MYSTERY VESSELS

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 97, 7 April 1934, Page 8

MYSTERY VESSELS

Concern in Australia ALLEGATIONS OF POACHING Once again sensational stories are being circulated about strange boats being seen off the coast of Northern Queensland. When the question of the nationality of these vessels is raised, they are almost invariably referred to as Japanese, for there are many people who seem to be obsessed with the idea that Japan has designs on Australia. From time to time there have been stories that men on foreign craft have been engaged in charting the coastline, but little credence has been given to them in official circles. All the same, the need for an effective coastal patrol is apparent, and people who live in the north will be much happier when this is provided. There are certainly strange boats in the north, but their mission is poaching. Mr. Randolph Bedford, a former member of the Queensland Parliament, says that poaching cannot be prevented under existing conditions. A few craft have been captured from time to time, he said, but it had been possible only to fine the masters of all craft which operated without a licence. The traffic could not be stopped until it was possible to hunt down the depot ships from which the pirate craft obtained their supplies. There were innumerable places along, the uninhabited coastline between Cooktown and Thursday Island where the supply ships could lurk. He ridiculed the suggestion that many of the vessels were engaged in charting the coastline for the Japanese Government. That had been done years ago with the assistance of offiecial charts which were available to anybody who chose to purchase them. The Japanese sampans had charts of northern waters superior to any published in Australia. Discussing the blacks in the Northern Territory, Mr. Bedford said they were a much maligned race. He had had a great deal of experience among them, and had found them docile and kindly, except for an occasional bad man who had been made vicious by white interference. Most of the evidence of native atrocities against whites was merely a repitition of exaggerated stories circulated in the ci'ies. About the time it w-as reported that two white women from the ill-fated steamer Douglas Mawson were in the hands of northern blacks, he and a partv visited Camooweal. Meeting some wilt? blacks he asked them if they had heard the story. The blacks admitted that they had heard the story all right, and they told how the women had been given “plenty tucker.” Asked how they knew this one of them replied that “white fella” had read it to them out of one of th Brisbane papers.