Bogese, Nmp

Sent to Gaol For Four Yea

THE case of George Bogese, £ Medical Practitioner, who wai rested on a series of counts con ing his association with the Japane the British Solomon Islands, and was subsequently interned during period of the war in Tatura, Victoria tried in Honiara, BSI, in May bj Chief Justice of Fiji (Sir Claude S( The case of Bogese created intere the time, and was referred to in journal on a number of occasions, fact that so many of the graduates c Suva Medical School had been assoc with war-time activities, and ths every case, except that of Bogese NMP’s had creditably upheld the h( of the school, served to throw gr light upon the case of Bogese. 1 the Japanese came into the Solo he was serving as an NMP on Island, and it was alleged that he sequentlv assisted the Japanese; thj went with the Japanese to Rabaul was returned by them to his wife family in the Solomons; and that o: return from Rabaul he definitely fra ised with the Japanese, Bogese was interned at Tatura; from there he wrote to various pei including the editor of the PIM, ii ing that he had been wrongly chi and that he could prove his innoc His letters disclosed great natural a and a high standard of education.

After the war he was returned tc Solomons, and was given a full O] tunity to show that he was not g The case was stated at length befon Chief Justice, who was assisted by Assessors, Messrs. J. M. Clift and 1 Markham.

The evidence which had induced military authorities in 1942 to n Bogese was produced and Bogese given the fullest opportunity to i Bogese’s talents were shown in the ] ner in which he conducted his defe The Court found that Bogese wa; guilty of the two most serious ch made against him—namely, that he shown the Japanese the way to a : incr, leading to Major D. G. Kenr hill-station (it will be remembered Major Kennedy was one of those wl great personal risk, kept a watch I the Jananese in 1942) and that he guided the Japs to Major Kennedy’s rol vessel, the “Waihi,” which was carefullv camouflaged against the of an island. (When the crew sa-\ Japs coming they destroyed the boa swam ashore.) The Court, however, did find E guilty of association with the Japar the main evidence against him, ir case, being that, after he returned Rabaul. he brought his wife and f in from a country place and they with him in Tulagi in apparently association with the enemy.

Bogese was sentenced to four yean prisonment. This, of course, means he will not be restored to the I Medical Service.

Mr. Alport Barker, of Suva, Fiji is at present visitine the United dom as a delegate to the Empire Conference, was presented with the Life Saving Society’s gold service at the annual meeting of the Sock London. The presentation was ma Lord Louis Mountbattenn. For a ber of years Mr. Barker has been dent of the Fiji branch of the Soci