Canberra, 7 December 1969
Disturbances Gazelle Peninsula
On Sunday 7th December two groups of about 100 each of young Tolais associated with the Mataungan Association were going around the Gazelle Peninsula in truck loads attacking members of the Gazelle Council and elderly respected Tolai leaders, four Councillors and one European were admitted to hospital and eight others were treated for minor injuries.1 The pattern of the attacks demonstrated that there was a premeditated plan for the whereabouts of the various Councillors seemed to be known. Two were dragged from Branch meetings and a road block intersected another Councillor. A punch [was] swung at the Administrator but missed, Mr Fenton2 who was with the Administrator’s party was hit on the back of the head and punched, on this the Administrator’s party escaped in the car.3
2. Pearsall at the direction of the Administrator phoned Canberra requesting:—
• that two navy patrol boats at present at Rabaul be directed to remain there indefinitely
• that a Hercules aircraft at present at Port Moresby be made available to ferry 90 additional riot police from Moresby to Rabaul
• that an Army Signal Unit be sent to Rabaul to provide better communications
3. Evatt phoned Clugston4 (Assistant Secretary Defence) and navy operations ANQ5 Duty Officer and R.A.A.F. were alerted.
4. Subsequently the Hercules aircraft was made available to fly from Port Moresby at 3.30 a.m. taking two police riot squads and one Intelligence Officer and three radio operators together with two radio sets to provide continuous secure communications between Rabaul and Port Moresby. The navy operations reported that the naval vessels Lae and Samarai will remain in Rabaul indefinitely but would take no action unless it is in their own defence6 unless directed to do so by the Naval Board. The summary7 had been instructed to provide secret communications if required.
5. The Secretary spoke by phone direct with the Administrator at Rabaul at about 10.00 p.m. and informed him of all arrangements made.
6. Air … signals Difficulty was experienced in obtaining permission to send the air signal group[.] Deputy Secretary, Defence,8 had spoken with the Minister for Defence9 who was int10 to give approval for the sending of Army personnel because of the incurred procedure that was being followed (notwithstanding this a signal group did go on the Hercules flight to Port Moresby). Fenton then called Pearsall at 10.30 and informed him of all arrangements that had been made.11
[NAA: A452, 1969/5256]
1 Among those hospitalised were prominent Tolai leaders Yin Tobaining and Napitalai Tolirom (telex 10078, Hay to Warwick Smith, 8 December 1969, NAA: A452, 1969/4001).
2 P.J. Fenton, District Officer, Rabaul.
3 Hay was in Rabaul en-route to Bougainville. He was touring villages of the peninsula, having been impressed by earlier advice from Hopper that ‘People weren’t against the Administration but what was needed was more people moving around in the area … The Administrator, himself, ought to move around more and be physically seen as an Administrator’. The visit was not formal, though West had made known where Hay would be stopping. At Malaguna, as he left a trade store, he was met by Tomot: ‘He was in his traditional dress. His face was painted white and he was obviously in a great state … I went to shake hands with him and then he started to abuse me in a very emotional voice. Mostly it had something to do with betraying the trust of the United Nations … Then there were others who started to move into the scene who were similarly dressed and it was quite obvious there was no future in this for us staying around because it was developing into an ugly scene. So West and I called it a day. I went around the car to get in it and as I did so Melchior Tomot made as to strike me. Now young Fenton, doing his duty as a field officer, stepped in between so he collected a blow on the jaw, I think it was’ (Hay interview, 1973–4, NLA: TRC 121/65, 5:2/10–14).
4 C. W. Clugston, Assistant Secretary, Defence Planning Branch, Defence.
5 Area North Queensland.
6 Presumably, the word ‘and’ or ‘or’ should have been inserted here.
7 This should probably read ‘Samarai’.
8 Defence had two Deputy Secretaries: G.E. Blakers and W.H. Leng.
9 Malcolm Fraser.
10 Meaning unclear—possibly the word ‘reluctant’ or similar was in mind here.
11 In a press statement of 8 December, Barnes condemned the assaults by ‘young extremists’ as an ‘apparently organised attempt to prevail in a local political conflict by means of open intimidation and brutality where they had not achieved success by democratic means’. Such incidents, he said, were ‘examples of the problems which lie in the path of progress of the people of Papua New Guinea towards full control of their affairs … such tensions inevitably are engendered when people are brought from a simple subsistence existence into a modern complex economy … Added to these problems are inherent divisions among the people … Nevertheless … the majority of the people have expressed their will through their Elected Members in the House of Assembly that unity must be a national purpose. The House of Assembly had unanimously asserted the need to maintain law and order and, in harmony with the resolve of the House … the Administration will be backed by the Government in taking whatever action is necessary to prevent further lawlessness’ (NAA: A452, 1969/5256). During discussions on the formulation of the statement, Barnes said he wanted to make a ‘broad statement and let the Administration give the details of what happened’. Warwick Smith agreed, but was keen to emphasise that the matter was a ‘local political conflict’ and not a racial one. Barnes replied that ‘we should keep out of it’, because he wanted to ‘get away’ from the idea that ‘our actions are generating lawlessness’ and that the ‘Administration is … the arm of the Department’. Nonetheless, he agreed to a compromise incorporating Warwick Smith’s view that ‘the Government’s got to say to the people in the Gazelle that it is backing the Administration’ (record of conversation, 8 December 1969, NAA: NA1983/239, 19/7).