ADVANCE IN NEW GUINEA

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23742, 14 September 1942, Page 6

ADVANCE IN NEW GUINEA

VIEWS OF EVACUATED MISSIONARY (0.R.) OAMARU, September 12. Discussing the Japanese advance over the Owen Stanley range in New Guinea, Mr L. A. Twyman, who was engaged in mission work there for eight years, said that this represented a feat the real merit of which could be appreciated only by those who knew the country. The scene of the present fighting, he said, was at an alti-, tude of 7000 ft, and although the distance from Port Moresby was given as 53 miles,-the terminus of a first-class motor road was actually only 25 miles away. By order of the Australian Government, the European personnel of the Unevangelised Fields Mission on the Fly river,, Papua, was evacuated in February last, 16 persons making the journey to Thursday Island on a launch with accommodation for three persons. From there, the journey to Sydney, via Townsville, occupied five weeks. On the day of the departure from the Fly river mission station, Mr Twyman married Miss Stanton, a daughter of the Rev. and Mrs L. O. Stanton, of Dunedin. Mr Twyman said he was acquainted with the Milne Bay region, and when he read of the fighting there, he wondered whether the Japanese were after the 800 head of cattle at a station on the shores of the bay. These were the only stock on the island. The situation was not suitable as a base for an attack on Port Moresby. Asked whether the Japanese were likely to experience opposition from the native population, Mr Twyman expressed the opinion that many of the natives had already been bought over, which would require merely a sufficiency of tobacco. Much had appeared in newspapers regarding fifth column activity in New Guinea, with particular reference to the German Lutheran Mission which was stationed near Madang. but Mr Twyman, from his own knowledge, did not believe that the charges against the missionaries were correct. Their religious faith, for instance, was not popular with the Nazis, and the missioners themselves knew they could expect short shift from either the Germans or the Japanese.