Tragedy In New Guinea

Six Men Believed Killed in Out-station Clash

THERE was an extraordinary tragedy in the Sepik district, Northern New Guinea, in March last, in which a number of men lost their lives. The trouble which occurred had nothing whatever to do with the war—there appear to be no Japanese within hun dreds of miles of the district concerned— but war conditions apparently prevented the facts of the situation from becoming known in Australia, until recently.

It appears that an administrative offi cial, who had been in poor health, became mentally deranged; refused to hand over his station to another official who had been sent in to relieve him; ordered his native police to fire upon the newcomers and wounded some of them; then com mitted suicide; with the result that the native police on the station apparently went berserk, and attacked and killed a number of men who went to the assist ance of the relieving officer.

The details are vague and unconfirmed.

But it has been officially announced by Canberra that the death has occurred of Mr. George Ellis. Assistant District Offi cer; and fairly reliable reports point to the deaths of— Reginald James Beckett, miner. —. Eichorn, Senior, miner. —. Mitchell, believed to be a miner.

R. B. Strudwick, patrol officer.

A Chinese carpenter.

Mr. George Ellis, well known as an Assistant District Officer, and a veteran of last war, was in charge of the adminis trative office at Angoram, on the Lower Sepik. He was in bad health, and it was decided that he should be relieved.

Assistant District Officer J. L. Taylor (well known as the leader of famous ex ploratory patrols in the Upper Ramu, Mount Hagen and Upper Sepik regions) was sent to take charge of Angoram. Mr.

Ellis refused to hand over the station to Mr. Taylor; and, when Mr. Taylor insisted that the station must be handed over, Mr. Ellis became violent, and called

upon his native police (of whom he had a number on the station) to come to his aid.

What happened then is not clear.

Shooting occurred, because Mr. Taylor was wounded, and he subsequently sent to the nearest Europeans for assistance.

Mr. R. J. Beckett, with Mr. Eichorn and his son Fred, were jointly working a profitable claim on Wallagamut Creek, in that Sepik area, and they were among the men who went to the Angoram sta tion. There also assembled a Mr. Mit chell, a Mr. Wilton and a Chinese car penter (name unknown).

It seems that the men named above were killed, but how they were killed is not yet clear. It is indicated, however, that Mr. Ellis committed suicide; and that his party of native police went ber serk, and ambushed and fatally shot the men named. Fred Eichorn and Wilton escaped.

It is stated that the native police, evi dently now completely mad, ranged up and down the district for some time, shooting indiscriminately, and that they killed a number of natives.

The case of Mr. Strudwick, a popular young patrol officer, is particularly sad.

He was away in the interior, on a patrol, when the tragedy occurred, and seems to have known nothing of it. When he marched back to the Lower Sepik, he was ambushed and shot dead by the mad police.

Mr. Roy MacGregor and others on the northern coast heard that there was bad trouble at Angoram, and they went in, in a forced march. But they could only report that a number of Europeans had been killed, and that the native police had gone bush.

All this occurred several months ago, and the situation since has been completely cleared up. An official inquiry has been held; but the delay in making the extraordinary circumstances known is due to the difficulties of communication under wartime conditions.