Missing From
pp. 9-10 · Read in the full issue
Rabaul
Further Analysis of Lists
THE list of missing Rabaul civilians, as published in September and October, and subsequently corrected as far as possible, will be reprinted as part of a special supplement, published with the next issue.
The list has been divided into two parts —those who, according to the translated Jap records, were placed aboard the “Montevideo Maru” (sunk off the Philip pines late in June, 1942) and those who are merely reported missing, fate un known.
The Jap records were very hard to decipher, and it is possible that errors have been made, as between the men who were sent away on the death-ship, and those who are merely designated “miss ing.”
It seems clear, however, that between 300 and 350 European residents of Rabaul, Eastern New Britain and New Ireland (not including the majority of the mis sionaries) have disappeared—either lost on the “Montevideo Maru,” or murdered by the Japs in New Britain and New Ireland, or dead in the Jungles where they sought refuge.
Fate of Rabaul Groups
WE have been supplied with some further information about missing Rabaul civilians by Mr. J. H. Ellis, one of the few men who were liberated in Rabaul in September.
Four men (G. McEachnie, J. H. Ellis, A. D. Greswick and Gordon Thomas) who had been attending to the freezer in Rabaul, were not injured by the Japa nese, and were found in a camp in the hills when the place was liberated.
Twelve other men also were engaged on technical services. They were: W. H.
Fitzgibbon, A. A. Chauncey, A. Evenson, A. Cameron, H. J. Badger. W. Korn, C.
Ostrom, J. Beaumont, Bachmann, K. A.
Sherwood, Wheatley (half-caste son of a Solomon Islands planter), and a mis sionary whose name is not known.
Those men were reported to be alive until about the end of 1944, when they suddenly disappeared, and no trace of them has since been found. There now seems to be evidence that they were murdered by the Japs.
It is stated that, during 1943-44, while the Allied air attack upon Rabaul was going on, a certain number of American airmen whose planes had been shot down passed through the camp in which the 12 men referred to were imprisoned. The airmen were sent away north, and it was the practice of the Rabaul men to make a note of their names, etc., and enclose these in bottles, which they buried in a certain place under their huts. It is believed that the Japs found these buried memos, decided they repre sented some form of espionage, and exe cuted all the 12 men in the camp.
When Rabaul was liberated, the few survivors, who knew about the buried bottles, dug the ground over and searched thoroughly, but the bottles had com pletely disappeared.
Another group of men who have dis appeared included well-known planters.
The group included: Vic Pratt, Frank Smith, Tom Goss, Jack Marshall, A. A.
Smith, and Thompson (of W. R. Car penter & Co.). It is thought that the Japs regarded these men as having re mained too long in the jungle.
For months after the surrender of Rabaul, the Japs broadcast a message,
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in various ways, instructing all Euro peans to surrender themselves, and threatening penalties for those who did not. The group did not surrender until about July, 1942. The “freezer group” saw them arrive one day, in a lorry.
They were only about a fortnight in Rabaul. There was no one there to make an appeal to the Japs on their be half, as had been done successfully in so many cases by “Nobby” Clarke. By this time, Mr. Clarke and all his associates had been sent away on the “Montevideo Maru.” One day the Pratt group were ordered into a lorry, and told not to bring any baggage. They were taken away by the Japs, and were never seen again.