MISSING WHITES

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 84, 4 July 1928, Page 6

MISSING WHITES

STRANGE MURDERS IN TRANSVAAL. NATIVES WORSHIP CROCODILES

The correspondent of the "Chicago Tribune” wires the following from' Capetown:—■ A series of extraordinary disappearances and violent deaths is causing considerable uneasiness amongst' th© white population in the vicinity of Barberton, in the Transvaal. The strange occurrences began with the murder of a man named Jones a few months ago; Another man 'nant-*. ed Masters Shortly afterwards met with a violent death, and now a wellknown farmer named Tweedell is reported to have vanished completely. Mr Tweedell was last seen at his homestead on March IG, and the next day he was nof to bo found. Hi s bed was found hot to have been slept in,, and a shot gun which he always carried was missing. Search parties were - organised and a hunt in the, hush was made, hut with no resultNo letter or written document was left which would throw- any light on i the mystery. A •hundred 1 yards away from the homestead rung a crocodile river which the natives in the - wTnity, worship. It is now believed that Mr Tweedell was murdered and his body thrown to .the crocodiles. ; ; A year ago a native woman in the vicinity vanished, and it is believed she was flung to the crocodiles. Major Williams,- another pettier living two' miles away, was discovered shot in his'home some months ago. The white population believe that all these rficent occurrences mean that the natives liive organised a secret vendetta; • As ,ah 'instance of the unrest spreading through the native territories here, a native named McKay has recently been sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment for inciting hostility between the white population and the natives. Mackay had been in the habit of touring the native territories, preaching a 1 stoty that King George had written to General “Smuts from Buckingham Palace, informing him that ho had given South Africa' to the Americans, and that the Premier, General Hertzes, had opposed a scheme for organising the .country against an American: invasion. Mackay urged the natives to join the American forces whoj he- said, would arrive in ’aeroplanes. ■