Them In!

They Cant Keep

Too Many Prison Breaks In Tonga

From Our Own Correspondent

Nukualofa, Nov. 21

11HE two young Tongan prisoners, Mahe Tupou and Tevita Tau’aika, who escaped from the Kingdom on a 14-ft. sailing boat last month, and landed at Ono (the southern-most sel dom-visited outpost of the Lau Group, Fiji) are now serving a six months’ term at the Suva Gaol for landing in the Colony without a permit. They will be brought back to Tonga on the expira tion of their sentence.

This was Mahe Tupou’s third escape to Fiji within the last two years, and Tau’aika’s second not to mention their numerous other short-lived prison breaks' spent within the Kingdom.

Accompanied by two other young Ton gan prisoners, they made a similar es cape on a small sailing boat at the end of 1946 and landed at another island of the Lau Group. They were brought back to Tonga in January, 1947. this year.

The increase in the number of prison escapes in the Kingdom is the cause of public criticism against the head of the Prison Department, the Hon. Akau’ola, Minister of Police. Never in the history of prison life in Tonga has there been so many prison breaks as in the past few years, and this despite the fact that never in the past has there been so many officers employed in the department or so much public money spent on it. The most disturbing thought about the whole question, however, is that the Govern ment seems indifferent about it, and is not seeking any remedy. Obviously there is something wrong somewhere.