standards long
practiced by civilized nations.
That’s the issue.
It’s that simple.
It’s that non-political.
It’s that human.
Hanoi can open its prison camps
to neutral observers without bar
gaining, even without consultation.
By doing so now, Hanoi would
earn the gratitude of millions of
Americans and find new stature in
the eyes of the world.
— Griffin Daily News Monday, Dec. 6,1971
“My husband, Alexander, is a
Lt. Commander in the Navy.
Four years ago he was reported
missing in action.
There’s a chance he was taken
prisoner and is still alive.
But I don’t know.
And I can’t find out.
Hanoi won’t tell our government.
Hanoi won’t tell me.”
SUPPORT
OUR PLEA
TO HANOI
AND ITS ALLIES:
Clear away the doubts—
Open your prison camps to
neutral observers...
now!
We ask no more than we give. All American
and South Vietnamese prison camps are in
spected regularly by official neutral observers-
The International CommitteeoftheßedCross.
THE LOOK
OF CHRISTMAS
is universal. The gaily dec
orated and stocked store
counters at left could be in
any American city . . . but
the setting is Frankfurt, West
Germany. Below left, a famil
iar scene . . . small faces
pressed against a show win
dow the better to see the toys
... in Paris. And, right, a
face in the crowd which seems
to be registering a minority
opinion ... an employe in a
London toy shop isn't finding
much joy in the season at
the moment.