MAKANAI MURDERS .

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 45, 23 February 1927, Page 21

MAKANAI MURDERS .

, I* ] PUNITIVE FORCE AT WORK. I sS ORT. SHARP CAMPAIGN. , OBJECT ACCOMPLISHED. ; ,t- r on 0"." r> ~~ Correspondent, i •' SYDNEY. February 11. On hi? return from New Britain this ■ xnek. Mr. C. B'lr'.inetnn. machine gunner with tne Government expedition toi on j;h the murderers of four white' orospetf ol " 3 - n : '''"' Nutanai district, told; . T irr'"nf jtorv "f th° campaign bv the i E mall i° rce 50V; '' av> ' n . v r ' v T ' lo Common-j wealth. Uthouffh, when Mr. Burlington left! Ve'vr Britain, tru- actual murderers had; not been raptured, he believed they | vrould be br>' i'.' r to justice without] further bloods':- .1. The expedition, he; said, consists! ■•:' sixteen white men and; 35 native ]■■ '■.<•• j Xhev landed at Tarobia. about sixty | jniles from Rabaul. and met with oppo-j tition straight away. The country in; Jjat area is j..r---oii itoti? and rugged, and! 3 jci.utinc party was dispatched as soon! js" the pimltho force landed on the shore. The hill - seemed to be full of warriors. | y r . Burlington >a<.i, and it was not jon* before, the native :-entries gave the , alarm. A volley from the rifles of the; soldiery ensured safety for the time being,'thoucrli all night the tom-toms were sounding, and the native interpreters with the Government interpreters told them that the signals revealed that parties of warriors were assembling at Cmu, a village twelve miles from the ca-t. Moving forward the force discovered! that the village* were set on inaccessible piinaeles, reached only hy winding and . precipitous paths. Overlooking these,! the natives had erected "spear plat'forms'' from which they mowed down i attackers. Often the path was only a' few feet wide, with a drop of hundreds of feet on one side. Entrances to the villages were also barricaded and staked, and no party armed only with spears could hope to storm a village if the occupants were expecting trouble. It was decided to try the natives in Umu out by a display of feeble force, so that they might be enticed from their battlements. A party of eleven men showed themselves. They were received with screams and hoots from the natives, who shouted. "Coma up here if vou want us. We have killed four >i votir skin already. - ' The ruse having failed, the expedition had no alternative but to open fire with the machine guns. Yells greeted the fire at the hilltop, and later the guns were directed at the feet of the natives. One of them seemed to fall, and then all fled. The Government party rushed the huts without resistand found the village deserted. No wounded were found, for it was discovered that the natives take their dead and wounded with them. It was ascertained that some had been wounded, however, for blood was seen in several places in the village. Camp was made at the village, and much of the scrub was cut away to improve visibility. It was believed that nothing more would be seen of the natives, but" at mid-day next day, when it was raining heavily, a warning was sounded, and 130 warriors were found to have crept to the edge of the clearing unobserved by the sentries. They rushed the camp. There was & brisk volley for five minutes, bursts of fire from 'the machine gun, a bomb was thrown, and the natives, scared beyond description, fled again into the bush. A party set out in pursuit, but the precipitous cliffs made it impossible for them to continue the chase. The natives descended the cliffs eighty feet high, clinging to the vines. At least three natives were%killed in that brush It proved to be theN-risis. After that only outposts were seen by the expedi tion. llr. Burlington claimed that the Government expedition had accom plished its object, having won th( respect of the natives, who were becom ing friendly when he left. By patience and tact it" was hoped eventually to cap ture the culprits. He predicts that tin chief of Umu and Sinanga would I>< captured within three mouths. Thi expedition had to bury the fou murdered men, who were found lyin; just where they had been speared.