Those Undisciplined

Natives

To the Editor.

Sir, —I write as an experienced schoolmas ter who numbers among his pupils not a few Planters and District Officers, who has visited them recently in the Territory, who has talked to men and women representing its very varied interests.

I am glad to know that Captain Milton, who wrote on this topic last October, real ises to some extent the difficulties of the ad ministration of the Territory; but I very deeply regret, as I am sure that he will on mature reflection, certain things in con nection with his article. 1. I know quite well, and so does everyone in the Territory, the names of the officials who have caused him annoyance. Captain Milton is free to write his article. The offi cials cannot answer it over their own names.

They are not inexperienced or habitually gauche persons, but, because of official tradi tion, they must be regarded as such, because their hands are tied. This is not fair. 2. As the ordinary reader will interpret Captain Milton’s story of the Edmonds mur der trial it will sound as if witnesses other than natives were not permitted to give evi dence, or even as if Europeans were pre vented from giving evidence. He sounds as if he were charging the Central Court at Ra baul with acts of injustice. As I see no evi dence of any injustice, I regard the com ments of Captain Milton as singularly un fortunate. 3. As regards the plantation inspection inci dent, I read his story as suggesting that the usual procedure is for a District Officer to tell the natives that he is more powerful than their employer. I do not think any D.O. would thus go out of his way to saddle himself with responsibility for all indentured labourers in his district, as they might number some thousands. He would, and this is what he is there for, tell them that he is ready to hear their real or imaginary grievances. 4. Captain Milton, in regard to corporal punishment, seems to claim to write as the one real disciplinarian in a Territory coddled by officials. He should suggest what is well known, that nearly all residents are of opinion that corporal punishment for certain offences administered by District Officers, would do a great deal of good, and also that at a com bined Mission Conference held in Rabaul, corporal punishment was advocated by every Mission.

I have read with great pleasure the shorter and calmer and weightier article by Mr. Gor don Thomas, because it shows a much fuller appreciation of an official’s problems. He has to maintain European prestige to the same extent, but not in the same wav, as his German predecessors. He is under the mandate of the League of Nations, which is itself an inexperienced, because it is a young, body, and its natives is, to put it mildly, somewhat idealised. He has to deal with planters who naturally want their em ployees to work, and with natives who natur ally do not want to work. He has not only to deal with missionaries of wide and long experience, who value local customs in so far as they maintain a decent standard of morality, but also with less experienced men whose undoubted zeal makes them expect the adoption by the native of Christian moral standard a century before he has digested it.

After reading 35 pages of a patrol officer’s report, a privilege which probably has been denied to Captain Milton, I am disposed to marvel that Australia, inexperienced in work of this kind, should have already produced so many men who are, in spite of the con stant interference of the distant amateur with the local expert, doing their job with a patience and impartiality that is amazing to anyone who has the remotest conception of their difficulties. —I am, etc.

A. W. Tonge.

Sydney, 28th December, 1931.

Dr. C. M. Deland, Government Medi cal Officer at Kieta, Bougainville, Ter ritory of New Guinea, returned to the Territory by the Macdhui after spend ing four months’ leave in Australia.

He was accompanied by his wife and children. It is reported that Dr. Platt, who had been relieving Dr. Deland at Kieta. is being transferred to Sala maua. He was recently stationed at Madang.