THE SANTO ISLAND MASSACRE

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13927, 8 December 1908, Page 6

THE SANTO ISLAND MASSACRE

PROTEST AGAINST PUNITIVE EXPEDITION.

Last week particulars were published of the massacre of Mr. Grieg and his two daughters at the British settlement on Santo Island, and the despatch of a punitive expedition to avenge the murders, as a result of which six women and a child were shot. The matter was brought under notice at the meeting of the Melbourne Political Labour Council Executive the other night, when the following resolution was passed:—"That this executive empirically protests against the unjust and inhuman isystom of avenging, by the despatch of ' punitive expeditions/ offences committed against European ; residents by natives of the Pacific Islands. The executive respectfully calls public attention to the recent slaughter of women and children at Santo Island by a force landed from H.M'.S. Prometheus as an instance of the inhuman practice of avenging offences without inquiry or the means of ascertaining whether the natives punished are or are not tho actual offenders; and 06 the warship in the case concerned is one of the ships maintained on the Australian station under the naval agreement, respectfully urges the Commonwealth Parliament to express its disapproval of the method of policing the islands which now obtains." Several other Australian bodies have passed similar resolutions.