Squawk, your logic in this matter never ceases to amaze me. What I am doing is paying David Billings the honour of doing the sort of due diligence a professional investor would do before committing real money to an investigation. Nothing personal. I am not accusing David Billings of anything. Without "the (treasure?) map" this entire exercise rests on the hazy wartime memories of some old diggers and the conviction of David Billings that the wreck of AE's aircraft lies in New Britain. For all we know an old digger might have decided to have some fun with David.
David has said that the interviews with the diggers were videotaped. I have already said I can accept that and that the diggers said what David says they said, a serious investor would expect to hear the tapes themselves because for all he knows David might have been leading the witness.
Then there is the map - allegedly folded to fit an Australian Army map case and the folded bit covered with masking tape. It provides the crucial extra evidence. Exactly how did the writing get on the map? Was it written on on the patrol itself? If so, how was the map carried so as to allow margin markings that were later covered by a fold? Are there any other markings on the map? Are there folds on the map? Do they correspond to carriage in an Army mapcase? I used to have one. There are images and dimensions on the web.
As for writing on maps, normally you would write in a section or platoon leaders notebook you would write on the next page to the one you wrote your orders on with a pencil stub. You carried it in your top left JG pocket. At least we did last time I was at JTC Canungra.
The whole question of how the map came to be needs examining. Who has the map?