Makolkols Again
pp. 21-22 · Read in the full issue
"Truce" is Off Six Natives Killed
IT is officially calculated that there are only about three score Makolkols in the districts on the south coast of New Britain (Territory of New Guinea); but, as they have the advantage of vast jungles and a mass of tangled mountains, they are a “pain-in-the-neck” to the Administration. There are two police patrols out after them, now; but anyone who has flown over that country, on the airmail route between Salamaua and Rabaul, will have full sympathy with the patrols.
For years past, the Makolkols—wild bush natives of nomadic habits —have been a nuisance. They dash down out of the jungle upon small, unprotected coastal villages, smash and grab, and run away again.
A few months ago, the Australian Minister for the Territories, Mr. Collins, announced that he “had made peace” with the Makolkols, and it was stated in various newspapers that the nomads had promised to be good lads and that the raids would cease.
But they all calculated without Mr.
Menzies. The Australian Prime Minister thoughtlessly moved Mr. Collins on to another Department, and a new Minister for Territories came in; and apparently, as soon as the king of the Makolkols was advised of the fact by the chief of his intelligence services, the truce was declared off. Or perhaps the king is modelling his kingship upon Adolf Hitler, and looks upon treaties only as some thing to be broken.
At any rate, at 9 a.m. on July 12, Makolkol raiders descended upon the village of Rakau, in the Wide Bay area, and six Rakauites were killed. The Makolkols went back into the mountains at the double. A police patrol was only a few hops behind; but, at the end of July, the murderers were still at large.
Mr. H. E. Maude, MBE, Administrative Officer in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony, has been seconded to the British Service in Tonga as Acting British Agent and Consul at Nukualofa, while Mr. A.
Armstrong is spending furlough in New Zealand.
A request by the Port Moresby branch of the Australian Labour Party that the Sogeri road be extended from Rona has been turned down by the Papuan Ad ministration. It was estimated that the cost of constructing a two-way motor traffic road around Hombrom Bluff would be £30,000 —and the limited possibilities for further agricultural development in the district did not warrant spending that amount.