PERILOUS MISSION.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 925, 21 November 1933, Page 7

PERILOUS MISSION.

Clergymen to Work Among the Aborigines.

UNARMED EXPEDITION. (Special to the “ Star.”) SYDNEY, November 14. There is still “ trouble in the North,” and it is not much nearer settlement { than it was a month ago. The killing of some Japanese fishers on the coast of Arnhem Land and the spearing of a constable sent to arrest the natives concerned induced the Government to project what was at first called a “ punitive expedition” to Caledon Bay. As a result of the public outcry against such vindictive and violent methods, the authorities repudiated all idea of a ‘ punitive ” force and decided to send a small body of police to effect a peacefill arrest —if possible; but the coming of the wet season seems to have compelled them to abandon this plan. Meantime the Aborigines’ Protection Society and the various churches which have established mission stations in that part of the world have been endeavouring to arouse public sympathy for the natives, who have been so often j punished for crimes that they have not committed by laws that they do not understand. Finally, the Church Missionary Society has decided to send a small body of men to Caledcn Bay to approach the natives in .a peaceful way and endeavour to explain to them the white point of view. The leader of this strange expedition, the Rev H. E. Warren, has lived and worked among the blacks in the Gulf country and the Straits for twenty years, and he has stated his purpose in an interview which appeared last week in the “ Sydney Morning Herald”:—‘‘We propose to go among them unarmed.” he said, “ relying on the power of God to bring peace and goodwill, brotherhood and good fellowship between them and their white brethren in the North.” Cabinet in a Quandary. Naturally, this project has provoked a great deal of discussion. It is ridiculed by those who hold that the aborigines understand nothing but a display of force —“ The only good nigger is a dead nigger ” is a maxim that, it is alleged, may be heard in Darwin to-day. The Federal Government, while not attempting to interfere, washed its hands of all responsibility for the safety of the party. The Minister, Mr Perkins, replying to questions in the House, pointed out that if he sent an armed force he would be regarded as a murderer, and if he let these unarmed men go, he would be in a sense responsible for their safety. “ Blood will be on my hands, anyway,” he said plaintively, but in the end he gave the expedition his blessing. On the other hand, the Methodist Mission, which has several stations in the Far North, and on the adjoining islands, expressed doubt whether the course adopted by the Church Missionary Society was practicable just now, or likely to prove effective. The Rev T. T. Webb, who has had long experience of the aboriginals, maintains that even if the peace party stays six months among the Caledon Bay blacks, this will be too short a time to produce results, and he argues that nothing but the slow and gradual conversion and . civilisation of the natives will remove i all danger.

However, in spite of criticism and opposition the expedition has started. The Rev IT. Warren, the Rev A. J. Dyer, and three or four natives—armed only with a radio outfit, a medicine chest, a pocket knife, a nail file, a toy squeaker and their invincible faith in Divine guidance—are setting out on an adventure that to those people who do hot share their convictions must appear reckless and quixotic in the extreme. Confident of Hi* Safety. Last week Mr Warren and his friends were accorded a civic reception by the Lord Mayor, and at tfiis gathering Mr Warren tried to explain his view of the natives and of the whole situation. He had been told, he said, that he had “ formed a suicide club,” and that his little party is doomed to destruction. This was his answer: “My wife and I have lived for twenty years with the people whose territory is contiguous to that of those I am going to meet. My children were born there. I have tended their sick, and they came to me and shed tears over the death of my own little daughter. I do not believe that these people will now turn against me.” This is certainly impressive, but not more so that the devout faith and splendid courage by which these men are inspired. Neither Mr Warren nor the Church Missionary Society, nor the Methodist Mission, nor the Aborigines Protection Society, regard the blacks in this case as “murderers.” As to the killing of the Japanese trepang fishers at Caledon Bay, Mr Warren has declared emphatically that • “ the Japanese were not murdered but were killed in straight-out warfare by those who were defending their homes, families and honour.” As a matter of fact, the Japanese who were killed were charged with carrying off native women in their luggers and abandoning them later on the coast in the territory of hostile tribes. In that case the aborigines were literally defending the sanctity of their home life, in obedience to their most sacred traditions. Dr Davies, the Bishop of Carpentaria, said the other day at Brisbane that f ‘ the Caledon Bay natives are aggressively hostile because of having to protect their women against other races.” He added that he “ had no sympathy for the Japanese who were injured by the aborigines—they had only been retaliatory injuries.” “ A Bit of Their Country.” The Rev T. T. Webb, of the Methodist Mission, with many years’ experience among the blacks, holds that “there could be no suggestion that the Caledon Bay tribesmen were in the strict sense murderers, for they had no knowledge of a law other than their own.” As Mr Webb subsequently told his congregation at Melbourne, the real trouble is that intruders are allowed to enter the few areas which are supposed to be reserved for the natives, they break tribal laws and infringe native traditions, thev often plunder and outrage the native? and then experience the natural consequences of their crimes. And then the people who believe in “strong methods” to teach the natives a lesson demand blood for blood. What the natives really want is—as the “Sun” put it pithily the other day— a bit of their own country for themselves.” and till they get it there will always be trouble and danger.”