The Traders And The Missions

Letter to the Editor.

SOME time ago you were kind enough to afford traders space to ventilate a griev ance re competition by missionaries in trade, and other commercial ventures.

Largely as the result of the matter being made public in your paper, the local branch of the Methodist Missionary So ciety, about whom the complaint was concerned, took prompt steps to bring to a conclusion the system that was the cause of the trouble, and are doing all that is possible to avoid interference with the traders in their district, or in any way competing with them. Rev. J. W. Burton, M.A. (General Secretary of the Society), and Mr. J. W. Kitto, Deputy Postmaster- General (a member of the Mission Board), upon their recent visit to Papua, personally assured the writer that trading by their Missionaries would not be tolerated.

It is also to the credit of the Anglican Missionary Society working on the N.E. coast of Papua that, without any request or complaint on the part of traders resident within their “sphere of endeavour,” they voluntarily closed some stores, lest in these hard and difficult times they might do harm to local business men, most of whom are facing financial ruin.

In view of this example of practical Christian charity it is regrettable to have to place on record that there are still some Missionaries in Papua so indifferent to the present tragic position of most of the planters and traders here that they are openly competing with them in every ave nue that offers a chance of profit. For some years past the London Missionary Society, one of the wealthiest and best endowed missions in the world, in the person of its representative at Kwato, Samarai, has openly conducted trading operations, to the detriment of the legitimate traders and business men living in his district. Secure in his position as a salaried representative of a wealthy Society, supported by monies contributed by people on the other side of the world, he is able to undersell the local traders, and pay prices for native products that leave no profit for those who depend upon trade for a livelihood.

So long as he confined his trading opera tions to his own district vce did not feel inclined to make any public comment; it was largely the concern of those traders resident in his vicinity. Lately, however, not satisfied with practically a trading monopoly within his own district, he is going further afield, and has established his native agents on the eastern side of Normanby Island to buy gold from the natives and sell trade goods to them. This is in direct opposition to traders on the spot, one of whom has been dealing hon estly and fairly with the local inhabitants for twenty years.

When one considers the present financial situation, the tragic position in which

planters and traders now find themselves, and the sheer hopelessness of the immedi ate future, it is an unfortunate thing that the representative of such a wealthy So ciety should be allowed to compete with these men for the few remnants of trade by means of which they are striving to maintain life and respectability. That missionaries living in comfortable homes, attended by efficient servants, provided with safe travelling facilities, and who have practically all the benefits of civilization close at hand, should covet the pitiful scraps of trade still left in the outer islands, shows a callous disregard for the present calamity through which the coun try is passing, and for the welfare of their fellow white men.

Regretting the necessity for this letter.

I am, etc.,

E. W. Harrison.

Sebulugomwa, Papua, 3/4/1934.