Missionaries.
p. 34 · Read in the full issue
Deaths Of White
Letter to the Editor.
In the “Sydney Morning Herald” of 12th of July, I was amazed to read that the Bishop of Melanesia, speaking at a Rotarian luncheon, was reported to have stated in his address: “Many white missionaries had been killed in the diocese, chiefly as a result of the misdeeds of white traders, who had visited the Islands shortly before them.”
As the report has not been contra dicted one presumes that such a state ment was made.
The British Solomon Islands com prise a large part of the Melanesian Diocese and, apart from Mr, Daniels, of the S.S.E. Mission, who was killed twenty odd years ago on Malaita, an island on which there were few if any traders at the time, no missionary has been murdered here for fifty years, at least.
It is, indeed, pitiable that many mis sionaries in order to give the im pression that they lead hard and dangerous lives, feel it is necessary to traduce traders who have done more for civilisation and the British Empire in the Pacific than any or all the mis sion organisations. I am, etc.,
Southern Cross.
Tulagi, B.S.I., Sept. 11, 1933.