1957-08-31 — Page 6

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 1957.

RIOTS FLARE IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS...A PRISONER IS KILLED

One man

man against the mob.......and the

Vengeance

A

cry is

MONG the duties of the Resident Commissioner in the Gilbert

Islands was the settlement of strikes among the labourers em-. ployed by the British Phosphata Commissioners on Ocean Island. These disputes were frequent, and often arose through the unimosity between the native Gilbertese Islanders and the hundreds of imported Chinese coolies,

Between yellow and brown there was constant friction; and for many years only a small railway line used for the transport of phosphato separated the Chinese compound from the living quarters of the Gilbertese,

That was not nearly enough for peace of mind between two races of men who withdrew from each other every evening, savage from having had to work cheek

by jowl throughout the day,

• The police killed our friend, said the strikers. The police must pay. Strip off their badges. Make them march in shame.

That was the demand put to Sir Arthur Grimble, Colonial Office administrator in the Pacific Islands. In this extract from RETURN TO THE ISLANDS he tells how he settled that ugly situation and impossible request with fireworks.

By Sir Arthur Grimble

For an Oriental, deeply sensitive to loss of physical dignity, the school- boy horseplay of the Islanders--the upsetting of wheelbarrow, 1

the should have been wise to forget life-saving from the Royal spilling of a paint pot, the jogging for tho moment that I was Humane Society. ef an elbow, the uproarious barging acting

working day Bround-made his nightmare.

Strikes against only too late, when Sergeant

the manager that they would rest. They let me through in remain out until repatriated silence, but making only Just unless the Government agreed to room for passageway. their terms.

for

I shall remember unlit I dio The terma were that the

the nerid reek of phosphate dust whole police force, as a gesture and sweat that closed around of contrition

what they me in those moments.

Alt the called Teakal's murder of their crude toll and poverty of their comrade, should follow the dead lives Exemed summed up in It. man's

body

to the gravesido uniforms stripped of with buttons, hadges, stripes, or any kind of distinguishing

Budden,

I was wrong with

ୟନା shamed sense of the

they handleaps

tho suffered, cushioned case of my own

lighten my I did nothing to this tinge of personal guilt towards noto lew

resident commissioner

I felt too small a may myself and give all my time to police and prisons. But I tried to do to declds out of hand that these both jobs and saw any mistake things, together with all his

years of perfect service, ahoukt other Major Taliusi caine to report be passed over as though they mark.

referred The manager the madness of Corporal Teakai, had never been because of that

10 ingle hour's madness that had ultimalum

me. Is arrived just all the strikers them and the dead man as I seized him on the hillside,

to find game streaming up the hillside waited for everyone

office, sents So I gave him his own cholce to surround our fonely between diomissal with three and as our Chinese interpreter. They sold their soy quietly to

nonths' imprisonment on hand and reduction to the third reasonable

ong put it: "Lo plead aloud for begin with; but It was hopeless conterence with from the start; since leaving grade of constable with a log- some honourable representative the manager, their commitice.

had stiffened the terms: in Addon to the humiliation of the

the

the police

Teakal was at that time the THESE incidents would be fullowed sole Gilbertese N.C.O. in

the rest being police force, by unspeakable insults to the Fillans and Ellke Islande, Gilbertese, which called for Instant Through all his cleven years of bloodletting.

service he had had a name for Anxious times came for all of us gentleness. It was because of when the Chinese coolies hit on the is known palience that we put ging from his sergeant-major on of the Government." Idea

of striking work lo securo him and nobody else in charge attention to their grievances against of Chinese prisoners' working the Gilbertese police.

Nos that they ever brought charge against an Innocent man; they

parties.

#

had no need to do that, for although le snatched

our Ellice Islanders and Fijians

could be trained to the patient per-

the other.

orions to send and next Demand could they of Tenint and s

morning. took his punishment with fortitude and dignity from

Toltusl We were able to him iransferred 10 another igland within the next few days. He never returned to

fection of London's own Metropolitan the rope away Ocean Island

force, our Gilbericse-atasi-had not their, marvellous restraint under pro vocation, and too often manhandled abusive coolles,

"As I looked at that yelling mob, it came to me that, whatever else might happen, an arbitrator, or to understand tho

this must be the end of my career

RESERVATIONS

ROUND THE CLOCK

had caught him

they and I might ever approach sund hoisted on his shoulder. one another across the abyess of our mutual ignorance,

arca, wilderness of blazing rocles where never

for

not be met

recall triai for murder,

We argued round that single point quite uselessly for two hours I doing nothing but explain why I couldn't agree, retorting with ever-

SI looked over the versudah

rail at that yelling mob, it they

but for

als

Trapped in the in charge, been 100 per cent on

blazing sun

*hem.

All on their

feet together

WE

E had not even begun on the matter of the funeral when

Three days after he was came to me that, whatever else mounting clemour that nothing Kane we found the escaped night happen, this must be the but a murder trial would satisfy Talfusi Prisoner. He had been hiding end of my official' career. I falled so often to satisfy them as YET Sergeant-Major

logging in the desolation of a dug-out A man was dead who would

coolle mining

have been alive hidden ways of their thought, or to one poor, weedy little

get them within a mile of under before him up the precipitous blade of green could grow

pc from prison-who would standing what I feel to regard bush track that led from the cover from the sun's blistering never have wanted to escape but as the open ways of ming, that beach to the prison yard. His glare.

for the savagery of a policeman I came at last to believe there weapon was a larred rope-end;

--who could not have suffered could be no possible bridge of his victim had a heavy load of

that savagery had 1, the man shared rentiment over which

my job.

a wild fellow whom we called Peter the Painter leaped from Tuitusi sprang forward to

Yet, 10sponsible as the Gov- his rest, yelled at the rest to snatch the rope from Teakal's

eriment had become

through follow him, and started to walk hand. Tenkai resisted. in the I saw my mis- tussle that followed the prisoner Tor nnd fun nevertheless, accepting either their mistaken feet together then, screaming at They were all on their THINGS had gone fairly casily me, there could be no question of off.

with quietly dropped his load to the for he had been able to feed charge of murder or their half- the interpreter take too late ground and slipped away into with his friends at night in the malicious, half-pileous plan to Bets.

"Sir," he said to me, his voice the dense bush. The sun set 20 Chinese location and stay hid humilite the pollec.

den with them until the dark Not even the ghost a com- bland, his manner unperturbed, premice on those two points was "this would seem to be a YET, in the long run, it was minutes later. We searched in before dawn.

vain for the missing nu

possible,

03 surdly us I, serious emergency. The saying of their response to a purely through the whole of the follow morning, scrambling down steep strike would be or, There would

But on the third or fourth ruled them out of court, the of something of a highly con- structive kind at once La AB crags back into his hiding place, probably be riots, too, judging indicated, if it happens to occur Durler thai time Teakal he had a fall which, though it

from the temper of the crowd to Your Honour," "and, without broke no bones, so terribly stood his trial. There could

answer, he pausing for an This strike never would have be no defence for what he had body that

bruised and wrenched his frail already.

raised his voleo to д siron he could no longer happened. I'm sure, if Stuart-

witnesses walk.

vereech,

bidding them b0 son Methven had sull been O/C done, police and prisons there. But proved beyond doubt that it

They obeyed him. he had lately been sent as dis- was his only offence of the kind. trict ofleer to Fanning and Alse, he was the only man in the Washington Islands, 1,000 miles eastward of the Gliberts, and I Colony who held a medal for

The generous

sensitivene99

private gesture of mine that ing week. settled the most serious anti- police strike 1 ever had to face.

but Chinese

was under orders to hold down his job at headquarters ng well as that of my chlet, Reggie McClure, until further notice. • This series is adapted from That was in Rself a dangerous Return to the Islande, to be

With

by all the published arrangement.

John Murray racial tension

thero WDS, I (18.).

MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN

YOU ARE 4.

MANDRAKE AND LOTHAR-ALL OF GAMBITA SEARCHES

FORYOU.

WHY7 WE'VE DONE NOTHING

I DO NOT IMM--WHY DO KNOW, ORDERS), YOU ALL DRESS DIRECT FROM Į LIKE CHESA PIECEST THE KING.

-1प

Ic had lain trapped. an:1

ated

They watched resented.

brandished

I hadn't a word more to starving and flayed raw in the furnace heat of that infer

† was sick to death of the argument, for five days before our search patrols found him. Hin bruises

My mind was already resigned were found to have gone gang- THERE was a boulder-strewn to the strike and is con- renous when he was brought to space overarched by coce- sequences, whatever they might hospital. He died a day or two nut palms on the hillside below be The only thing I did want later.

the ames, While the interpreter to say was something entirely His death was the signal for invited them to meet me there, personal, an instant strikte by the Chinese I walked down to a shîdea Jabourers, A deputation told rock a little highes than the

me in silence say about their terms.

ALSO KING'S ORDERS, LOTSÅ OF US FEEL - SILLY

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