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IN NEW GUINEA the Anglican Diocese of New Guinea between the Years 1939 and 1943 OF THE GOSPEL 1944 |
Foreword by the Bishop of New Guinea
Chapter I. Synopsis
Chapter II. Two Celebrations
Chapter III. War in the Pacific
Chapter IV. The Bishop's Broadcast
Chapter V. The Church Carries On
Chapter VI. White Troops in Papua
Chapter VII. Papua Invaded
Chapter VIII. Missionaries Killed
Chapter IX. The Work Goes On
Chapter X. After the Fighting
Chapter XI. Looking Forward
In the following pages we print a small collection of first-hand "documents" relating to events in the Anglican Diocese of New Guinea between the years 1939 and 1943, believing that they present an historic chapter in the story of the Oversea Church.
The "documents" consist of letters, reports, and articles appearing in Australian mission papers and other sections of the Press. They are left to tell their own story, with only the addition of brief notes here and there to make them intelligible, and a short synopsis and chronological table to enable the reader to place the story in its wider setting. The excerpts are arranged so as to present the narrative in chronological order, though this has sometimes meant grouping together reports which were written and printed several months apart.
As far as possible the source of each extract is given; and where the same, or similar, articles appeared in the A.B.M. Review and other papers the reference is given to the former for the sake of simplification. For permission to reproduce private letters I am indebted to the great kindness of Canon Basil Redlich, Evan Gill, Esq., and Mr. and Mrs. Hardy Jenkinson; they have also read the entire MS. and have given valuable help in securing accuracy of detail, and Mr. Gill has drawn up the Chronological Table on page 90. Several extracts from the Bishop's printed reports and letters are included, and Miss Stocqueler, of the New Guinea Mission Association, has provided a number of useful papers and has seen the book in MS. Bishop Mounsey, C.R., has helped with material and suggestions. I have used extracts from the following papers, each of which is acknowledged in the text: The Australian Board of Missions Review, Bendigo Church News, The Northern Churchman, Forth (U.S.A.), The Pacific Islands Monthly, The Times (London), Australian Women's Weekly, Church of England Messenger, New Guinea Occasional Paper. If I have omitted to acknowledge any help received or any extract used, I hope it will be put down to inadvertence and not to ingratitude. Without the skill and patience of Miss Bell at S.P.G. House, who turned a complicated mass of numbered letters and papers into a connected typescript, this book would never have seen the light.
It only remains to add that the book has been compiled with the full approval of the New Guinea Mission Association, which is now responsible for all the support sent from this country to the diocese. S.P.G. helped the mission in its early days, and it now derives its main support from the Church in Australia and New Zealand, thus remaining a "grandchild" of the Society. The delays in printing have made it possible for the Bishop to see the MS. after his arrival in this country, and also enabled us to ask him to write the foreword. He and the Rev. J. D. Bodger very kindly went over the proofs.
We look to the future to complete the story of which this is but a topical and incomplete record. It is offered to the Church in New Guinea and the Church in Britain as a humble link in the chain of knowledge and affection which we hope will one day bind together the scattered dioceses of the world-wide Anglican Communion.
R. H.