“Carinthia’S” Tour.

Papuan Arrangements Shock Missionaries.

SAILING from New on January 7, the 20,000-ton Cunarder “Car inthia” is making a four months’ cruise in the Southern Hemisphere, during which she will visit many Pacific ports.

After calling at Jamaica, the “Carinthia’s” itinerary will be, Hilo,

Tahiti, Cook Islands, Apia, Suva, Auckland, Wellington, Sydney and Port Moresby. She will then visit ports in Java, Straits Settlements, Ceylon, South Africa, and cross to South America before returning to New York.

The “Carinthia” is scheduled to reach Port Moresby on Easter Sunday, and a barbaric performance by the natives of the port was to have been one of the attractions of the tour.

However, Messrs. Thomas Cook & Son, who arranged the tour, reckoned without the missions, who are dismayed that the natives should be asked to perform on Easter Sunday. “The Church Standard,” in a leader on the proposed arrangements, says: A recent cable from New York stated that Messrs. Thomas Cook & Son, the world-famous tourist agents, are very perturbed at the re fusal of the missionaries to allow the Papuan natives to perform for the amusement of tourists, who are scheduled to call at Port Moresby on April 16 this year, in the course of a world cruise, because it is a Sunday. An appeal is to be made to the Australian Government to authorise the Administrator to override the discipline of the missionaries and allow the tribal dances to take place.

An official of the Australian Travel Association is cited as expressing the opinion that the action of the missionaries will interfere with the tourist traffic. If the report is accurate, it is a glaring instance of the cynical dis regard for spiritual values which animates most commercial enterprises.

The history of the European invasion of the Pacific is a sordid and tragic record of ex ploitation, and the self-sacrificing labours of the missionaries are the only redeeming features of a contact which has been destructive to the native races in body and soul. This sug gested interference with the work of the mis sionaries is an insolent gesture of contempt for the Christian Faith, which is becoming more and more evident in many quarters. April 16 is not only a Sunday, but the greatest feast in the Church calendar —Easter Day.

Messrs. Thomas Cook would have the native Christians celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by a barbaric spec tacle to amuse their tourists, and propose to invoke the support of the Commonwealth Gov ernment to carry out their wishes.

We are by no means confident that the Federal

Government will treat the proposed request with the contempt it deserves, for we have seen Holy Week turned into a carnival for the sake of financial gain with the connivance of a N.S.W. Government, despite the protests of the Church. Fortunately. Sir Hubert Murray, the Administrator of Papua, is a devout Christian and firm friend of the missionaries, and he is hardly likely to allow such a grievous blow to be struck at their authority.

We suggest, however, to Messrs. Thomas Cook & Son, that they invite their tourists to fulfil the Christian obligation of worship on next Easter Day, by joining the natives at their prayers and services, and we can assure them that they will witness a devotion and reverence which will be at once a rebuke and an example.

Papuan Fire-makers.

Photo by courtesy of Missionary Review.