Port Moresby, 15 December 19691
10139. Secret
Following is assessment for week ending 12th December.
(1) The only day of actual conflict has been Sunday 7th December and events since that date clearly indicate that the situation is extremely critical and could erupt at any moment.
(2) It now appears that the assaults were not planned at the M.A. Executive meeting held on the morning of 6th December but the possibility remains that, after the incident at Malaguna on 7th December involving the Administrator’s party,2 Kereku and Tomot put into action a previously formulated plan which might not have been intended for use until some later date.3
(3) The Administration has taken the initiative by the use of effective police action. Some pro-M.R.C. leaders are believed to be heeding the Administrator’s request to the Gazelle Council to hold their supporters in check but there is some doubt as to their ability, or continued desire, to do so. There are numerous reports that the M.R.C. and its supporters are giving serious consideration to initiating retaliatory action.
(4) At the same time reports are being received of M.A. supporters organising themselves into groups with a view to attacking pro-Council supporters’ action. Although the M.A. with the exception of Kaputin and Tammur have been arrested,4 it has already appointed new and apparently effective leaders to manage the organisation. There is no indication yet that the loss of its leaders has affected the effectiveness of the M.A.
(5) It is considered that the possibility of a clash between the two groups is imminent and very real.
(6) During interviews various M.A. leaders have been emphatic in rejecting suggestions that they have acted on advice from persons other than educated Tolais. Kereku and Rumet’s support of the M.A. has not altered its resolve to destroy the M.R.C. and it may be expected to return to this issue as soon as it is able. The M.A. tax collection and non payment of tax to the M.R.C. by the rank and file M.A. supporters still leaves a situation which must be resolved. The urban local government council issue has yet to receive the attention of the M.A.
(7) The more forceful action being taken by the M.A. may be expected to cause the less extreme elements to withdraw their support. There is little doubt however that the hard core of about 2,000 persons will be strengthened in its resolve and remain loyal to the [M.A.].5
(8) It can be expected that the M.A. will seek to arouse the sympathy of certain sections of the Australian public. The obvious methods open to them are
(a) to conceal or confuse the real causes for the incidents of 7th December and
(b) by publishing their allegations that the Administration did not inform them of the Administrator’s visit to the Gazelle Peninsula and this constituted a deliberate attempt to hide from the M.A. that the Administrator was meeting the M.R.C. for further discussions prior to the Kavieng meeting.
(9) The situation in the Gazelle may be expected to remain tense for at least some months to come.
[NAA: A452, 1969/4001]
1 The telex was dated 17 December in the text, but stamped as received in Territories on the 15th.
2 See Document 340.
3 Conroy—viewed by Hay as an outstanding judge of indigenous affairs—later gave his opinion that ‘there had been preparations going on for a long time for the type of violent incidents which occurred … on 7th December … this included the actual allocation of parties to trucks and the areas where they were to operate and the persons they were to do violence to … This was a long practised deliberate attempt to terrify their opponents and to defy the Administration. Why it happened on the 7th December was no doubt due to (the Administrator’s] visit’ (Hay interview 1973–4, NLA: TRC 121/65, 7:2/12).
4 Among the Mataungan leadership, Tomot, Rumet and Kereku were arrested after 7 December. Tomot was sentenced to six months’ jail with hard labour for assaulting Fenton (telex 10132, Hay to DOET, 12 December 1969, NAA: A452, 1969/4001), while Kereku was given the same sentence for involvement in the assault of Yin Tobaining (telex 10213, Hay to DOET, 23 December 1969, ibid.). Rumet received 6 months for attacking Council supporter Hennan Taman (see Gazelle situation report, 18 December 1969, NAA: A452, 1969/5256, and Downs, The Australian Trusteeship , p. 435). A total of 24 Mataungans were arrested in the period 8–19 December (record of special TIC meeting, 19 December 1969, NAA: A1838, 936/3/15 part 6). The controversy over Quinlivan’s position (see editorial note ‘Gazelle Peninsula: Government responses to the Connolly Commission, the Mataungan court case and the land issue’) arose again in the context of the December prosecutions. On 10 December, DOET wrote to the Administration: ‘Here we have a magistrate who has already committed himself to the cause of the Mataungan Association and should not therefore take any of the prosecutions against Mataungan members. We feel that Quinlivan should be transferred to other duties—preferably out of Rabaul—so that there may be reasonable assurance that the law can be enforced through the courts’ (telex 11606, NAA: A452, 1969/5256).
5 Text in original corrupted; text in parenthesis represents an editorial interpretation.