Re-opened

King Case to Be Re-opened Did New Guinea Cort Err?

At mocjt a Traov ocrr\ i\/Tv t t a LMOST a year ago, Mr. J. J. A. King, a New Guinea prospector who had been sentenced in 1935 to 10 years’ imprisonment for “attempting to do bodfly harm by firing on natives”, was released from an Australian gaol.

At that time, the “PIM” was gathering together mformation with the object of seeking a review of the case, in the belief that King had been wrongly convicted and excessively punished In a note to the “PIM” editor, in September, Mr. King states that he in tends soon to go to New Guinea to re-open the case and prove that he was the victim of a grave miscarriage of justice. Only the cost involved, he says, has prevented him taking action before this.

.AJ moment, Mr. King is on the civil staff of the Victorian Army Canteen Se l at Puckapunyal camp.

Briefly, the circumstances surrounding the King case were that, for protection, he j 0 med a party of three German pros pectors in hostile country on the Sepik, in 1934- that the Germans later were found guilty of wantonly shooting natives and raping their women; and that be cause of his association with the Germans King was arrested and tried on several similar charges, eventually being con victed and sentenced on a charge of hav mg fired upon unoffensive natives There were many people in New Guinea who held that the evidence against King was inconclusive and that he had been punished by the NG Court merely for keeping bad company Mr. S. Best, of Rabaul, New Guinea, was entertained recently by the staff of W R. Carpenter & Co. Ltd., prior to his departure for Sydney to join the RAAF.