First Missionary to

Return Man Who Was Sent Out in 1940

TERRITORIANS serving in the Austra lian Forces in Northern New Guinea are critical of the way in which certain missionaries have been allowed to return to their work among, the natives ih those districts.

There arrived in Madang on April 11 a Roman Catholic missionary who. it is understood, is proceeding to recently lib erated areas. This man was sent out of the country under guard, in 1940; and was placed aboard the “Macdhui,” and taken over by another guard. Many other RC missionaries remained on the North Coast until after the Japs came in; and they, as is well known, were very cruelly treated by the invaders. Some were killed, and some were rescued by the Americans and sent to Australia early in 1944.

Yet, to the astonishment of the Ter ritorians, the man who was marched out compulsorily in 1940 is the first allowed back to the “forward” areas.

It is thought that someone has blun dered, somewhere. Natives in the Bogia area, to which this particular missionary is said to be going, have been collaborat ing with the Japanese, and many still are described as “pro-Jap.”

If missionaries are wanted, why did the authorities not select, as the first to return, some of the numerous men who proved themselves, in the early days of the war, to be loyal and trustworthy?