Police Raid On Johnson Cult

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30557, 28 September 1964, Page 13

Police Raid On Johnson Cult

(N.Z PA.-Reuter—Copyright) PORT MORESBY, September 27. Seventy native police, led by Australian officers, at dawn today raided the Johnsoncult village of Lokono, about 14 miles south of Kavieng oh New Ireland.

The raid was made in an attempt to arrest the villagers who took part in an attack on an Administration tax patrol on September 24 and forced the patrol to release a prisoner it was holding. The patrol was driven into the sea at the edge of the village. An Administration report on the incident said 12 police were wounded, four seriously. Three native police

are still in hospital in Kavieng. The raiding party converged on Lokono village in two groups, from both land and sea.

Before it left Kavieng warrants were taken out for the arrest of 40 villagers. The villagers are refusing to pay the native local government council tax and are instead saving money to “buy” the United States President to come to rule over the island.

The cult started during the Papua-New Guinea House of Assembly elections in February this year on the island of New Hanover, north of New Ireland.

It spread to New Ireland, in spite of the stationing of riot police on New Hanover and intensive tax collecting patrols by native affairs officers.

In the raid police were armed with shotguns, riot shields, and batons. ' The Australian officers carried automatic weapons and tear-gas.