To Return To Missionary
p. 44 · Read in the full issue
Service
Two Priests From Milne Boy
rpHE first missionaries in Papua to be X discharged from the Australian Army are returning to their stations this week. They are Rev. Fathers N. Earl and J. Dwyer, who were formerly at the Sacred Heart Monastery, Kensington, Sydney.
Both young men, they have led adven turous lives since the Japanese inter rupted their missionary work more than two years ago. Headquarters of their East Papuan mission is at Sidela Island, near Milne Bay. When the enemy in vaded Rabaul in January, 1942, Father Earl, with three others, anticipated their arrival at Milne Bay, and set out for Cairns in a launch with the school atlas to assist in navigation. A storm blew them in to Port Moresby, and they arrived on the night of the first air raid.
Meeting an officer in the street that night, Father Earl offered to join the Army, and was accepted within a few minutes. As chaplain he was with the 39th Battalion when it scaled the Owen Stanleys, and faced the Japanese at Kokoda in the first battle in Papua in August, 1942. For distinguished service in that campaign Father Earl was awarded the MBE.
Once he insisted on going out under enemy fire to recover a badly wounded man. When he returned, the party of seven, which had tried to dissuade him, had been wiped out.
He is returning to Sideia, where one priest, Father Baldwin, and a lay brother remained, although at one stage the Jap anese were only 35 miles away at Milne Bay.
Father Dwyer, who served five years in the Trobriands, was in Australia on leave when the Japanese attacked. Un able to return to the mission, he decided that Darwin was the best field for his work, and was on his way there when he enlisted at Alice Springs. After 18 months in the Darwin area he returned to New Guinea. He is on his way back to the Trobriands.—From the Melbourne “Age,” 10/5/44.