Larkin Case
p. 22 · Read in the full issue
Untrustworthy Native Evidence
Letter to the Editor.
THE letter of your correspondent “N.G.
A Planter of Sydney,” in a recent issue, forces my blood past boiling point. I know Larkin and all the planters of Manus and, for that matter, 90 per cent, of the planters in the Mandated Territory, and your cor respondent’s stab in the back of Larkin is not the action of a New Guinea planter.
As regards native evidence, where lead ing questions are asked —and I’ve heard them time after time in court cases—the witness will say what he thinks the Magis trate wants him to say; and where the native knows the official will lend a sym pathetic ear to a trivial complaint, he will lie and exaggerate beyond comprehension.
I attended the court on one day of Lar kin’s trial, and it is my honest opinion, given without prejudice, that faulty inter pretation of native expressions and words and non-detection of what to me were obvious lies, were the cause of Larkin’s incarceration.
As far as the planters of New Guinea are concerned, Jim Larkin need not be afraid to look them in the face.
I am, etc.,
One Of Them.
Bougainville, New Guinea. 1/5/’34.