GREW OF DOUGLAS MAWSON.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 170, 19 July 1924, Page 7

GREW OF DOUGLAS MAWSON.

SPEARED BY BLACKFELLOWS. TWO WOMEN CAPTURED. EXPEDITION TO BE SENT. (By Cable. —Press Association. —Copyright.) PORT DARWIN, July IS. An unconfirmed story of the fate of the crew and passengers of the steamer Douglas Mawson, which disappeared in 1923, is told by the crew of the ketch Maskee. They state that while at Cape Wilberforcc, the most northerly point on the west coast o. he Gulf of Carpentaria, a native informed a native member of the crow that the Douglas Mawson sank in a great storm, and that the crew and passengers, including two white women, landed. The men were speared and buried on the beach by the blacks, and the women were taken captive. It is further stated that two white men later visited the blacks, and took away a large sum of money which the blacks had taken from tiie stranded people after killing them. On leaving they told the natives not to talk or there would be trouble. Questioned in the House of Representatives, the Prime Minister (Mr. S. M. Bruce) said that if the news was officially confirmed an expedition would be sent to endeavour to rescue the white women ! from their appalling fate.—A. and N.Z. THE STORY DISCREDITED. AN OFFICIAL SEARCH. (Received 11 ..10 a.m.) BRISBANE, this day. While the Queensland authorities generally seem seriously to disbelieve the Douglas Mawson story, immediate steps will be taken to obtain the fullest information from the Darwin police. It is pointed out in official circles that the most careful search was made of the gulf waters by the State without avail, and only recently the police from Darwin traversed the coast in the vicinity following discovery of wreckage. ! Ono State authority says that many jof these aboriginals had worked on stations, and were generally friendly, He considers it impossible .hat 6uch i murders could have been committed and women abducted without tidings leaking out in a few weeks instead of in fifteen months.— (A. and N.Z. Cable.) The Douglas Mawson, 300 tons, disappeared while on a voyage from Burketown to Thursday Island in March, 1023. Piesce of wreckage, supposed to be from the Douglas Mawson, were washed ashore on Thursday Island.