Renegade

Natives

Horrible Crimes in NE Papua

The following, from a special

correspondent in Papua, was pub lished in “Sydney Morning Herald ” on May 17: MANY renegade natives who murdered Allied Servicemen and handed over Europeans, including women, to the Japanese have been arrested and tried.

These crimes occurred between July and September, 1942, after the Japanese land ing at Buna and Gona.

Three parties, totalling 19 Europeans and a half-caste, were involved.

The ringleader was an outlaw named Embogi, who is now dying. It is thought that his enemies have “made poison

against him,” the Papuan equivalent of “pointing the bone,” and he has lost the desire to live.

The natives who murdered Allied troops have been tried and sentenced to death.

The fate of the others who handed the white people over to the Japanese has not yet been decided.

Captain W. R. Humphries, formerly Chief Resident Magistrate of Papua, who has been in charge of the investigations, has found that all the natives he inter viewed have given him all possible aid to detect the culprits.

A high executive officer in the Austra lian New Guinea Administrative Unit said to-day: “The perpetrators of these crimes were a small minority of the New Guinea people. They were the Quislings, led by one of the foulest characters in the country, an outlaw named Embogi.

There is a scum in all races and you do not judge a people by its worst types.”

THE first party of victims consisted of a priest, a female European teacher,

aged 21, and a nurse, aged 27, of Gona Mission; a lieutenant and sergeant of a Papuan infantry unit, three privates, who were coastline spotters, and five American airmen who had baled out from a bomber.

These groups linked up at Deunia, about 20 miles from Gona, on the Kumusi River. The full party was met by natives, and two of those natives betrayed them to a Japanese detachment. The Japanese attacked, and the three spotters and two of the Americans were killed. The rest of the party scattered.

The two women struggled through the bush and were found by natives, who handed them over to the Japanese. The Japanese kept the women in captivity.

One morning they were taken to a small coffee plantation at Huhuru, where graves were already dug.

A Japanese guard attempted to rape one of the women. She resisted, and he drew his bayonet in full view of the other woman and stabbed her many times be fore she fell. Another Japanese stabbed the second woman in the throat.

The lieutenant, after two days and nights, became so fatigued that he dropped down beside a tree exhausted.

Three natives took him to Embogi. It is not known what happened to him.

THE three Americans had become lost in the jungle, when they were accosted by a number of unfriendly natives. One of the Americans was speared and the others beaten to death with bludgeons.

Seven natives have been sentenced to death for this crime.

The priest was last seen at Sanada, where he had gone to seek a responsible Japanese officer to get safe conduct for his party.

THE other party was at Sangara Mission Station, 20 miles along the Kokoda track from Gona, where the Japanese landed. It consisted of two women teachers, aged 35, Commander Austin, the Controller of Plantations for the area, two clergymen, a mission layman, and a half-caste.

When they heard of the landing they set out to reach the coast. Natives seized the party and stripped them all naked.

The Europeans were taken to Embi village. There is no evidence that the natives attempted to molest the women.

Next they drove them on again, allowing the women to cover themselves with the scantiest clothing.

At Dobodura they handed them over to the Japanese. They were taken by motor vehicles to Buna, and evidence is fairly conclusive that the entire party was be headed on Buna Beach, and their bodies flung into the sea. One hundred and twenty natives were arrested in connec tion with this crime, but after taking evidence it was found that there were only 25 directly implicated.

The other case was that of an unknown American airman who was murdered.

Five natives convicted of this crime have been sentenced to death.

Some Reports Not True

The Bishop of New Guinea (Right Rev.

Dr. Strong), who was recently through the Gona and Sangara areas, wrote as follows on May 29 to the Australian Board of Missions: — “I was assured that no Christian natives were concerned in the betrayal; and that some earlier reports that had been circulated about raping by the natives were not true, and that the re port about the stripping of the Sangara party was not true. The tragedy is that this native treachery occurred in an area which we had been unable to touch. That group of villages had often asked us to extend our work among them, but we had been unable to do so, owing to lack of funds and workers.