RSL Gets a Scolding After Jap Wreath Incident

Monsoonal Bad Temper in Lae

THE hot weather, too many Japanese around, official oversensitiveness to criticism, and an incident where a simple curator , . Z allowed his zeal to override his diplomacy—all these contributed to a deplorable public exhibition of bad temper in Papua-New Guinea during

February.

P-NG’s average citizens, with still vivid memories of atrocities committed during the 1942-43 Jap occupation, did not like the spectacle of the official Japanese party going through in January-February, tidying up their war-dead cemeteries and retrieving their soldiers’ remains for re-burial in Japan.

But all was quiet until they reached Lae. Then there was an unfortunate “incident.”

The Jans on Pphmarv 16 nskpH Dis^ict Ja Comrnissioner ai Niall’s & mission to place a wreath on the memorial in the Australian War Cemetery at Lae. Mr. Niall agreed, and accompanied the Japanese party to the memorial.

Then the cemetery Curator, Mr.

E. Bryson, arrived and asked who had given permission for this to be done.

The DC said he gave permission.

Mr. Bryson said (Mr. Niall not concurring) he was sure the head of the Australian War Graves Commission (Brigadier Brown) would not consent. He ordered the Japanese party to leave the cemetery.

When the officials had departed, somewhat embarrassed, Mr. Bryson

removed the wreath from the Cross Remembrance and took it into his house, nearby. non, wen displayed in Australia. in Melbourne, Brigadier Brown denied any responsibility—this was a matter for the government, he said, not for the War Graves Com mission. branch of the RSL met and adopted condemning the / or +£ eir taking a cemetery, and supporting Curator Bryson, , , .

Saturday, February 26, the V/ Administrator (Brigadier D.

Cleland) at Lae, formally opened th ® J th Congress of the Territory RSL. He was sharply critical of certain RSL activities arxd tbexx he

fnHHpnt j l . llO wreath

m cident in these terms.

“I now refer to . . . the published attitude, if not of the League, at least of one Sub-Branch, to the Japanese Mission and the laying of a wreath.

“Those utterances which were made here in this town just over a fortnight ago were irresponsible, ill-conceived and in extremely bad taste. Furthermore, the removal of the wreath after the ceremony was an act for which there was and is no excuse.

“It is conceivable that the person who removed the wreath did not act entirely of his own volition but was encouraged by the vociferous

utterances of a small minority who knew not what they were doing.

“If there are people in this community who are so small minded, so full of hate, and lacking in general decorum and decency, to think up those statements and do what they did, then the Territory has no place for them.

“It is to the credit of many right thinking citizezns that those senti ments and that act were immedi ately repudiated in no uncertain terms.

“The visit of the Japanese Mission was arranged on the highest level and therefore it has the highest significance. It was a reasonable and honourable gesture for the Mission to pay a tribute on behalf of its Government, and it was a right and proper thing for my offiers to accompany them as they did.

“I desire it to be very clearly and definitely known that the Admini stration deeply deplores those ir responsible utterances and actions.”

The RSL did not accept the Ad ministrator’s strictures kindly, inso far as they referred to the League’s officials.

In a formal press release made after the Administrator’s address, the League said that it had nothing whatever to do with the removal of the wreath —it knew nothing of the incident, officially or non-officially, until four hours after it had occurred.

Editorial Comment

SEEN from a distant point like Sydney, there appear to have been faults all round.

If the Western Powers had not been anxious to line Japan up with the West against the Red bloc, Australia probably never would have allowed this Japanese War Graves Mission to enter New Guinea and. by its presence, give offence to the civil population which the Japanese invaders tortured in 1942-43.

If the Japanese had had any sense of the fitness of things, they would have stayed away from the cemetery, where lie thousands of

young Australians —slain because the greedy and ruthless Japanese attacked us in 1942, without rhyme or reason. They did not make war like honourable men, or observe the rules of war.

The Curator in Lae, and the RSL men who supported him, were quite wrong, officially; but who can blame them. If the Administrator, in administering his scolding, had recognised that the average P-NG citizen is not a diplomat, but a man moved by plain and simple con siderations, he would have used language a little less harsh.

The RSL has been, for years, a merciless critic of Administration tardiness and bureaucratic aloof ness, especially in relation to land and settlement affairs. Was His Honour not taking the chance to get some of his own back, in reply to RSL pin-pricking, rather than deal ing .only with the unfortunate “wreath incident”?