NATIVES ARRESTED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 292, 23 September 1935, Page 7

NATIVES ARRESTED

MURDER OF A MISSIONARY.

WARSHIP GARRIES POLICE.

(Per Press Association).

AUCKLAND, September 22. When a native missionary from Vi lac was brutally clubbed to death in littleknown Majekula. Inland in the New Hebrides group some months ago, the natives of the island did a British war sloop and a punitive police expedition to visit them. Through the naval visit eight tribesmen, including the chief, were arrested.

Describing the expedition, one of the officers of H.M.S. Wellington, which has returned from her first islands cruise, said that on July 26 they were at Vila, New Hebrides, when news of the_deatb of a native missionary came through. The British district officer (Mr Adams) requested the commander of H.M.S. Wellington, Commander J. B. E. Hall, to take him and a party of native police to the island, and on the following day they sailed for Malekula. The Wellington arrived at the island shortly after midnight on July 28, and approached the shore with not a light showing. The district officer and the police were landed in a whaler.

The officer said: “By the time the expedition reached the village the Wellington was standing off shore and opened'fire -with blank shells from her 31b guns. The natives were completely taken by surprise by the punitive expedition. The police arrested eight natives, including the chief of the tribe. After taking the prisoners to Vila, where they will stand their trial for murder, we sailed for Nauru.”