New Guinea

Reports of Deaths in New Guinea Should be Received With Reserve

Letter to the Editor IN your June issue there is a paragraph headed “Death of Mr. J. T. Mc- Evoy”.

As mv name is mentioned as having left Manus with him, I should like to offer some comment. These reports of death should be treated with extreme reserve, if only to avoid great distress to relatives.

That your informant had no first-hand knowledge is practically certain, since he says that I accompanied Mr. McEvoy.

This is entirely wrong. Mr. McEvoy left Manus in his schooner “Maron” (ex “Daydream”) for Kavieng and Rabaul, about the middle of January, and he was accompanied by Mr. Oaten, of Car penter’s plantation at Komuli. I have heard nothing authentic about their

movements since. I already have received one anxious inquiry from a lady whose husband was reported to be with Mr.

McEvoy.

New Guinea is full of furphies. I my self have heard of the death or capture of several well-known New Guinea-ites — even as to how they were killed—only to find out later that they are very much alive and safe.

Some people place too much reliance on native reports, which, with few excep tions, can be completely discounted.

I left Manus with Mr. Vertigan, Mr.

Armstrong (Medical Assistant) and Mr.

Hamilton (Patrol Officer), and we arrived safely in a southern port.

I am, etc.,

H. S. Taylor.

Hazelbrook, NSW.

Mr. N. L. Whiteley, of Manus, TNG, who arrived in Australia in May, informs us that Mr. McEvoy left Manus on Jan uary 18, for Rabaul, and arrived in Kavieng almost simultaneously with the Japs. Mr. Whiteley says that he has heard no report of Mr. McEvoy’s death, but he has received a fairly reliable report that Mr. McEvoy was one of about a dozen European civilians who were made prisoners by the Japs in Kavieng.

Under the supervision of Mr. Chas.

Leake (Commonwealth Officer) at the New Guinea Trade Office in Sydney, are five members of the late New Guinea Public Service: Messrs. J. Burke, of the Treasury; T. Ellis, Lands; G. Marshall, Customs; H. Downing and A. Taylor, District Services Department.