To Mark A Lonely

Grave

Admiralty Sends Brass Plate To Solomons

WE have received from the Secretary of the Admiralty a letter dated May 20, 1935, wherein we are advised that the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty have been pleased to give instructions for a suitable brass plate to be manufactured and forwarded to Mr. M. Harper, of Man doliana Island, in the Solomons Group, to be placed over the grave of certain naval personnel who were buried there in 1880.

This is the interesting sequel to a corre spondence that had been proceeding for over a year.

Mr. Harper is an old navy man, and he has settled down as a planter, trader, and recruiter on Mandoliana Island. He dis covered that in 1880 an officer and three seamen from H.M.S. Sandfly, who were ashore on the island, were treacherously murdered by natives, and that their bodies had been buried there. With the aid of some old natives, and after much patient investigation, Mr. Harper was able to find the grave, and he placed upon it a con crete slab to mark the place. He then communicated with the Editor of this journal and asked for assistance in ob taining the names of the men who had been massacred and some form of memorial which he might place over their grave.

We communicated with the Australian naval authorities and eventually were re ferred to the Admiralty. The Admiralty several months ago supplied Mr. Harper with the names of the murdered men, and, as indicated, we now are advised that a brass plate bearing the names of the men is on its way to Mr. Harper, who has undertaken to embed it firmly in the concrete which covers and identifies the lonely grave.

The interesting story of the massacre was told in the P.I.M. of June, 1934.