HUNTED BY JAPANESE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 23 October 1942, Page 5

HUNTED BY JAPANESE

FOURTEEN MISSIONARIES RESCUED Sydney, Oct. 22. j After being hunted by the Japanese i for eight weeks in the Guadalcanar j jungle, 14 Roman Catholic missionaries, j seven priests and seven nuns have j been rescued and evacuated from the I Solomons. They include two Austra- j lians and a New Zealander, Father D. j Scanlon, of Miramar, Wellington. The j missionaries are all members of the | Marist Order, the leader being the j Bishop of the South Solomons, the Rt. | Rev. J. M. Aubin. A spokesman for the party told a j “Sydney Morning Herald” war corres-! pendent that until the United States i occupation of the islands the Japanese treated the missionaries in a friendly way. But, fearing atrocities, the party took to the jungle on the eighth day of the American attack. Christian natives gave the missionaries every assistance and refused to lead the Japanese to them. One native whe ' misdirected enemy soldiers was shot. Two of the sisters gave first aid to a Japanese airman who had crashed, and the day after the airman’s departure the Japanese troops came to find them, but failed.—P.A. special Australian correspondent.