JAVA MURDER MYSTERY.

Thames Star, Volume LIX, Issue 16627, 24 October 1925, Page 6

JAVA MURDER MYSTERY.

PUZZLES EXPERT MINDS.

PUZZLES EXPERT MINDS

The murder oi Mrs Campbell Maefie while on holiday in Java has set expeit minds working on the motive of the crime, and speculation as to who perpetrated the murder. The cable details are incomplete, and it is impossible to suggest all that might have happened, and the piecing together ot‘ the various scraps of information is a job for somebody skilled in detective fiction. Mile. F. A. Pilliet, of Christchurch, who has just arrived from Java, where she stayed at the \ ilia Dolce Hotel Garoet—and probably., the same room where Mrs Maefie was murdered—gives a vivid picture of the setting of the crime, and she is firmly convinced that the murderer will be found to be a Javanese. “There are twenty-eight million Javanese alone in Java,” said Mile. Pilliet. “They are the biggest liars, the biggest thieves and the quietest people I, have ever known. They prefer to steal rather than have something given to them. They have interminable pati-. cnee, and will wait years for veil- | geance if they think they are justified, j On the other hand, they take just pun- i ishment with extraordinary equan- ■ imitv.

“They are the most silent people on earth, and they leave Chinamen far

behind for imperturbability. Their eyes look at you, and whether they hate or love they never betray by the flicker of an eyelid what are their innermost feelings.” Mile. Pilliet said that all Dutch hotels are composed of many buildings

and the Villa Dolce, at G 1 aroet, occupies several buildings in seven acres of ground. There is only one twostorev building; the rest are bungalows. All the servants are Javanese men; there are no women on the place.

“The proprietor, Ingehous, is a mid-dle-aged German, pleasant enough,” she said, “with a middle-aged wife and a pretty daughter. He speaks English rather well. The British ConsulGeneral, Mr. Crosby, in Batavia, afways stays at the Villa Dolce, and no doubt it was he who recommended the place to Mrs. Maefie. “The hotel is situated close to the railway station, which is about eight hours’ journey from Batavia. The main road runs down one side of the Villa Dolce, and there are a fairly decent road and a nasty lane on other sides. The scoundrelly Javanese have unquestioned entrance to the hotel ; they come in and out, and you never hear their bare feet. There are always peddlers with Batik work and other goods on the verandahs, and one day while J was there an old chap came and sat on my verandah for hours. Then 1 J- had better go inside and le~k the door. I remember thinking when 1 was first into mv •room at the hotel, ‘lf anyoin' eon)es j| i here I’m a dead ’un.’ You see, iT ' VfIS not the season for tourists, and mos. r ol the other rooms in my little bungalow were empty. EASY'TO COME IN. “I littVO a feeling that Mrs Maefie » probably occupied the room which 1 had, or a room very similar. Evtry room has. a verandah, which is prac-

tie-ally level with the ground, and it is easy for strangers to come in without being heard. Through the French windows you could see the swarms < f Javanese workers and sellers. The shutters on these iold rooms are verv

!”Secure, out being Australia, and used to open windows and fresh air, Mrs. Maefie probably never bothered about that. There are supposed to be two men on guard all. night, though 1 never remember seeing anybody. But I do remember trying my shutteis after they were supposed to have been locked, and tliev were not latched at all.

“My theory is that Mrs Maefie was noticed as a woman travelling alone, fond of jewels ,and she probably displayed quite an amount of personal jewellery on*her gowns. You may be sure that this was remembered by the Javanese, always coming and going, plaguing the life out oi her to buy something. The Javanese have no sense of the relative values of things and it is even possible that, if one of them is responsible for the murder, he had no particular object in mind, but was just pursuing his natural impulse to thieve. A man will watch his chance for hours if need be, and I feel certain that it was a Javanese who came silently over that verandah and got into Mrs Macfie’s room intending to steal something, when she wakened. Then he used his heavy shaped knife —and cut.

“If I were sure Mrs. Maefie didn’t lock her doors, I would be sure that a Javanese from that dirty little black street committed the deed. The hotel generally and my room, in particular, invited robbers.” ART OF POISONING.

That the Javanese are also past masters in the art of poisoning was stressed by Mile. Pilliet. “The people swarm like ants on a rubbish head. Each one carries _ a kris, and knows more ways of getting rid of human life than you or I ever dreamed of. Unless you register with the British Consul in atavia—it costs you nothing—you can bo poisoned or knifed; and nobody will take the slightest notice of your absence. When 1 went to register f was told not to bother, because I would bo in Java only another fortnight. But I didn’t trust the Javanese to the length of foureen davs.

“There is; rt vegetable poison which they call, piit through a key-hole and burn. T'he fumes stupefy the people in the room, then it is easy to break down the door and steal anything wanted. Murder the occupants, too, if necessary. Another way of sending you to jin early grave is to cut up the fibre . of bamboo very finely and put it in your coffee or soup, It is a slow business, and the effects may not be fatal for six months. •“] can tell you quite honestly that I will not feel safe till .1 have been a year but of java.*’ Garoet is only a small place of about 10,000 . inhabitants, surrounded . by mountaiiVs and volcanoes. “it is a sort of hill resort.” said Mile, Pilliet, “very much off the beaten track and is by no means a commercial proposition. It is very quiet

and lonely in the ‘off’ season. Mile. Pilliet will leave for her home in Christchurch next month, and after six months in Java she says she is mighty glad to bo out of the place.