South Sea Bishop

Columbia University last week gave an Anglican Bishop from the South Seas an honorary degree (Doctor of Sacred Theology) for "outstanding service in the task of winning this war. . . ."

The Bishop was Melanesia's Walter Hubert Baddeley, now homewardbound to England after twelve years in the South Pacific. To get around his thousand-island see, he has sailed some 23,000 miles a year in his 300-ton ship, The Southern Cross.

Bishop Baddeley's war service has been to keep his natives loyal to Britain and the U.S. Military officials, grateful for the way islanders have helped beat the Jap and rescued many a U.S. serviceman, give full marks to the Anglican Church's 96 years of work in the islands. When the Japanese invaded Florida Island, the Bishop and his charges took to the jungle, lived "like rabbits" until the Japanese had been routed.

New Yorkers had never seen the tall, blue-eyed Bishop before last week. But many a U.S. serviceman in the Solomons counts him a friend. As soon as the Japanese had been driven from Florida Island, the Bishop returned, opened a new episcopal palace--a leaf hut built on the ruined foundation of the mission warehouse. There he kept open house for servicemen. The No. 1 refreshment, prepared by the Bishop in person : fresh-fruit salad.

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