MAWSON SURVIVORS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19270, 6 September 1924, Page 9

MAWSON SURVIVORS

WOMEN HELD BY BLACKS. OFFICIAL CONFIRMATION. Prana Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. DARWIN, September 5. Official confirmation has been received by the Administrator of the Northern Territory that both of the Mawson women are alive at Bradshaw Inlet. A police party will proceed immediately to Arnhem Bay to bring the women back. The authorities, who were at first sceptical, now have no doubt that at least one child was born of the elder woman not long'after .the landing; therefore it is white, and not half-caste as rumoured. The women are Mrs Willett (aged Oo) and her daughter (aged 14). Further unofficial messages from Darwin strengthen the case for the Douglas Mawson women being found alive. The news is mostly from native sources, but it is so categorical in detail as to make it probable that it is founded on fact.

According to the stories, various attempts to escape made by the captives were frustrated by the cunning of their captors. One rumour, which, however, is regarded in official circles by those acquainted with, ithe tribal customs of the blacks as unlikely, is that both women have given birth to half-caste children.