Raboul Honours Its

Dead

Services on Anniversary of Jap

Invasion ALTHOUGH, for the four years since the fall of Rabaul on January’ 23, 1942, memorial services have been held on that day in most of the Aus tralian capital cities, this is the first year that it has been possible to hold a commemorative service in the town of Rabaul itself.

Arrangements were made some time ago by the New Guinea Branch of the RSSAILA, and permission given by the GOC of Rabaul area, Major-General K.

W. Eather, to hold two ceremonies in Itabaul on the morning of this year’s anniversay day, in homage to those who gave their lives during the enemy land ing and, subsequently, during the Jap occupation of New Britain.

A LARGE number of men, with a sprinkling of women from the AWAS and Nursing Services, gathered at Vulcan Beach, in the first grey light of dawn of January 3, just as, four years previously, others had gathered together in an attemnt to repel an enemy of overwhelmingly superior numbers.

In a fine drizzle of rain, a guard of honour formed by the AIF troops sta tioned in the area, with the band of the Papuan Infantry Brigade in attendance, was inspected by Major-General Eather.

The Rev. Father Torpie addressed the

gathering and told briefly the story of the landing of Japanese Forces on that same beach on January 23. 1942, and the valiant role played by the 72 members of the NGVR, and the 22nd Battalion.

Vvreaths were then laid at the place where the action was fought, by Major- General Father; Colonel H. T. Allen (on behalf of the president of the New Guinea RSSAILA); Lieut.-Col. A.

Cameron (on behalf of 22nd Battalion, AIF); Major C. D. Bates (for widows of civilians); Lieut. A. L. Robinson (for NGVR); Capt. M. Dowsett (for ANGAU); Mr. C. I. H. Campbell, of the War Dam age Commission (for Pacific Territories Association); and Mr Thomas Mow (for Chinese community of TNG).

At 8 o’clock on the same morning a similar service was held at what was for merly the Colyer Watson wharf, from which point the ill-fated “Montevideo Maru” sailed in June, 1942, with over 200 Territorians and several hundred Australian soldiers on board. All were lost, subsequently, when the ship was torpedoed off the Philippines, and in one blow the Territory was thus deprived of many of its leading citizens, and the whole fabric of pre-war Territory life was torn to pieces.

There was a large attendance of Ser vice personnel, and such civilians as there are in Rabaul these days, at both services. Some old New Guinea resi dents were there, most of them in uni form. Among them were. Lieut.-Col. N.

P. N. Neal, Major H. Lyon, Major Warner Shand, Captain Ryan, Captain Scotford, Major A. Robinson, Lieut. F. Patten, Lieut. K. Ryall, Lieut. E. Britten, Lieut.

H. Wyatt, Lieut. G. White, Lieut. G.

Kinsey, Lieut. Ben Hall, W/O H. Briggs, Mr. R. E. P. Dwyer and Mr. E. F. Bish ton.

Ceremony at Sydney's Cenotaph

A LARGE number of Territorians met at the Cenotaph in Martin Place, Sydney, at 8.15 a.m. on January 23, to pay tribute to the men of the NGVR, the 22nd Battalion, AIP, civilians and others who had given their lives in the Japanese invasion of New Britain.

This is the fourth vear in which the ceremony has been held. There were more men in civilian clothes on this occasion and many more women who were mourning the loss of a husband or son lost subsequent to the invasion, or in the sinking of the “Montevideo Maru.”

As well as numerous floral tributes from individual Territorians, wreaths were placed on the Cenotaph by repre sentatives of the following organisations and firms:— Nelson & Robertson Pty., Ltd.; Metho dist Overseas Mission; Anti-Tank Bat tery, AIF; Burns Philp & Co., Ltd.; officers of the Anti-Tank Battery; “Paci fic Islands Monthly”; O/C Anti-Aircraft Battery; New Guinea Branch of the RSSAILA; New Guinea Women’s Club of Sydney; New Guinea Volunteer Rifles; Pacific Territories Association: 2/22nd Battalion, AIF; Rabaul Lodge, No. 4468; New Guinea Branch of the Country Women’s Association; W. R. Carpenter & Co., Ltd.

Wreaths being placed on the newly-erected memorial at Vulcan Beach, after the dawn service. —Photos by C. H. Meen.