Scientific Vandals Raid Easter Island

Manawatu Times, Volume 61, Issue 7, 9 January 1936, Page 2

Scientific Vandals Raid Easter Island

OUTCRY PROM CHILE The Chilian Foreign Office has sent a sharp protest to Paris regarding the conduct of the Franco-Belgium scientific expedition on Easter Island last year. The expedition was accused of violating the terms under which it was permitted to visit tho “mystery isle” by taking away several famous statues and an enormous collection of archaeological valuables. The Chilian Minister of Franco was instructed to take energetic steps to secure the return of these antiquities. A national sensation was caused by the revelation and the Government was inundatod by protests from scientific societies. Congress hurriedly passed a law declaring Easter Island a‘ ‘ national monument” and instructions were sent to the Customs service to prevent the exportation of anything of scientific value.

A second law was approved by Congress making it a penal offence to destroy or damage national monuments One deputy announced that he would prepare a Bill to extend tho first law to the “Robinson Crusoe”. Island of Juan Fernandez to protect it from the depredations of tourists. It was pointed out in -the debate that Easter Island, frequently compared with the legendary “vanished continent,” is a prey to scientific raiders from Europe who are untrammelled by Customs supervision or auy authority in the distant colony. The island is more than 200 miles from the mainland and is visited only onco a year by a Chilian warship. The Franco-Bclgium expedition which caused all the trouble was landed at Hango Roa, the principal Easter Island anchorage, from tho French ship Kigault de Genouilly when on its way to Saigon in 1931. It was taken off at the end of tho year by the Belgium training ship Mercator with many of the monuments and curiosities. When the Chilian Government granted permission for tho visit it was distinctly stipulated that nothing should be taken except photographs and pictorial studies of the weird wooden statues which dot the volcanic slopes of tho island. The European archaeologists said they were out to solve the “mystery of the Pacific.” Exhibits at Lecture,

Imagine the surprise of the Chilians when a news agency dispatch from Paris reported that M. Metreaux, the French leader of the expedition, gave a -lecture on Easter Island which he illustrated with the exhibition of several of the monuments. One of these was a genuine Mohais, 10 feet high and weighing five" tons. ■ These exhibits, admitted to have been brought back from the Pacific, attracted enormous archaeological interest on the European' Continent, but raised a tempest in Chile, Tho Alessandri; Government dispatched a -warship to Easter Island and its commander, Carlos Nebel, was commissioned to investigate. He reported that scores of statues and curiosities, many of historical value, had been removed. The Mercator, ho said, sailed round the island and shipped the monuments at every convenient landing. The Government thereupon recalled the island Governor, Lieut. Hector Cornejo, who will be held responsible for the alleged theft. A warship was ordered to bring him to Valparaiso. Cornejo, cognisant of the trend of the Nebel investigation, sent a defence to the Navy Department declaring that the antiquities conveyed to Europe were mere imitations, cleverly executed by tho Polynesian natives. Meantime, Alfredo Mascaunan, member of the National Monuments Council, is being sent to Easter Island to make a complete inventory of its archaeological possessions.