Evidence On Cargo

Inquiry Into Shootings

Cult Outbreak

In Bainings Area

[FRIBESMEN, inflamed by Cargo P- Cult beliefs, might have taken |ver a large part of the Bainings Irea of New Britain but for the lotion of the patrol which shot five pen when the patrol was attacked )n June 14. according to a Roman fatholic missioner, Father Alfred lagen. [Father Hagen expressed this view it Rabaul during the inquiry by he coroner (Mr. G. V. Hall) into he five deaths (July PIM, page [Earlier in the inquiry, Karaka, I Government-appointed tu 1 1 u 1 Deputy chief) had given evidence f terrorism exercised by Tovil bputedly the Cult leader at laisum village. [Karaka said he had heard Tovil peaten to kill a man who had isobeyed him. Later he (Karaka > fw the man with his skull split tom front to back.

Urged on by Tovil, villagers had hm down the medical aid post ad walls of the Government rest buse and police house.

Father Hagen said that at laisum he was told that when the fctrol fired the first shot over the ?ads of the attackers, they became torageous because no one was iirt. They were also convinced iat the spirits would not let them |wn if they obeyed commands bveyed by Tovil. [The missioner said that the [pression he had received at pisum was that the patrol had I other way out. If the villagers id been confronted by a regiment [ militia, they would still have tacked, so strong was their belief I the spirits’ protection. This plained why the patrol, which is inquiring into earlier trouble, d been allowed to enter the

fage.

!UKI, a policeman, told the coroner that he had shot Tovil during the fight. £ali, another policeman, said: jiter Tovil had swung his club the patrol officers’ head and irbosi had fended off the blow th his rifle, I saw Muki ejecting pullet from his rifle, so I took I rifle and fired into the air. en, as a man attacked me with knife, I fired into his chest, en another man attacked me. i I took aim and shot him. en Patrol Officer Hayes called L ‘Finish, enough’ ”.

I third policeman. Milio, said it he called to Tovil, who was ping about and beating the

ground with his club: “I have not come to fight; I have come as a friend.” The attackers took no notice.

ADO Orken, outlining the Cargo Cult outbreaks in 1953-54, said; ‘T found in my patrols through this area that the Bainings people are ancestor-worshippers. Every act is controlled by this worship to a much greater extent than among any other group I have been in contact with.

“For a certain period every year they take on the characteristics of their ancestors, and during a ritual fire dance go through the fire without being burnt.”

DURING the inquiry, Father Hagen said he believed that the North Bainings people were quiet and docile. This probably accounted for the uprising—they accepted what they were told without question. Their tribal laws ante-dated the Stone Age.

Had Tovil been shot at the start of the attack, he added, the villagers would have been quietened: they would have felt that the spirits had let them down.