[?]Ie War” In Ng
p. 155 · Read in the full issue
[?]S Really
ON
Is Just Routine
lALIAN newspapers have ayed the usual screeching lines about “Daylong Jungle Against New Guinea Dan in their irresponsible quest itions, they quite improperly world a wrong impression [>uth Pacific’s biggest Terri- Australia took over from mans, 40 years ago, more If the land area was “un ci.” The natives lived as ays had lived; and tribal tids, massacres, head-hunt cannibalism were part of is. )y year, since then, Aus is substituted orderly ad ion for “uncontrolled area,” w the only “uncontrolled in the very mountainous, country lying around the rs of the Fly and Sepik d.ioining Dutch New Guinea, here, the untamed natives t, and massacre, and do things with human bodies.
LY, the Australian police Is under young Australian 1 Officers—tough, hand bell-trained lads, mostly— ting into these bad areas, patrol post was established, ice, in February, at Kagua, ountry away southeast of leadquarters of the partly Southern Highlands Dis *at r o 1 Officers B. R. and D. N. Butler are out r , among what are officially as “most turbulent tribes, rd inter-tribal clashes as able part of their lives.” dal hand-out says, naively, a tribesmen quite cordially sed their deplorable entertainments for the to assist the Patrols in an air-strip for DC3’s. agua is a long way from main; and it was in behind main that there occurred shes with the natives in and January. (See article 16). y extend their lines of asts, the Patrol Officers "er to the scenes of regular Thus they hear of dis d so they go further in, ) stop it. Then the natives 5 to turn on them, and reports of clashes. That in January. itrols gathered in a few and sent them back to
Telefomin in late February while others went deeper into the danger ous area, chasing other offending tribesmen. This seems to have led to a further clash, in March, in which a native was killed, and another native policeman wounded.
It has no significance, except that the Department of Native Affairs is doing its job.
It is a kind of war. But it really is just part of the routine work of the Patrol Officers and their armed police.
These jungle folk soon learn that the European now is boss and that they must conform to his system, which does not include raiding and murder.