NEW GUINEA

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 16 September 1924, Page 9

NEW GUINEA

SLAVERY ALLEGED

BY CABLE—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT

Received Sept, 16, 9.55 a.m. LONDON, Sept. 15. Mr John Scurr, editor of the Social--Ist Review, in a letter to the Momma 1 Post iii reference to the New Guinea charges, points out that Canning spent under a month at New Guinea, and of .that 14 days -were spent at Raba.nl and the balance cruising around the coast. In the evidence taken on oath of 53 whites examined 25 were officials. In addition to the evidence quoted by the Socialist Review, further reliable information is provided by Mr R. A. Prescott, a member of the British scientific expedition, who states that at Marienburg he witnessed the. consigning of •130 slaves for .forced work; andi° bv Miss Beatrice Grimshaw, who was surprised to find how brutally the whites treated the natives at Sepik river. Dr. H. B. Cameron, medical assistB&hnatti Island, reported on the ill-treatment of natives on December 12, 1923, to Commissioner H. Garden, who ordered an investigation, but it has not taken place. The letter quotes Mr Pearce’s statement to Parliament on J un 6 17: “It is impossible owing to deliberate departmental obstruction to sheet home charges of a grave nature against officials in the mandated.territory.

Mr Scurr adds that ‘.‘after this declaration it is imperative, that a real nnpartal enquiry should be held, and it is to be hoped that the League will undertake it fearlessly.”