Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 59, 26 March 1943, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments

FISHERS OF MEN Tlie following article- is taken from the British Weekly:— Seldom hns St. George's, West, Edinburgh- the church where Alexander Wliyte, Mugli IJ.'aek and John Kehnan ministered Micces.sively, and where James Black upholds the: old traditions—heard a more moving testimony to the work of the missionaries in far-off lands than that given by Mrs Starr Stuart at the morning service on Sunday, Junr 21. Mrs Stuart, one of the many victims of Herman brutality on tlie. high .seas, had been on board the s.s. Rangitane when shelled and sunk in the Pacific in November, 1940, while travelling from the Friendly Islands, where her husband had been Chief Justice, to British Guiana, where Judge Stuart was to take up a new appointment as 2nd Puisne Judge at Georgetown. Alter suffering unretailable. horrors and privations confined as prisoners for 25 days on board a German raider in cqilatorj/ waters, with little food and less water, 647 men,, Avcmen and. children were marooned on the cannibal island of Emirau —a beautiful but malaria?-haunted islet of the Pacific, where it Avas the intention of their captors all should pcrisli from hunger and thirst. There is no running water on the island, only ;what can be gathered from the rains. The smaitl stock of food knoAvn to exist Avas taken on board by the raiders. Nine head of cattle-—a'l the island contained— were rounded up, slaughtered horribly and carried off, one escaping into the sAvamps, to be killed later to feed the multitude. The Government launch, the only means of communication Avith the outside world, was. destroyed. On the island were two white traders in copra, who lived in fear and dread of the natives,, whose village lay to the windward end, about ten miles away. The natives, they declared, Avere hostile and. dangerous cannibals, although the 3* believed a missionary had come to work among them. '-Tie Missionary Among the Savage Races Judge Stuart, having experience with the Polynesians of the Friendly Islands and knowing, too, from personal acquaintance in South Africa of the Avonderiu! influence of the missionaries on the savage races of Africa and the South Sea Islands proposed to vis.it the native A'illage and see Avhat the prospects were of obtaining food or other relief for the marooned castaAvays. Although warned of the. danger he ran, he set off, accompanied only by his wife, a woman of an intrepid spirit, a niece of Dr Starr Jameson, of the South, African raid fame. Clad in the ragged remains of the clothing in which they had made their escape Avhen their cabin on the Rangitane had, been shelled at a.m., three weeks earlier,, Aveak, faint, and exhausted after tlieir terrible experiences as prisoners when every regulation of the Geneva Convention regarding the treatment of prisoners of war had been broken by their gaolers, they made their way, sloAvly and cautiously that they might not alarm the natives unaccustomed to the sight of white people, to the picturesque village' hidden beneath dense tropical vegetation. The 1 village was quite empty,

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE f Supplied by the Whakatane Ministers' Association).

and deserted. A little herd boy see.ined the only "inhabitant. Their scanty knowledge of the native dialects of the South Sea Islands enabled them to make known to the child., avlio smiled upon them, that they wanted to see the headman. He pointed to the largest of the. huts. They approached, fearfully and cautiously. As they drew near, they heard the $ound of a voice singing in the English tongue: "Jesus loves me, this II know, For the. Bible tells me so." After the brutalities of their Avhite skinned and supposedly ciA'ilised captors, how overwhelming, how reassuring were the words! They entered the hut unafraid. : It Avas the village church. A tall, line-looking Solomon Islander., "black as the ace of spades," Avith hawk-like features, Avas conducting the service. They smiled and bowed; he smiled and hewed. They remained for a time listening, but as the day was tlrawing to a close and the tropical dark falls suddenly like a curtain, they bowed once more and withdrew, to return to the little copra hut that had been allotted, to them as sleeping quarters. Hostile or Friendly? As she lay in an uneasy sleep on the floor of the hut, the judge suddenly roused his wife, "Sit up! Natives coming!" Their hearts seemed to stand, still. Were they hostile or friendly? The day was beginning to break. In the dim light they saw a pair of black arms lift up on to the verandah a pannikin of. water, very precious, "where no water be'* and a tray of smoking-hot SAvect potatoes. A voice said the words for "Food. Eat.'" They did so,, thankfully. . When the day had dawned they Avent back to "the village to call on the. missionai-y. "I tell you my story, yes?" He was the son" of cannibal parents of the Solomon Islands, but coming under the influence of the Wesleyan missionaries had become a Christian, and, been sent to Fiji to be edu-> cat.ed as a catechumen. When his training was completed his desire had been to go to Emirau, Avhere. the people were, savage cannibals. Many had become Christians during his ministry. He took ui> his guitar,, tAvanged the strings,. and sang sweetly and tunefully— "And I Avill make you fishers of men if you Avill follow- me." An hour or two later came the news that Australia had sent a rescue ship to take 6ft' the castaAvays. The Germans believed that they had destroyed the only means of communication Avith the outer world when •they sank the Government launch. They did not know that hidden in a little creek lay a small launch presented by friends in Australia to the missionary, that he might visit his parishioners scattered around the rocky shores ot Emirau. One of the Avhite traders had borrowed the launch, and gone to a distant, island, where the iicavs of the marooned people. Avas Hashed to Ausjftralia ... Thanking the villagers for their kindness., the judge and his wife explained that, now they would be able to repay. But the black men shook their heads. "No, Ave are Christians. We give you, because you have nothing. We no take irom you."