SOLOMONS ISLAND MURDER

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, 17 November 1927, Page 5

SOLOMONS ISLAND MURDER

PARTY SURPRISED.

WHILE ASLEEP ON LAUNCH.

Auckland, Nov. 16. A new version of the murder of District Commissioner Bell is given in a letter received by Mr. J. O’Neill, of Bayswater, from his nephew Mr. Charles A. Cowan, in the Solomon Islands.

It appears that Mr. Bell and his partj’ were not murdered while collecting taxes in a village, as previously stated. The District Commissioner and his boys, he says, were anchored out in the Bay of Malaita in a big launch. The sentry must have been asleep, as the Malaita natives came off in war canoes, surprised the party, and managed to get away without losing a single man. Mr. Bell and his assistant were killed outright. Of the escort of fifteen native police boys, five managed to escape wounded. As the murderers were armed with Sniders and Winchesters, and, in addition, had captured twenty of the latest rifles and two revolvers, it was considered that their capture would be no easy matter. This same crowd caused three previous murders, he writes. They are members of the only tribe on Malaita.which will not give up head-hunting. They had no grudge against Mr. Bell; lie always took the part of the natives against the whites, so they have no sense of gratitude. Several attempts had previously been made, he adds, to take the District Commissioner's life.