TRIBAL WARS

Hokitika Guardian, 17 October 1932, Page 6

TRIBAL WARS

J2AGUE OF NATIONS INQUIRY. A TALE OF TAME CROCODILES. (“Times” Cable). (Received this day at 11.15 a.m.) LONDON, October 16. The “Times’ ” Geneva correspondent states that • tribal fighting, in which the chiefs enter the fray wearing tall hats -and other striking adornments, and where chivalry demands that no village shall be attacked without warning, is described by a Scot, Doctor MacKenzie, a member of the League of Nations, who was dispatched to the interior of Liberia to pacify the Kru tribes.

Dr. MacKenzie, accompanied by Liberian officials and interpreters, land a few troops, penetrated a wilderness untrodden by white man, and had to cut tracks in the virgin forest, where warlike tribes were in ,ambush awaiting a chance to kill stragglers. They found eighteen tribes in rebellion, while forty-four towns had been burned. Twelve thousand men, women and children, driven into the bush, were dying of starvation. Dr. MacKenzie summoned the paramount chiefs to a council, established' peace, and induced th e tribes to return to their territories. He organised the rebuilding of houses and farms, while the tribes consented to disarmament, and surrendered five hundred guns. He journeyed hundreds of miles in a canoe, and was the first t° map the rivers and survey the country. Hie, relates how the villages possessed tame crocodiles which leave the water at the natives’ call, and crawl inland where they are regaled on chickens and a bottle of gin poured down their throats, after'which they complacently return to their lairs.