JAPANESE FIRE SHOTS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19139, 7 October 1936, Page 15

JAPANESE FIRE SHOTS

ISLAND NATIVES’ FRIGHT

ATTACK FROM SAMPAN

SHELL-POACHING ALLEGED

SYDNEY, Sept, 28. Mr. E. Wood, manager of a New Guinea plantation, writing to Mr. It. W. Robson, editor of the Pacific Islands Monthly, states that the occupants of a Japanese sampan, who were engaged poaching troehus shell off the Fead Islands, New Guinea, opened' fire with shotguns and rifles at a party oi natives on one of the islands last month. Mr. Wood says that He, his wife, and other natives saw the incident from a distance, and were powerless to intervene. Fortunately none of the natives was wounded. They were unarmed, and escaped’ by scattering among the palm Mr. Wood expressed the fear that an attack might be made on his family, and ho stated that he intended to report the incident to the Administration when he visited Rabaul.

1 In his letter, Mr. Wood said he was managing a group of islands known as Fead Islands. The group consisted of 58 islands, stretching over a distance of from 25 to 30 miles, situated 2IG miles from Rabaul. The plantation produced both copra and troches shell. He had read of the visits of Japanese poachers to various places in the Pacific Islands, and on August 16 he had a fample of their methods. SAMPAN LOWERS BOATS “Yesterday, at daylight,” he continued, “a sampan turned up off the reef on the far side of the group, where it could not be seen from the home island. I did not know it was there until the late afternoon when some of the boys returned from there and told me. However, about 11 o’clock this morning, it showed up and came along the reef, stopping off an island about a quarter of a mile from the home island. “I had 11 boys on this island, cutting scrub. When the sampan stopped off the reef, she lowered two bbats, which went ashore. My -boys, went down and asked the Japanese if they had 1 ' any permission to be shelling there, which of course, they had not. “However, the two boats immediately returned to the sampan without any of the I Japanese answering the boys. “Hie boys stood there watching and saw'two shotguns handed to the Japanese in the boats, which started back for tlie reef. The boys then retreated to the fringe of the coconuts. “As soon as the Japanese landed on the reef they opened’ fire oh the boys, who' at once scattered in among, the f palms. “The next moment the Japanese oil the sampan opened fire with shotguns and rifles. Ten shots were fired by the I Japanese on the reef, and many 'more by those on the Sampan. “My wife, self, and other boys stood on the point of the home island helplessly watching the whole thing. The boys who were being shot at being totally unarmed, ran to the other end of the island and came over to us in their canoes. Luckily, through scattering so quickly, no one was hit. SAMPAN PURSUED “When the hoys arrived here at the home island, I collected them and all others that were here (about 28), and took them aboard the schooner, which was' anchored in the lagoon, with the * intention of putting out and trying to get alongside the sampan to ascertain what they meant by trying to shoot my ■boys. “However, while we were heating up the engine, the sampan came further along the reef, and sighted the schooner ’for the first time. She immediately put about, and went back to pick up her two boats. By the time we got going she was headed out to sea. We went out through the passage with the schooner, and chased her for several miles, but she was too fast for us, and wo had to turn hack.

_ “It is a lovely position to be in, right out here with a wife anti three-year-old daughter, when these Japanese can come and, not only poach our shell, but operi up with gunfire, with no provocation at all. When we chased them with the schooner the only weapons we had were fish spears. If they are up to the pitch where they will open fire on native labourers on private property, how long will it be .before they fire at the white men and women, on these islands? Not a single measure has been taken as far as I know to stop them. "I am writing a full report of the whole thing to the Administration, and am taking my schooner to Pjabaul in a fortnight. Next time I am visited by a Japanese sampan they will find that two can play at shooting.”