ISLAND MASSACRE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 169, 7 October 1927, Page 1

ISLAND MASSACRE

Grim Story From Solomons

British Officials and Sailors Murdered

GRIM tidings of a dreadful massacre of British officials and the crew of a Government steamer, together with fifteen native police, have come from the Solomon Islands to the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific. The murderers were bush natives on the island of Malaita.

By Cable. —Press As; Reed. 9.43 am. SUVA, To-day. iJiHE murder by bush natives on Malaita Island, in the Solomon group, of District Commissioner Bell, Cadet Lillies, 15 native police and the crew of the Government steamer Auki has been reported to the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, Sir Eyre Hutson. A trader who had arrived in the Auki at Tulagi, in the Solomons, made the report, which was communicated last evening by wireless to the Administrator. The message stated that the murder took place at Sinagoro, on the north-east coast of Malaita Island. The date is not mentioned. The boatswain of the Auki and four wounded police were the sole survivors. Commissioner Bell and Cadet Lillies ' were burled at Kwai. The only Europeans in the neighbourhood are Mr. and Mrs. .Andrew, : of the Seventh Day Adventist Mission. They have a vessel and can easily proceed to Kwai, where there is the South Sea Evangelical Mission ■

isociation.—Copyrigh t. station. No anxiety is felt for their safety. It is the worst outrage reported from the Solomons, and the first time that Government officials have been killed.—A. and N.Z. Malaita is one of the biggest of the British Solomon Islands, which have an area of 11,000 square miles. In 1922 the European population of the islands was 493 and the native population about 150,000. There is a resident commissioner, whose headquarters are at Tulagi, a small island off the south coast of Florida. A nominated Advisory Council assists in the administration. The islands are under British protection. Among the residents of the Solomon Group, Malaita has long held one of the worst reputations; for savagery in the "Western Pacific. The natives of the coast are as a rule friendly, but it is not an infrequent occurrence for “recruiters” of native labour to have to land under cover of an armed guard. No white man, it is said, in the Solomons, has ever crossed Malaita from coast to coast. The remoteness of the island from the influences of civilisation may be judged from the fact that in Tulagi, the centre of government, there are only 30 white people.