Guadalcanal ‘War’ Reports Denied By Colonial Office

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 July 1947, Page 8

Guadalcanal ‘War’ Reports Denied By Colonial Office

(Rec. 11 a.m.) LONDON, July 10. The Colonial Office spokesman has categorically denied reports of the last three days that native warriors from Malaita crossed to Guadalcanal armed with spears.and blowpipes and attacked British settlers there. The spokesman said: “Until this morning no news had been received in London of any untoward events in the British Solomons. No statement whatever has been made confirming that native warriors from Malaita had attacked Guadalcanal. We have now received a telegram from the acting-High Commissioner in the Western Pacific, Mr J. F. Nicoll, which says that the Resident Commissioner

in the Solomons, Mr O. C. Noel, described the report as incorrect.” The spokesman said Mr Noel.had stated that the rumours of a declaration of.,war probably arose from a meeting on Malaita on June 30 when 7000 labourers from the island’s copra plantations had met to discuss possible strike action. The district commissioner of Malaita. was himself present at the meeting which rejected the strike proposal, but decided not to re-engage when their current contracts expired. The spokesman added that this huge gathering seen from the air might well be interpreted as “a sign of trouble.”

Mr Noel, in a later telegram to the Colonial office stated that the district commissioner in Malaita had revisited the area and had found no evidence whatever to support “the press and broadcast reports of trouble.”.

American airmen returning to AUs*tralia from Guadalcanal told of rioting between* the natives and the whites on the island. ,