Letters

Who’S Seen

Crusader?

I appeal to yachtsmen to con sult their logs to help in my

continuing inquiry into the

missing yacht Crusader which

was seen at Sabang Pulau Weh on the northern tip of Sumatra, Indonesia, in November- December last year. It was moored next to a ‘black yacht’.

Can the owner of this ‘black yacht’ confirm my information.

Perhaps Crusader’s crew disclosed where they were heading and how much dam age they had suffered during the November 16, 1977, cyc lone.

A yacht, possibly Crusader,

was observed at 5 pm on Sep tember 16 this year, by a small

plane, moored at Ko-la-dang,

an island in the Butang group in the heart of pirate territory on the Thailand-Malaysia border. 16 kilometres north of

Langkawi.

Crusader is on the Van couver, Canada, register.

Owner-skipper is Don Sorte of the US. Crew members are Glenn McDonald of Australia.

Danny Duffy, US, Judy Vaughan, Rosemary Collier and Stephen Bower, all of the UK. Crusader was last in radio contact on November 16, 1977.

It is a 15.6 m sloop with a 3.3 m beam. It has a white

fibreglass-sheathed timber

hull, single mast, a white boom with a blue cover, and a white

fibreglass dinghy. Would any

one with information about the Crusader please contact me.

Bob Mcdonald

103 Holt Road Taren Point Sydney Australia

A Cry From

Darwin

I have been reading PIM for a couple of years now and, for the first time, find that Darwin is mentioned, (page 32, October), but I am hurt and bewildered to note in a rather

derogatory way —‘. .. starting

from, of all the unlikely places, Darwin?. . .’

What, may I ask. is so un likely about Darwin? Here it is, in the extreme north of Aus tralia, in many people’s opinion a part of Southeast Asia, if not of the South Pacific.

I am sure that the estimable Mr John Womersley would agree that the residents of this city are

mostly keen gardeners and

horticulturists. There is a lively import of orchids from Asia; there is a flourishing orchid so ciety; Darwin growers exhibi ted their blooms in Singapore in the last showing there: a bouquet of local orchids was presented to Queen Elizabeth during her visit last year.

We, the people of Darwin, are alive and well. Admittedly, we regard the rest of Australia as rather ‘unlikely’.

Mrs P. Rice-Chapman

Darwin Australia

Holy Mama

Again

G.G. Carter’s letter (PIM October) is inaccurate and very misleading, a disgrace to the writer and to the church he rep resents. Mistakes abound in Mr Carter’s letter, not in Chesher’s Holy Mama article. ‘Mama’ can be interpreted as either ‘father’ or ‘priest’. Certainly in the context which Chesher uses, ‘priest’ is the proper, or at least acceptable, translation. In case Carter does not have a dic tionary, his own language de fines ‘father’ as ‘any priest’ in connection with religion.

Carter’s assertion that: ‘Silas Eto received training in the conduct of worship like every other Methodist pastor of his day no more and no less,’ was preposterous. Do they teach young pastors in England the way Silas Eto must have been taught? Come now. Eto had no bible in his own language. He spent his time harvesting coco nuts for the mission leaders, tending to chores around the mission, and so on. He still does not read or speak English very well. His education in the Western Solomons in 1915

could hardly have qualified

him to conduct services any where but in the Western Solomons.

The idea that the warriors of the Kusaghe people killed 400 enemy in one day is funny coming from a man whose own race killed hundreds of thou sands in one day. The poor Solomon Islanders were treated to a series of exhi bitions of the white man’s ‘love one another’ policy which would shake any headhunter to the roots. First when Her Maj

esty’s gun-boats sailed along

their coasts destroying villages

with cannons, and again in World War II when the killing was enough to satisfy even the most blood-crazed savage.

Carter’s statement that he and Holy Mama had their dis agreements is the understate ment of the year. Holy Mama was involved with what is known as a charitic religion, one in which the congregation participated in an occasional bout of ecstatic joy. They felt ‘seized by God’,

Many early Christians

achieved this state and were so

inwardly gratified by this

intense experience that they

were able to be devoured by Roman lions without fear.

Even today many religious

groups experience these states of ecstasy. The English Methodists, of course, are not one of them. Such seizures

recur frequently through the

history of mankind. They all resulted in ‘love’ religions.

They were all brutally persecu ted.

A person who is in a psychic rapture of love, his own body in control of some greater will, has no need for a ‘church’ or its dogma. He needs no middleman to tell him about love or God or Jesus. He understands. Without dogma, the missionaries are powerless (not superior). There is no need to have what the missionaries call ‘thanksgiving’ tributes paid by the islanders to the missionaries that made the mission stations economically self-sufficient.

Carter, fearing an end to his own superiority, had his ‘boys’ travel throughout the Western

Solomons telling people the

government would throw them in gaol if they followed Holy Mama. They claimed Holy Mama was an evil spirit, that people would laugh at the fools

who followed Holy Mam They added that the inteia feelings of love, called 1

coming of the Holy Spiic

would cause people to insane. Carter had Holy Mam arrested and tried to get hi imprisoned in his own villsl so he could not visit others as tell his simple message of and love. All of these incm ible actions resulted in r government memo whd attests to the atmosphere s which Carter involved hiir self: This notice is to tell you t,\ the people are free to come a go as they wish. No one, excp a magistrate's court, has a power to stop or restrict peop,v\ movements. Similarly peas' are free to worship as they h and their children to attend a school they like. No one has a right to interfere with anothtd religion.

The purpose of this notice to stop silly rumours that h& been going around Simbo, pr\ ticularly that the council 1 stopped the Christian Felled ship Church from comings Simbo. This is quite untrue a the council has no powers make any such order. Janus s 25, 1963. John Field, D.C.

The government thus foiic Carter’s direct open attaor But Carter need not h;rl bothered. As he, himszi points out (by hindsight), T Christian Fellowship Chuu ... has some of the same tt dencies to keep itself to itsea Those missionaries are rascals. I recommend terested readers to get a coo of Dr Gunson’s Messengers Grace (reviewed PI October). Also, a wealth rl data is presented by Framj Harwood in her dissertate The Christian Fellows w Church, A Revitalisation Mo\ ment in Melanesia (Univem of Chicago, 1971).

Gary Bartt.

Fort Myers Florida US

Paternal

Acidity

As a Solomon Islander, I w©\ like to comment on G. .1 Carter’s letter (PIM OctobJc in reference to Dr RichE Chesher’s article on H

Mama. G. G. Carter’s opening

- and concluding paragraphs

cannot be justified in his whole

letter historically.

First, the ‘mistakes’ that Carter referred to, are open to further historical investi gations. ‘Mama’ may mean ‘father’ or ‘mother’, or ‘priest’ or ‘God’. The two words ‘Holy Mama’ were first used after a miraculous event whereby Silas Eto’s spirit was seen ’ together with the spirit of God.

It is highly likely that ‘mama’ in reference to Eto simply means ‘God’. On the other hand, ‘mama’ may mean ‘priest’ in the same way as Catholics use the word.

It is true that ‘Silas Eto received training in the con duct of worship like every other Methodist pastor of his day - no more, no less’. How ever, it is good to bear in mind that although he was a ‘dull’ student, he was never satisfied with what he was taught but always expected to find his own answers by himself. He there fore, in his twenties and thir

ties, developed an independent

mentality that so many pastors were not able to do in his time.

Menakasapa, as an outstand

ing village, was mainly the cre

ation of Holy Mama. He left college in 1932 and the village, as it was described by W. C.

Groves in 1939, depicted the ‘dreams’ and ‘visions’ of the Holy Mama. The ‘model’ of Menakasapa is also seen in other villages of the Christian Fellowship Church (CFC) where the Holy Mama helped

in their building projects.

Kusaghe section of the then Methodist mission, was very

rarely visited and leadership

responsibilities were mainly given to southern New Geor gians (especially the Munda area). These situations tended to enhance a feeling of neglect in the minds of the people of Kusaghe. The mission, because of doctrinal differences, gave* no recognitions to the work of Holy Mama, let alone his vil

lage models.

The CFC mainly kept to itself for the simple reason that the Methodist mission (now the Solomon Islands Region of the United Church of PNG and the Solomon Islands) adopted

a policy which was very paternalistic and regarded the CFC as a church of ‘evil’ spirits. This tendency was done away with when local leaders took up key positions of the church whereby both the CFC and the United Church are now beginning to learn from each other.

Although the CFC was formed in the sixties (1960 was the date for the breakaway from Methodism and 1965 saw the celebration of the CFC constitution), the issues leading up to its formation can be seen in the fifties. G. G. Carter him self came to play the vital role as the ‘opposition’ leader to the CFC. Another missionary called it the New Way move ment. The end result was that the ‘loyal Methodists’ rallied behind G. G. Carter while the CFC followed the Holy Mama.

Unlike G. G. Carter, I be lieve that PIM could not have done any better than to focus on the CFC as a feature in re lation to the Solomon Islands Independence. It was very ap propriate for a number of reasons. First, the CFC is truly a local church, started by a local leader although it sprang from Methodism. Their forms of worship, their hymns and symbols used are ‘traditional’.

They have been self-supported,

self-propagated and self administered since 1960. Sec ond, they have taught the Solomons what community development can be. What church is there in the Solomons, which, through the initiative of a local leader, has turned more than 2,000 acres of bush land into communally owned plantations? Isn’t this an essential ingredient of com munal living in Melanesia?

Thirdly, through their religious

experience (through enthusi asm, taturu), they have been motivated to work things out ‘their way’ self determination. These reasons convinced me to call Holy Mama a ‘prophet’ in Melanesia in an article entitled ‘Silas Eto

of New Georgia’, in Prophets of

Melanesia, edited by Dr Garry Trompf, published in 1977. For these reasons, Dr Chesher should be congratulated for his article in your July issue.

Finally, may I express my concern over Mr Carter’s letter.

I can’t feel that the Carter whose letter was published in your October issue is truly the G. G. Carter 0f‘1959 to 1965’.

Carter has no historical basis (at least in his letter) to prove

his opening and concluding

paragraphs. The relationship

which now exists between the CFC and the United Church (Solomons Region), as well as with the western people as a whole, would seem to suggest that Mr Carter’s letter is quite absurd.

Wherever there exists a re lationship which involves a re ciprocal measure of ‘give and take’, Mr Carter’s bold and blind statements should be withdrawn. How can one assume to have some respect for another if one only sees the bad sides to another? The 1960 s

have already disappeared with

their ‘paternal’ acids and may we remind ourselves of the need not to bring the negative bearings of such an era to the

Esau Tuza

seventies.

Melanesian Institute Goroka Papua New Guinea

All You Need

Is Love

When I wrote about Holy Mama (PIM. July) I wanted to tell you there was a way to live without hate, envy, ridicule, and jealousy. It is hard to do.

Hard to live that way. Hard to write that way. For the world is not full of love and peace and togetherness. When I read the negative, spiteful words of the former Methodist who spearheaded 20 years of ven

omous attacks against Holy

Mama I wanted to write and tell you of his history. But . . .

Need I tell you? Can you not see?

If the good Reverend has nothing but bad things to say; if the poor old man can still not see the beauty of Holy Mama; if the white missionary can so delude himself that he must attack a quiet praise for a happy old man in the woods of the Western Solomons; then we must do what Holy Mama would do ... love one another, be of one mind, work

together.

I have no attack for you, Dr Carter. Jesus said we must love

even our enemies. He said we should understand. And in our understanding, we shall find the comforter. Which is what Holy Mama has been trying to tell you, Dr Carter. You, per sonally, for all these years.

It is easy to see how a small minded, puritanical, meddle first think later attitude could have frosted the window of your soul; could have hid den reality from your eyes. The business of being a leader in the church does that to people.

It is hard to love one another, be of one mind, and work together, when you are a bureaucrat.

Is it too late for you Dr Carter? Can you not find love

and understandng for Holy

Mama? How often he has offered you his love and the other cheek?

Is it too late for you Dr Carter? Can you not find love and understanding for a simple story of a simple man which I have related exactly as I per sonally saw it and read about it?

Remember, the issue of PIM was the issue honouring the independence of Solomon Islands. Will you have no love for those men and women of the Solomons who now wish to stand before men and God in their own way? Should they not have freedom to worship in their own way? Even if it means clapping hands and dancing in the church? Can you not realise your dark talons of jealousy and see the Solomon butterfly dance away into the heavens? Are you afraid, if the world knows there is such a man as Holy Mama, that you will seem to have been his keeper rather than his friend?

Love

Richard H. Chesher

Cairns Queensland Australia.

Sanchez And

Company

After reading your feature article on one of Guam’s own ‘Frankie Sanchez, a young Guamanian of many parts’

I would like to congratulate you for a fine article on a truly remarkable individual. From what I’ve seen, he is the best.

In your story, however, you

make mention of a ‘Jose’

Sablan. This should be Johnny, not Jose. We have several other entertainers who have come nowhere near accomplishing Mr Sanchez’s feats outside of Guam but, because they sing in Chamorro vernacular, they de serve a mention: Jimmy Dee, (deputy director of the Guam Visitors Bureau). Bill James, ‘J.

D. Crutch (real name Joe Buenas), The Charfauros Brothers (owners of the only local recording studio on Guam), and the Delgado Brothers.

Although I won’t comment on the professionalism of any of them (because I do not understand Chamorro), they nonetheless deserve mention ing because they are well

known locally.

Guam

Linda Connolly

Justice In

Tonga

The leading article in Tonga Chronicle (October 6) aptly sta ted ‘Judge Lambastes Jury’.

The article referred to the ‘not guilty’ verdict by a seven-man jury in the Supreme Court of Tonga. A trial of 11 young males between the ages of 14 and 24 had just concluded be fore Justice Henry H. Hill and

the jury. Three (one aged 16

and two aged 17) had been charged with murder and the

others with manslaughter.

The charges arose following

the death of a member of the Tonga Defence Services after

suffering two depressed frac

tures of the skull. The pros

ecution had alleged that a fight

had broken out between the accused and some soldiers who were attending a dance at the

airport village of Fua’amotu.

Some had chased the soldiers.

The deceased was found by another soldier and died later

in hospital.

The crown called 16 wit nesses and tendered ‘con

fession statements’ allegedly

made by the accused. The de fence did not object to these statements, neither was any de fence witness called. The ob servation was made that none nf these ‘confession statements’ admitted to striking the blow or blows which caused the fatal

injuries.

When the jury returned its verdict, the judge was visibly distressed and proceeded to

speak to the jury stating: ‘Your

verdict is a disgrace to the ad ministration of public justice.

Three of the accused were on their own admission clearly guilty of manslaughter and I pointed this out in my sum ming up. I do not see how, if you had been true to the oath you took, you could possibly have acquitted in all three cases. I am therefore going to ask the minister of police to investigate this matter to see if there has been improper influ ence. If he finds any such thing he will no doubt refer his find ings to the crown solicitor.’

Mr Justice Jill has completed his first two-year term as chief justice of Tonga and a few days after this ‘lambasting’ returned to the United Kingdom on two months leave. Interestingly enough, crown solicitor David Tupou has become the acting

justice.

I had previously questioned

the various aspects raised by the existence throughout the South Pacific of expatriate judges and the administration of the British system of justice, which of course includes trial

by jury.

In this particular case there has now been the obvious suggestion that the jury had not followed the judge’s direction either because they did not be lieve the accused were in fact

guilty notwithstanding the al

leged ‘confession statements’, or, more likely the case, be cause the extended family sys tem caused some or all of the jurors to assure acquittal.

Tongan custom would seem to create myriad brothers, sisters and cousins. The giving and receiving of ‘favours’ is

universally accepted and a

‘favour’ given becomes an ‘ob ligation’ to be returned. Would an ‘obligation’ therefore be paramount in the mind of a juror to the preservation of Bri tish justice? Would a friend ship, the participation in a feast or perhaps some remote family connection be sufficient to sway the verdict?

While in Nukualofa recently I asked the crown solicitor whether he considered that he was ready to take a permanent

appointment to the bench. ‘The pressures of trying to stay aloof would at this stage be too

great,’ was his reply.

Minister of Police ‘Akau’ola believes that Tonga should cer tainly try to maintain the Bri tish system of justice, law and order, but that it could exist without it. Its customs were such as to maintain for cen turies a fairly stable system of law and order.

Was the jury’s verdict a vic tory for ‘custom’? Judge Hill obviously was not impressed.

Sydney Australia

Robert W. Moin

Png’S Wartime

Hangings

Recently, 33 years after the end of the war in the Pacific, the matter of the wartime trial and subsequent execution of a number of New Guinea natives on a charge of treason has been cropping up. Well to the fore front of this has been Mr Barry Jones MP, who, in a letter (PIM September) raised a number of queries: whether the accused had been fairly tried; under what law, civil or

military; by whom defended;

why were the sentences not re ferred to Canberra; did the accused understand the nature of the offences; and, finally, was the charge of treason ap

propriate to unsophisticated

indigenes?

The charge of treason was

obviously laid against natives

who were sophisticated enough

to conclude that the Australian sun had set in New Guinea

following the initial Japanese

successes and were only too anxious to ingratiate them selves with the invaders by as suming the role of traitors, betrayers and informers, and to lead the enemy to the hideouts of a number of Australian coastwatchers and forward scouts which resulted in their capture and execution by vari ous methods.

Those of us New Guinea residents who lost friends and

colleagues through the treach

ery of erstwhile trusted em ployees would not be too queasy as to the procedures which led to their extinction at the business end of a rope. And it was that very trust that existed pre-war between

Europeans and their native sen; vants and employees whicHc made us so vulnerable tot betrayal by a few opporn tunists.

The writer would have been: claimed a dozen times by therl sea, rivers, jungle or hostile natives in pre-war days had ii not been for the watchfulness and protective loyalty oo

valued ‘boys’.

If Mr Jones is intent on raiszi ing painful memories and oo stepping back into the qukii arena, in which he at one timer excelled, why not apply his lisgJ of queries to the manner ini which a score of Australian! army sisters were executed bye the Japanese on the island olo Banka, or the mission girlsT were dealt with at Popondetta.£ If native executions wonyi him I could give him baebi dreams by citing one case imi 1927 when a Markham Valley; villager was taken to Rabaulu and tried for wife murder — as common offence — foundbi guilty and sentenced to bo< taken back whence he cam©

and executed by hanging.

On the appointed day ther condemned man was led to the spot, seemingly rather proud olo being the centre of attraction to) the hundreds of assembled vil-Ii lagers, and, pausing from time r to time to give gay little wavesg; hand-shakes and friendly grinsr to relatives and others in ther crowd.

However the execution in nor way produced the anticipateoi expressions of awe and gasps o o fear from the spectators. On( the contrary, the convulsive final death gymnastics of theri man were greeted with howl:l of mirth and loud handb

clapping.

Sydney Australia

Bert E. Westomo

Please

Write ...

I would very much like to makol contact as soon as possible witlJi any relative of Teokotai PaitiJi Rarotonga, Cook Islands.

Would any such persoio please write to Miss Noramalu Bin Doraho, PO Box 133, Milli man St, Thursday Islancbr Queensland, Australia, 4875. i

N. Bin Dorahoh

Thursday Island Queensland