ESCAPE FROM SOLOMONS

Evening Star, Issue 24333, 23 October 1942, Page 2

ESCAPE FROM SOLOMONS

,PARTY OF CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES (N.Z.P.A. Special Anst. Correspondent) SYDNEY. October ‘22. After being bunted by the Japanese for eight weeks in the Guadalcanal jungle, 14 Homan Catholic missionaries —seven priests and seven nuns—have been rescued' and evacuated from the Solomons. They include two Australians and a New Zealander. Father 1). Scanlon, of Miramar. Wellington. The missionaries are all members of the Marist Order, the leader being the Bishop of the South Solomons, the Rev. J. M. Aubin. The spokesman fur the party told the war eorresmmdent of the ‘ Sydney Morning Herald ’ that until the United States occupation of the islands the Japanese treated the missionaries ina friendly way. But. fearing atrocities, the navtv took to the jungle on the eighth day of the American attack. Christian natives gave the nrssionaries every assistance anil rclnsed to lead the Jain’nese to them. One native who i" : sdireetcd enemy soldiers was shot. Two of the sisters gave first aid to a Jananese airman who had crashed, and the da- after the a : nnan’= departure .1 :v-a• troops c-amo to find them, but failed.