Posthumous Honour

Mr. Jack Emanuel, former District Commissioner for East New Britain, who was attacked and killed by Tolais in Rabaul in August last year, in January was posthumously awarded the George Cross, Britain’s highest civil award for bravery, and civilian equivalent of the VC. The citation says that Mr. Emanuel engaged in the arduous role of influencing deeply hostile groups of the Tolai people to discuss their difficulties and even when tension was at its highest he visited villages day and night, almost always alone, to talk personally to leaders. He had displayed outstanding courage in public confrontations during a number of occasions in the few months prior to his death.

His “sustained act of conspicuous courage over a long period in circum stances of extreme danger and in complete disregard for his personal safety were in the highest traditions of bravery and sacrifice carried out beyond the call of duty”. 9 A refrigerator exploded in the headmaster’s house at Goldie College, Munda, in the BSIP on January 18.

The result—a homeless headmaster and a college without exercise and text books.

Headmaster Mr. Robert Meyenn was wakened by the bang when his kerosene fridge burst into flames. He aroused his wife and they rushed to safety with their children. The fire spread to drums of fuel and in two hours had burned out the house and the college office and destroyed about 80 per cent, of the equipment. No one was injured.

Jack Emanuel . . . posthumous honour.