BLOODY MASSACRE

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 245, 17 October 1942, Page 5

BLOODY MASSACRE

DUTCH BISHOP AND MISSIONARIES.

P.A. Special.

SYDNEY, Oct. 16.

The murder by the Japanese of the Dixtch Roman Catholic Bishop of the Kei Islands and seven priests is reported by the Netherlands Indies Government information service. The murders, eommitted at Langgoer on July 13, have been reported by eye-witnesses. A statement says that Bishop Aerts and seven members of his imissionary staff were herded together on a jetty at Langgoer and massacred. Other missionaries and sisters were taken away by soldiers, and their fate is unknown. "Bishop Aerts, who was about 70, had spent most of his life on these and in the surrounding islands," says the statement. "His medical and educationary assistance, besides his activities as a missionary, made him one of the most beloved figures of the whole area, and the entire population, Protestant, Catholic and Mahommedan alike, revered him. "It is not certain what caused this bestial behaviour by the Japanese, but eye-witnesses indicate that possibly it was caused by the fact that the Bishop had issued orders to burn the mission launch before the Japanese could take it. The entire population of the Kei, Aru and Tenimber Islands has been enraged by this bloody massacre."