N.Z. Missionary Offered Life To Save Colleague

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29383, 9 December 1960, Page 12

N.Z. Missionary Offered Life To Save Colleague

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

LONDON, December 7. A New Zealand missionary offered his own life in an attempt to persuade savage Congolese villagers to spare the life of his colleague, according to a . letter received in England today. But the Congolese hacked both the New Zealander and the other missionary, an Englishman, to death.

The New Zealander was Mr Elton George Knauf, aged 50, from New Plymouth. The Englishman was Mr Edmund (Teddy) Hodgson, aged 62, from Lancashire. The incident was recounted in a letter to the secretary of the Congo Evangelistic Mission (Mr John Parker) from the mission’s field secretary (Mr Harold Womersley). Mr Womersley’s son led the helicopter search in northern Katanga for the two missing missionaries last month. Mr Hodgson and Mr Knauf were caught by tribesmen who told them they would be killed wrote Mr Womersley. “Brother Knauf reminded them who they were, and that they were unarmed, and were there for their good. They had brought supplies for the dispensary and money for the teachers. “The head man' of the village said they would let Elton go and just kill Teddy, who was a stranger there. Elton said: ‘No, let him go and kill me.’ “Christians then came and

tried to get the village people to release the missionaries, but they in turn were threatened with death. “Later their captors took the two men to Kamai, the chieftain’s capital village, and killed them both with machete knives.” Memorial services for the men will be held at Preston, Lancashire, and in London, later this month. Mr Knauf was married with three children.