Murderous Japs
p. 34 · Read in the full issue
Another Massacre of Catholic Missionaries
THE 70-year-old Bishop Aerts, Dutch Catholic Bishop of the Kai Islands, and seven other missionaries were lined up on the jetty at Langgoer (Tanimbar Island, off the coast of Dutch New Guinea), and massacred by Japanese soldiers on July 30.
Other missionaries and sisters were taken away by the soldiers, and their fate is unknown.
The massacres, which were announced on October 16, by the Netherlands Indies Government Information Service, were reported by eye-witnesses.
The motive for the massacre of these defenceless missionaries is not clear, but it is believed to have been a reprisal for destruction of a motor launch which was burned at the Bishop’s instructions be fore the Japanese arrived.
Bishop Aerts, who had been a resident in the Kai Islands for many years, was a popular figure among Catholics, Pro testants, and Mahommedans.
We reported, last month, that the Japanese had murdered a group of mis sionaries in the Solomons, in somewhat similar circumstances.
Mr. K. de G. MacVitty, who has been American Consul in New Caledonia for the past two years, has been transferred to Washington for duty with the State Department. He has a valuable far reaching knowledge of Pacific and Far Eastern countries.