Was Killed

How Lincoln Bell

Rai Coast Natives Ran Amok on "Cargo" Myth

Ac a rPQlllt nf nnhiiritv frivpn hv r“ s o nnmhp? Of Islands Mmithly, a number of people have assisted Mrs. Joan Bell, of Oatiands Tasmania, in assembling reh able data to show how her husband Cap tain Lincoln J Bell, actually met his death on the Rai coast of New Guinea in May or June, 1943.

There had been uncertainty regarding the fate of Captain Bell, and quite d r eath eoU !n re ?etttag aS the real'facts Bellhas in unco4ring a very uTachelv 16 a,fon| a° £ seSM New Ouinea natiws The foUowhig account S based on a report by Patrol Offlcw Lieutenant J. Clayton, now on file at the ANGAU District Office, Madang. Mr.

Clayton wrote his report after lengthy and patient interrogation of the natives involved In the early part of 1943, Lieutenant (as he then was) Lincoln Bell, with a small party was engaged in dangerous work on the Rai coast. The whole Terri tory was under occupation by the then arrogant Japs—there were no Allied troops nearer than Papua Soon after-the Japanese invasion, a paramount Luluai from Madang, named Kasan went along the Rai coast, and stirred up the natives with tales of “Cargo” This is a thing well known to old hands in New Guinea—it appears when the natives are in restless and dangerous mood

The natives’ story is that they had been sent, by their ancestors, a cargo of food, trade goods and similar desirable things. The white men had intercepted this cargo, and had kept the goods from the natives, and used them themselves.

This story was current in Rabaul, during the native police trouble about 1930.

Kasan told the natives that the day of the white man in New Guinea had ended; the Japs were driving them out and killing them. Now was the natives’ chance of revenge. They were to round up and kill any stray whites, and they were to seize any cargo they could find —it rightly was theirs.

Kasan was ably supported by a native mission teacher, from Suit village, named Yambil. Yambil carried the story to Sibog, and other villages inland.

BELL was camped on the Rai coast, and he suffered a series of thefts.

One day, when he was away, pig hunting, natives surrounded the camp, armed with bows and arrows. They planned to kill the whole party and take their stores all at once, instead of bit by bit. But Bell returned, saw the natives round his camp, realised what was happening, and attacked them. He shot one of them, and the others fled.

They decided to await a better chance.

“History repeated itself,” reports Mr.

Clayton. “Bell and his party were lulled into false security by the apparent friendliness of the natives. . . . While they were proceeding from Sibog to Wai bog village, the party was strung out along the. carrier lines, and one report says they allowed their firearms to be carried. This was the moment for which the natives had been waiting. They attacked with bows and arrows, and knives, and murdered each member of the party—Mr. Bell; Mr. Laws (believed to be an old hand in the country); a

half-caste, who had lived in Madang; and a Rabaul native.”

Another .report says that Mr. Bell was caught in ambush, and was killed by a shower of arrows at short range.

At first, the natives spread the story that Bell was killed in retaliation for the shooting of a Rai coast native. But, later, a true account of all the circumstances was wrung from the natives and pieced together.

“All natives on the Rai coast know that Yambil was implicated in the mur • der,” reported Mr. Clayton in 1943; “and they know that he was and still is a Jap agent. If this native is allowed to go free . . . further disturbances can be eXDec ted ” to be presumed that both Kasan , Yambil bv now have been shown the error of thL ways