"Enemy Alien" Missionaries

lAM somewhat bewildered as to why some of your readers keep on pick ing at the so-called “enemy alien” missionaries.

According to the PI Yearbook there were 676 missionaries working in the TNG in 1940. Out of this number 374 were of German nationality—which does not mean that they were Nazi partisans, but rather refugees. It is also a fact that no other community sacrificed so many lives for and in TNG than this mission body, staffed mainly by “enemy aliens.”

If these missionaries returned to their home countrv they were threatened by the Nazis with a slow death in concen tration camps, for having loyally sup ported the policy of the Mandated Terri tory Government. On the other hand, because they stayed on, the Japs regarded them as spys of the US Army. The Jap argument was: “If the missionaries (of German nationality) had been regarded as enemy aliens, then they would have been evacuated and interned at the begin ning of the war. That they are left at the battlefront proves their value to the Allies for military purposes.”

And so no less than 180 of the RC Mis sion staff died by Japanese bullets and bayonets, by torture and starvation, or by being exposed to US bombing and strafing. They got it both ways.

I have wondered why the misssionaries who were killed were not included in the list of honour, published as a supplement to January “PIM.” Or is it believed that because they were mostly taken up with the spiritual welfare of the natives they made no other contribution to the com mon welfare of Territorians and natives?

Is there a single case where an enemy alien missionary has been convicted of conspiracy with the Japanese?

Let us build a better world with a fair

deal to all who deserve it.-

Pat.