Horror Hanging

[?] Flynn's Wicked Ways [?]me Moves On That Horror Hanging Report

jpies of one edition of an

rican magazine which has

serialising the late Errol

i’s book My Wicked,

sed Ways have been with

n from sale in Sydney by

;lydney distributors.

3 action was taken because of Lie possibility of court action crer some statements in the first of My Wicked, Wicked Ways.

Australian legal firm has ly taken certain steps on be of former New Guinea District rr, Edward Taylor, now retired iving in Ballina, NSW. fin's book has been heading the seller list in America. Copies have not yet been released istralia, although in February dney firm of publishers an >ed that it expected copies from ica in April. It was stated in [May, however, that these books not yet arrived”, nn’s book was published after jeath last year. It was widely iised as being his autobiography, ugh a New York report later ?ed that the book was in fact ;n by an American novelist, ►Conrad, who had compiled it material given to him by ji.

A, in February (p. 15) reported Flynn had told how on one iion in 1926, when he was a patrol officer in Rabaul under tri c t Officer Taylor” (no lls), he and several other patrol irs had been sent to the jig district to find and arrest ses who had massacred four ••ectors at Madang.

"Only Suspects'

said the white men, under iict Officer Taylor, had rounded Ibout a dozen suspected ring irs, and that Taylor, at Madang, staged a public feast and hang :if these men from a gallows oconut branches. About 2,000 ics saw the hangings, according e Flynn report, and there had plenty of beer and coconut t made available to the crowd.

Tin described the alleged iings “as the most macabre ; I ever witnessed” and added the men hanged may not even been the original killers, nen, in February, PIM referred surprising version of events r. Taylor for comment, he said he had certainly been District

Officer, New Britain, stationed at Rabaul, from 1925 to 1933, and that he had known Errol Flynn. Flynn had been a cadet patrol officer for a short period then, but his appointment had been terminated.

Mr. Taylor said the hanging story had no foundation whatsoever. It had not occurred at Madang or anywhere else. He had never carried out a hanging at any time in his career.

He said apparently Flynn had fabricated a story on what little he knew of the murder of four Euro pean prospectors—known as the Nakanai murders —in New Britain in 1926. Fifteen or so natives were sent to Rabaul for trial, some con victed by the Supreme Court, but none hanged.

In the last few weeks, as a result of this report, there have been several unofficial moves by New Guinea old hands, including some senior officers still in the Admin istration, to take the matter further.

Some believe that the Federal Government should interest itself on the ground that the widely-read Flynn version of events could do harm to Australia. Flynn’s story, toey believe, should be quite firmly denied on a Government level, and the Government should also offer its support for any action Mr. Taylor decided to take.