New Guinea’s War Graves
p. 93 · Read in the full issue
Last Resting Place of 10,000 Servicemen
THESE photographs—the upper one of Bomana war cemetery, 11 miles from Port Moresby, the lower of Lae war cemetery—are two of the cemeteries in the Pacific area whose maintenance is vested in the Imperial War Graves Commission,
The Bomana cemetery is the largest in the Pacific —it contains 4,000 graves, the great majority of which are of Australian servicemen.
Others are a small number of soldiers of the United King dom, members of the RAF, members of the Netherlands forces and of the Papuan In fantry Battalion and Royal Papuan Constabulary.
Corporal J. A. French, a Queenslander who won the VC at Milne Bay. is buried there. From Bomana there is a clear view of the Owen Stanley Range and the Ko koda Trail, where so many of those who now rest there gave their lives.
In Lae cemetery, 2,900 Brit ish Commonwealth personnel are buried, and adjoining them are the graves of 900 Indians who were taken prisoner in Singapore, brought .to New Guinea by the Japs and died in captivity in the Wewak-Aitape area.
Two Australian Victoria Cross winners are buried in Lae—Flight-Lieutenant W. E.
Newton, RAAF, of Victoria, and Lieutenant A. Chowne, MM, of Sydney.
The third war cemetery in New Guinea is at Bita Paka, 32 miles from Rabaul. It con
tains 2,000 graves. Some of those who lie there lost their lives during the assault on Rabaul by the Japs in early 1942; here, too, lie the victims of the Tol Massacre.
A number of Fijians who fought in the Solomons and Bougainville are buried here —among them Corporal Sefamaia Suka naivalu, who won the Victoria Cross for gallantry on Bougainville. Bita Paka contains also the bodies of 600 Indians who died in captivity in the area.
Mrs. Louisa Stuhlman, who was born in Fiji 86 years ago, died on December 17 at Lodoni, Fiji. She was a daughter of Mr. Louis Boehm. For the greater part of her life she lived at Levuka, where her kindliness and generosity earned her the affection of many friends.
Mr. Dan Power, formerly of New Guinea, and now holding a Government position in Kenya, was married in Nai robi on December 18 to Miss S. J. Boulton, daughter of Mrs. L. M. Boulton and the late Mr. C. W. Boulton, of Bellevue Hill, Sydney.