Blow-Pipes and Shot-Guns

in the Solomons!

NATIVES Start Blowpipe War on British Islanders” was the heading on an excited story in the feydney "Daily Telegraph” of July 9, wherein it was stated tnat large numbers of Malaita men, maddened by the fact that they had been compelled to live on fish and coconuts for six months (.“since the sup plies of flour and rice ran out”) had ' declared war ’ on British settlement on Guadalcanal.

According to the “DT’, the Malaita savages, “armed with spears and blow pipes,” had landed on Guadalcanal; and the British settlers, number, ng about 200, mostly employed by Lever Brothers, had armed themselves with shot-guns and had manned the shores of Kau-kau Bay to repel the invaders.

The “DT” said the story was brought to Townsville “by American flyers.” What ever its origin, BSI people in Sydney got a great kick out of the leg-pull.