WHITE POPULATION OF RABAUL MENACED

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6803, 5 January 1929, Page 2

WHITE POPULATION OF RABAUL MENACED

STORY OF NATIVE REVOLT. ABSENT ADMINISTRATOR SCOURS DANGER THEORY. United Press Association—By Electric Tolegraph—Copyri ght, SYDNEY, Jan. 4. The Daily Telegraph prints a sensational story from Rabual, to the effect that the town is unarmed and is in a parlous position, being menaced by between 3000 and 4000 mutinous contract labourers from the town and nearby plantations. When warned by a Roman Catholio missionary that they would be punished for desertion, the ringleader replied defiantly, stating in that event- thtt blood of the white people and tha Kanakas would flow together.A telegraph message add 3 that tha mutineers have been joined by murderers and other desperadoes, who have been released from gaol by the native police, who have also- revolted. The present position is grave and hasty measures are being taken for the protection of the white -inhabitants. General Wisdom, Administrator of the territory, who is now in Sydney, has received advices from Judge Phillips, the acting Administrator, to the effect that a number of natives left work and gathered in the vicinity of the mission stations, where they wero interviewed by the Administration officials and later returned to work. General Wisdom states that the native police are thoroughly trustworthy, but even in the event of their defe«» tion, the white population would stu. have ample means of defence. Tho naval and military authorities at Sydney have not received any information regarding the affair and Rev. Hewitt, a Methodist missioner, scouts the idea that the Kanakas would revolt.