GERMAN ALIBI

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 126, 30 May 1942, Page 6

GERMAN ALIBI

GUINEA MISSIONS

AID TO JAPS. DENIED

NEW YORK, April 12.

Reports from Port Moresby that German Lutheran missionaries in New Guinea have been aiding the Japanese invaders are received with scepticism by Dr. A. L. Warnshuis, secretary of the International Missionary Council, with offices at 156, Fifth Avenue.

Dr. Warnshuis gave out the following statement:—

"The headlines indict the German missionaries in New Guinea as giving assistance to the Japanese Army. The case is not yet clearly proved. The German missionaries in New Guinea have a well-established alibi. Upon the outbreak of war in September, 1939, all the German missionaries in that part of New Guinea were interned with the exception of one who escaped by the mission's airplane to the neighbouring territory under the Government of the Netherlands. These German missionaries have been in an internment camp in Australia continuously since September, 1939. The German missionaries in the Netherlands Indies were all interned in May, 1940. It is clear that some more evidence is needed to prove whatever share any missionary may have had in giving assistance to the Japanese Army.

Pro-Nazi Missionaries "When war was declared in September, 1939, we were informed that all of the German missionaries in the British part of New Guinea had been immediately interned because there was evidence that some of these missionaries — among them some laymen—had been actively propagating Nazi ideas. They had not been able to lay aside their nationalistic enthusiasm and their activities had involved the whole mission. This was a mission of what is known as the Neuendettelsau Society.

"A mission of the American Lutheran Chufch has been working in an adjoining field and their missionaries have given assistance in supervising the work of the German mission deprived of their missionaries. The Rev. Dr. F. Otto Theile, located in Australia, has acted as an agent of this American mission. Several months ago Dr. Theile was detained by the Australian authorities for questioning and we were informed ne was under suspicion because he had not supplied the Australian Government with full information regarding the activities of the German missionaries. The National Missionary Council of Australia. through its chairman, Canon Needham, intervened on behalf of Dr. Theile and a letter from Canon Needham dated January 21 informed us that Dr. Theile had been unconditionally released.

Other Missions Unchallenged "Our letters from Australia express the opinion that the internment of the German missionaries was fully justified, but we have no information about complaints against the missionaries of other societies. Some pressure has been brought to bear upon American Lutheran missionaries to join the Australian army in NewGuinea. "We are not informed about other missions or independent missionaries working in the northern part of British New Guinea. We wonder whether these newspaper reports are not belated echoes arising from the internment of the German mission-

Aries which took place more t,han two years ago. So far as we know, all these German missionaries have been in the internment camps in Australia ever since that time. All of the assistance given by the Orphaned Missions Fund to European missionaries is administered through national Christian councils or neighbouring American or British missions, so that we are assured that these funds are used only for the assistance of essential missionary work."—Auckland Star and N.A.N.A.