Rantic Headlines For

New Guinea Occurrences

Australian Newspapers Reduce News Presentation to Absurdity

"EW GUINEA, during the month, has been the Land of Front Page News. tn he great majority of Australian ily newspapers now have reached it stage of sensationalism when nr chief object in life seems to to out-scream each other. From >s angle in their scheme of things \w Guinea is a godsend. i t is near enough to Australia to \ke events there of some import ce; yet so far away that the Unary reader cannot check up the accuracy of the newspaper’s mentation of the “news.” There no kick-back when occurrences little significance are head-lined if they were events of great im rtance. n he following are recent occur ?es in New Guinea which have n scare-headed by Australian vspapers to the point of com te absurdity:

[abaul’s April Earthquake

HIS was a very severe shake, but it was nothing beyond that to which Rabaul is well accustomed, wever, one broadsheet flew a mer headline; and within 24 irs the whole pack was in full Rabaul, they insisted, was f-wrecked and in imminent, -dly danger; evacuation was most :essary; the Government which I permitted the rebuilding of the r n on the old site was mon msly irresponsible; and so forth, tolonel J. K. Murray was located,

and allowed to tell the world that his plan of rebuilding at Kokopo should be immediately reverted to.

No one took any notice. Within a week the quake was forgotten.

Indonesian 'lnvasion’ of

N. Guinea

THIS really rocked them. It was announced that a contingent of fully-armed Indonesians, with

machine guns, on May 11, landed on the southern coast of Vogelkop (the extreme westerly section of the Territory—an isthmus, that sticks out like a bird’s head). Dutch troops immediately rushed to the place.

Shots were exchanged.

The shrieking newspapers re ported that “Dutch military forces started a counter-attack the same day, and by May 15 the Indonesians were rendered harmless. Among the booty taken by the Dutch were a small boat, a mortar, Bren guns, rifles, hand-grenades, and mortar shells.”

On May 19, with shouting head lines, the newspapers reported that “Holland had protested to Indo nesia against the attempted infiltra tion of Dutch New Guinea by armed Indonesian troops.” (Over)

A few days later, the politicians joined in. The leader of the Pari liamentary Socialist Party, a verjl noisy gentleman named Calwell, in-} sisted that the invasion of Dutcli New Guinea showed the horribli weakness of Australia’s undefended northern coast-line; that the whole Australian nation lay open to advance of hungry Asia; that Prime Minister Menzies should be dragged back from the Coronation by hia donkey-like ears, and compelled by an indignant populace to immedil ately order all Australian forces td man the coast-lines of Northern Australia and New Guinea.

Every leader-writer in Australia dealt passionately with the “Vogell kop invasion” most of them apparently could not find Vogelkofl on the map, and decided it was a town or port. No one took ana notice when the Indonesian Govl eminent declared that the invasion was all imagination.

Asa matter of fact, it was mostla imagination —an insignificant ini cident magnified by the sensational press into a disturbing international development.

A small craft, carrying a handful of Indonesian soldiers—there werei “about a dozen,” and certainly not more than 20—came ashore, for some unexplained reason, on an unj disclosed part of the VogelkoJ coast. The indications are that the;: party was lost, and was seeking supplies. Perhaps they were free! booters—there are thousands of such irresponsible people wandermi around just now among the island! of Indonesia, which is very closa to administrative and economic coll lapse, Dutch guards—probably territorial police—were hurried to the spot! the Indonesians tried to escape, ami shots were exchanged; and aftel some skirmishing, the whole dozen —or score—were rounded up ami imprisoned.

And this, ladies and gentleman! carried banner headlines as if it were an outbreak of war!

'Horrible Fighting in Interior

of N. Guinea!’

It is a pity that Papua-New Guinea residents could not have seen the great black headlines across the front page of an Australia]! metropolitan newspaper on May 211 “Savages Attack New Guinea Patrol —4-days’ Fight”—all embellishe® with photographs, a map, and typo! graphical shrieks. And what did it: all amount to?

It was just another of those little) difficulties we have had since the i Administration began to bring; under control that large, heavily' populated area between Mount; Hagen and the Gulf of Papua.

In this case, Patrol Officers A. L.

Ford and J. A. Frew went out from j Mendi (headquarters of the new ] Southern Highlands District) to < stop some brawling between a

Luple of the mountain tribes — a o they do so often that it is almost utine, but nonetheless risky. These itives are' not yet under complete litrol. They have been fighting jice time immemorial, and they do It understand the white man’s *;wpoint.

Usually, after a show of temper >d considerable palaver, the lusty Ihters return home. But on this :casion, for some reason, they Tnsd upon the patrol officers, and tacked. The two officers, with sir native police, took up position a defendable ridge; and, when :e natives surrounded them, and gan to shoot arrows at them, they »ed, and killed a couple of them, .and the attackers fled.

The young patrol officers held leir position there for a couple of ;ys, and sent a runner to Mendi report the incident. District •mmissioner G. W. Toogood, at Bndi, immediately took all neces ry measures. He reported the uation to Port Moresby, and he mself set out with . additional lice, to assist the patrol officers, rt Moresby alerted Mount Hagen cting District Officer Robb) in the rth, and also arranged for a plane fly over the scene, and give any Ip needed.

The natives made one or two

more demonstrations; but ‘ the officials soon had the situation under control. They did not leave the area (four or five miles from Mendi in 6,000 ft. ranges) until they had pacified the very excited villagers.

Meanwhile, the hardworking typo graphical artists made the most of it.

There have been a number of such incidents during the past year or so. They are part of the

x of “bringing the uncontrolled sas of New Guinea under con and the task is being carried efficiently and successfully by =se young officials. \/ith the help of Australia’s ihusiastic headline-writers, of irse!

Terrible Eruption off

NG Coast

[’he decision of the Long Island imlin to blow his top on May 9 tainly came opportunely for the vspapers’ display artists, who just in were rather desperately trying find “anew angle” wherewith to shen up the monotonous stream (Coronation stuff from London, "he line of volcanoes which utches from Indonesia through v Guinea to the Solomons is liergoing one of its periodical ists of activity. There have been ptions of varying degrees of in ■sity all along the New Britain Dion in recent months —the ex its are watching these manifesta is carefully, but do not appear duly anxious. *ong Island is really a vast old ter. Its peculiarity lies in the t that the crater is full of fresh ;er, the surface of which is some feet above sea-level. On May there were two vents, erupting 1 or three times a minute. The 7 activity has taken the form of eruption in the middle of the 2 (Lake Wisdom), where a little ter has appeared. Every so often water of the lake spills over edge of the new, little crater, I pours into the volcano, with ,rp results in the way of ex sions and steam, t is not yet a disaster —only a 3anic manifestation, of a kind imon in New Guinea ever since was first placed on the map. ; the headings-hungry newspap of Australia insist that it is a y distressing calamity.

‘Dangerous Savages

Attack DC

ERE, again, the panting head liners in Australia magnified a minor incident of native ad listration into “a native revolt inst the Australian authority in v Guinea.”

Then Australia took over in 1920, carried on much of the old Ger a system. The Germans divided country into small districts and iges; two natives were selected jxercise local authority—a major dal (luluai) and a minor (tultul). ince World War 11, the Aus ian authority has been trying Tain the natives to accept some >onsibility for local government, ong other things, it is setting village councils in place of the ai-tultul system. Generally, the Ives approve. But in some places 7 disapprove sharply—especially

as the native councils exercise their right to impose local taxation.

On May 21, some notorious “bigheads” at Raluana village (near Rabaul) had a sharp scuffle with officials. (Details on p. 16.) „

Malcontents Condemned

Five native councils in the Rabaul-Kokopo area met in Rabaul on May 27 and, on behalf of 27,000 natives, declared emphatically that 96 per cent, of the Tolai people (the tribal group in eastern New Britain) supported the Administration’s policy of creating native councils, with power to tax.

The meeting emphasised its

loyalty, and demanded strong action against the Raluana malcontents.

The meeting declared: “Raluana and its associated villages number only 4 per cent, of the Tolai tribal group. The Raluana natives are under the influence of disloyal, educated men, including a Police NCO, and some Raluana-born Gov ernment and Mission teachers, about whom the five Councils have previ ously complained to the Admin istrator and the United Nations Mission.”

The resolution was signed by John Vuia, Nason Tokiala, Tolon koma, Tovin, and Topaulius, pre sidents of the five Native Councils.