The war years:Methodists in Papua 1942–1945∗

Abstract

ON 19 JUNE 1941 THE JUBILEE OF THE METHODIST MISSION IN PAPUA WAS CELEBRATED on the shore of Dobu Island in the D'Entrecasteaux Island group. The Admin istrator, Leonard Murray, and his wife were guests of honour for the occasion. Because of the war in Europe the celebrations were more muted than would otherwise have been expected; nevertheless the Chairman of the District, the Rev. John Rundle, cabled his superiors in Sydney: 'Wonderful day, 3000 present, fervent inspiring worship'.1 Within six months the war entered Milne Bay and the lives of the people of the province. Actual fighting was mostly in the air and at sea, though there were encampments of Japanese soldiers on the ground in the Trobriand Islands and on Goodenough Island. The larger military presence was the Allied troops based throughout the province. The effects of the war have been described as 'both an uprooting and destruc tive force on Papua'.2 For the Methodist Mission's Papua District3 it meant the loss of its European leadership for nearly two years, and most of its plant and equipment ? so vital to its daily routine ? was taken over by the Australian New Guinea Administrative Unit (ANGAU). Consequently almost its entire internal economy ceased and the war brought a whole range of conflicting ideals and outside pressures upon the local people. For their part many service per sonnel saw little joy in this part of the world; as one American soldier declared: 'If we owned Milne Bay and hell, we could live in hell and rent Milne Bay'.4 The aptest description of the effects of the war on the Methodist Mission is 'destabilising'. What was perceived as a necessary action ? the evacuation of the whites ? was to have repercussions on those missionaries, their Pacific Island colleagues and the 50-year-old Papuan church. It raised issues of race relations within the missionary body and of racial attitudes held by government auth orities, and gave valuable insight into the readiness of Papuans to advance the