Brass-hats Blunder

Captain J. J. Murphy Honourably Acquitted of Treason Charge

IT is now evident that Captain J. J.

Murphy, AIB, and formerly a patrol officer in the old New Guinea Ad ministration, who recently was honourably acquitted on four charges of giving in formation to the enemy, should never have been brought before a court-martial.

Murphy, who was captured while on a dangerous mission to then enemy-held New Britain, in October, 1943, was arrested by the Australian military authorities after the liberation of Rabaul in October, 1945. He has since been in custody, al though the only evidence against him was accusations made by Jap officers.

Some pin-headed Brass Hat, seized with misplaced zeal, has evidently blundered.

Murphy had a line record in the New Guinea service before the war. After the Japanese came in, he became attached to AIB and trained in Queensland for the New Britain mission. He was warned by a superior officer at that time of the extreme danger of the venture, and told that he could withdraw if he wished. He decided to go on and, with a party, was landed from a submarine on the New Britain coast in September, 1943. He was subsequently led into an ambush by unfriendly natives, captured by the Japs and taken to Rabaul.

He was there questioned and, when he refused to give information, he was handcuffed, hurled to the floor, beaten and bayonetted in the chest. Later, he was refused food, tied to a tree and hung by the wrists, with his heels off the ground, for a day at a time.

Later still, he was told he was to be beheaded. In his own account, at the court-martial, Murphy said: “Two officers came to my cell and told me to put my shirt on as I was to be decapitated. I told them not to be silly and spoil a shirt when the prisoners were so short of shirts.

“The interpreter told me the Jap com mander had ordered my execution at 2.30 p.m. It was then 2.5 p.m.

“I shook hands with the other prisoners and went with the three Japs to a clearing. There I was handed a shovel and told to dig my own grave. I refused, saying I wanted the other prisoners to do it. I did this because I wanted wit nesses.

“The Japs refused, so I asked one of the officers for a cigarette. I smoked this and then, to put off the evil hour, I asked for another and received it.

“When I had finished it I was again handed a shovel but again I refused to dig, and told them to clean up their own mess. A scuffle took place and I was then led back to my cell.”

Murphy's fellow officers and those who knew him in pre-war days are indignant that a man of his reoutation and charac ter should have been arrested on the flimsy evidence provided by the enemy; or that, knowing the character of the alleged evidence against him, the Brass Hats should have considered it necessary to hold a full-blown court-martial.

Measures have been taken to tighten up control of Javanese and Tonkinese residents in New Caledonia following the abolition of their indentured contracts as coolies. To obtain employment, each of these “immigrants" is now required to show a properly stamped card supplied him by the Immigration Syndic. Em ployers are made responsible for seeing that this is done. The employer must pay the Syndic or Union a fee of 10 francs a month.