THE CAPTIVE WOMEN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18827, 30 September 1924, Page 8

THE CAPTIVE WOMEN.

CONCERN IN AUSTRALIA.

GOVERNMENT APATHY."

WOMEN'S STRONG PROTEST.

A public meeting of citizens, called by tho Lord Mayor of Sydney in response to a- request by the Women's League, to protest against "the apathy of the Federal authorities in dealing with the rescue of the white women believed to be held captive by natives in the Northern Territory," was held in Sydney last week, under the presidency of the Lord Mayor. Mrs. A. V. Roberts, president of the Women's League, submitted the * first motion: " That we, the Council of the Women's Leaguo of New South Wales, desiro to express our indignation at the apathy of the Commonwealth authorities in the tardy and ineffective steps taken to rescue the two British women—survivors of the Douglas Mawson—believed to be held captive by the natives." Mr. J. T. Beckett, Chief Inspector and Protector of Aborigines, who seconded the motion, said that in 1919 he was himself in the Gulf of Carpentaria, and underwent great hardships. He was not able to live on the food which the blacks consumed; our degraded digestion was not capable of assimilating the rough food, and if men found themselves unable to do well there, how much more so wouldwomen suffer privations? If the women had been held captive they must have suffered terrible privations, not only because of the rough food, but in all probability their clothes had worn out long before this, and it was almost certain they had no booto. The blacks, said Mr. Beckett, were nomadic, and would compel the women to travel with them, sometimes 20, sometimes 30, 40, or even 50 miles a day, perhaps they would bo abused and beaten because they were riot able to keep up with the rest of the blacks. The quickest way to effect a rescue would bo to send out a Jand party, with trackers, to follow the tribe in its wanderings. A police station existed within 200 miles of this country, where the women were said to be, and why the police had not been sent out, was something he could not divine, The motion was carried unanimously. Mr. Scott Fell, M.L.A., moved the second motion: "That this meeting of citizens expresses its deep concern that women survivors of the Douglas Mawson are believed to be still in the hands of the blacks and supports the Government in following at any expense, every slender thread or clue, however improbable, to effect their rescue." He said that when the Government heard that the women might be alive it was its duty to send a warship, which, it was' said, was in those waters doing survey work. The lives of these women were more precious than the survey work, and the men from the ship could have acted as reserves to help experienced bushmen to effect a rescue. Money should not be spared; if it cost £100,000, or even £1,000,000, and the women were rescued, it would be money well spent. (Applause.) The motion was carried unanimously. AEROPLANE PLAN SCOUTED. TASK FOR MOUNTED BUSHMEN. Dr. Jensen, the well-known geologist, discussing the position in regard to the captive women from the Douglas Mawson, declared in Brisbane recently, that an aeroplane would have no landing ground whatever in the .country in which the women are prisoners. " This country has a mangrove-fringed coastline, and fair to dense timber inland," Dr. Jensen said. " Two men on an . aeroplane would have a far better chance of being dashed to pieces on the mangroves or of being speared and eaten than of rescuing the women. A warship and seaplane might have achieved success. The only sure way of reaching the prisoners, who are probably not held right on the coast, is by a party of territory bushmen on horseback. The only people capable of carrying out the rescue with a..minimum of danger to the women are men like the Maranbov miners and Kathenno stockmen, who understand tho blacks and their ways."