Islands

Pacific

Monthly

Vol. X. No. 10.

May 15, 1940

Established 1930

[Registered at the G.P.&L. Sydney., for transmission post as a newspaper.]

8 d

TWO GERMANS WHO BOLTED: This photograph, just discovered in the “P.I.M.” files, shows the Lutheran Mission aeroplane on Boana landing-ground, interior of New Guinea, just after it had discharged a miscellaneous cargo. The pilot, W. Garms, is holding the calf; the man on the right is the mechanic, P. Raabe. The native-made baskets are “returned empties"—they are sent regularly to Lae and Salamaua, filled With vegetables grown at an altitude of 3,100 feet.

When war broke out, last September, these two Germans escaped from Lutheran Mission headquarters in an aeroplane. They fluttered uncertainly about the New Guinea aerodromes for a few days, while the New Guinea officials dithered, and Wondered whether to arrest them. Then they disappeared. Some time later, it was reported from the Dutch East Indies that they had arrived there, in the Mission aeroplane. They may have been interned —we have not heard of them since.