TRIBAL CULT IN NEW BRITAIN

Press, Volume XCI, Issue 27688, 18 June 1955, Page 7

TRIBAL CULT IN NEW BRITAIN

Five Shot In Attack On Patrol (Rec. 7 p.m.) PORT MORESBY, June 16. An Australian patrol investigating an outbreak of a native cult in New Britain was forced to shoot and kill five when tribesmen attacked. The incident took place yesterday. Five other attacking tribesmen were wounded. The District Commissioner in Rabaul (Mr J. R. Foldi) has left for the iu*ea, 20 miles south of the inland Numassava plantation. Sketchy reports reaching Port Moresby say that the patrol, led by an Australian, Assistant-District Officer Allen, was investigating an outbreak of the cargo cult following the murder of a native last week and the serious wounding of two others. A crazed group of tribesmen attacked the patrol, which at first fired over their heads. After the warning shots were ignored, the patrol is said to have fired in self-defence. The cargo cult is the native belief that a ship has brought a cargo of riches for them from the land of the dead. • The adherents are convinced that Europeans have intercepted the cargo and stolen it. The authorities say that the natives reach this conclusion by contrasting their poverty with the Europeans’ wealth. Dynamite Plant Explosion.—Three people were killed in an explosion in the Du Pont chemical factory near Barksdale. The explosion occurred in a powder-mixing building, in which dynamite was mixed with T.N.T., and blasted a huge hole where the building stood.—Barksdale (Wisconsin), June 15.