Pacific

Islands

Monthly

September 18, 1944

Vol. Xv. No. 2.

Established 1930

[Registered at the G.P.0., JStadn^v/o a transmission by post as a newspaper ]

1/-

22 Men Murdered By Japs

THIS is part of a Memorial erected on Betio Islet, Tarawa Atoll, Gilbert Islands, soon after it was recovered by the United States Marines, in the bloody Battle of Tarawa, November, 1943. Tarawa was immediately handed over to British officers of the Civil Administration; and the Union Jack and Stars and Stripes were flown side by side, and Americans and British collaborated in erecting the memorial It reads: "In memory of twenty-two British subjects murdered by the Japanese at Betio, on 15th of October, 1942.

“Standing unarmed to their posts, they matched brutality with gallantry, and met death with fortitude.”

The first five names are those of men well known in the Gilberts-R. G. Morgan, B. Cleary, I. R.

Handley, A. M. McArthur and A. L. Sadd-and the others appear to be those of New Zealand soldiers young men who were carrying out some form of garrison duty when the Japs invaded the Group. Messrs.

Morgan and Cleary were Administration officials; Mr. MacArthur was a trader; Captain Handley was a well-known master-mariner, retired; and the Rev. A. L. Sadd was one of the best known and most loved LMS missionaries in the Central Pacific.