NEW GUINEA CHARGES.

Taranaki Daily News, 17 September 1924, Page 5

NEW GUINEA CHARGES.

FURTHER EVIDENCE. TASK FOR THE LEAGUE Jy Telegraph—Prew Axsn. —Copyright London, .Sept. 15. Mr. John Scurr, editor of the Socialist Review, in a letter to the Morning Post in reference to the New Guinea charges, points out that Mr. Canning spent under a month in New Guinea, and of that fourteen days were spent at Rabaul, and the balance cruising around the coast. In the evidence taken on oath, of 53 whites examined 25 were officials.

In addition to the evidence quoted by the Socialist Review, further reliable information is provided by Mr. R. A. Prescott, member of a British scientific expedition, who states that, at Marienburg, he witnessed the consigning of 130 slaves for forced work, and by Miss Beatrice Grimshaw, who was surprised to find how brutally the whites treated the natives at Sepik River. Dr. H. 'B. Cameron, medical assistant at Bahratti Island, reported on the ill-treatment of natives on December 12, 1923, to the commissioner, Mr- H. Garden, who ordered an Investigation, but it has not taken place. The letter quotes Senator Pearce’s statement to Parliament on June 17: “It is impossible, owing to deliberate departmental abstraction, to sheet home charges of a grave nature against officials in mandated territory.” Mr. Scurr adds: “After this declaration it is imperative that a real and impartial inquiry should be held. It is to be hoped the League of Nations will undertake it fearlessly.”