Royal Papua and New Guinea Constabulary

https://sites.google.com/site/rpngchome/australian-military-control-1914-1921_1

1914 - 1921, Previous German New Guinea. AN&MEF

(The Australian Naval & Military Expeditionary Force

1921 - 1942, New Guinea Police Force,

The German Polizeitruppe was taken over by The Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) from the German Administration in 1914 with the defeat on the Germans at the Battle of Bita Paka on New Britain known in the German as Neu-Pommern as part Kaiser-Wilhelm land

The first known Military Police officer in WW1, was a CAPT Ravenscroft, who sailed with the ANMEF as the force APM. Upon successful completion of the operation and capture of German New Guinea, Colonel Holmes, the force commander, selected from amongst the ranks of his contingent, a military police body to replace the local constabulary in Rabaul, New Guinea. CAPT Ravenscroft was in charge of the military police chosen to perform the duties of MP as required by Colonel Holmes.

Members of the Native Police with 1319 Acting CSM Warrant Officer 2 Sergeant Louis Georges Gouday, of Bordeaux, France, in charge and 1326 Private Charles Byers Coates, of Ennis England,

military police of the soldiers of the Australian Naval and of the Australian Navy and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF), and two local natives.

The Great War, 1914 - 1918 the War to end all Wars was over. In a small part of the world the Australian Navy and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) did battle on the Island, of Neu Pommern (now called New Britain) the battle at Bita Paka was at Herbertshöhe (now called Kokopo). At the time of the German surrender, the government has a well-organised police force, Up till September 1914 all the police were known as Native Constabulary .The Natives in strength of about1000 men and was spread over Rabaul and Districts area. The Police Native Constabulary came under the Command of Australian Military administration.

A detachment of 3rd Battalion Naval and Military Forces, Rabaul 1915

Roll call of local constabulary, once under German command now under Australian command 1915

The Germans had been defeated at Bita Paka on the Island of New Britain, the German Polizeitruppe were inducted into the ranks of the New Guinea native Constabulary

Australian military ruled New Guinea ruled from 1914 to 1921. (Historian Derick Sca) says they “were able to flog freely” and did not hesitate to “shoot pretty much at random when whites were killed by New Guineans”. After 1921, the Mandated Territory Administration took a liberal view of hangings. Some 61 executions had taken place by the time Japanese troops arrived in 1942

Johnston introduced the pillory as the favored replacement for flogging. He had two models to choose from. In one, the offender with legs stretched apart was strapped onto a seat; in the other, he had to stand on a public platform where his hands and head were tied. The Administrator decided in favour of the public platform. This type of punishment seems to have been used from as early as mid-March 1919, but did not become legal until the issuing of Administration Order No. 636 on 3 December 1919.161 It became known as Field Punishment No. 1 for Natives. In New Guinea, however, this punishment, as it was applied in practice, did not comply, in one detail, with the British military penal code on which it was based. The Melanesian fastened to an iron bar with outstretched arms did not have full foot contact with the ground. In a complete perversion of an already perverted punishment, offenders were attached to the bar in such a way that their full body weight was taken by the wrists. A special procedure was used to ensure that only the tips of their toes could touch the ground. In this way, unfortunate Melanesians were exposed to the tropical heat for up to three days at a time. Because of their loud cries, the victims were called “birds” by their tormentors

Hermann Joseph Hiery The Neglected War Chapter 2 page 83/84

able 8.

The Death Sentence in the Criminal Justice Administered to the Indigenous Population of New Guinea by the Australian Military Government (September 1914–8 May 1921)

Year

Number of Death Sentences Imposed Number Pardoned

1914 ?

1915 51916 1 1

1917 ?

1918 9 (?) 9(?)

1919 13 8

1920 28 16

1921 (to 8 May) 5

Totals 61 (?) 34(?)

Plus a Chinese; Namanula Times, no. 2, 1 January 1916,

Hermann Joseph Hiery The Neglected War Chapter 2 page 94

Public hanging of a Chinese by the Australian Military Administration in Rabaul. 1 January 1916

Thomas J. Denham, New Guinea Notebook)

The German administration surrendered German New Guinea on 17 September.

Australian troops and vessels were subsequently dispatched to occupy

Germany's other territories including the New Guinea mainland,

New Ireland, the Admiralty Islands, the Western Islands, Bougainville,

and the German Solomons. The colony remained under Australian military control until 1921

In 1921 the New Guinea Act came into force and an Australian civil administration took control of the Territory. The new administration had to conform with the conditions of a C Class Mandate granted by the League of Nations but otherwise it could govern New Guinea as an ‘integral part of the Commonwealth of Australia

The German administration surrendered German New Guinea on 17 September. Australian troops and vessels were subsequently dispatched to occupy Germany's other territories including the New Guinea mainland, New Ireland, the Admiralty Islands, the Western Islands, Bougainville, and the German Solomons. The colony remained under Australian military control until 1921.

In 1921 Australia secured New Guinea as a Class 'C' mandate from the League of Nations which gave Australia wide powers. A Royal Commission in 1919 had recommended taking all German property and deporting all German missionaries. This was largely done but the recommendation by the Chairman, Hubert Murray, that the administration be combined with that of Papua was rejected. The administration tended to become, in reality, very similar to Papua with the exception that the German policy of training officers to work in the Territory was continued. This meant a training course at the University of Sydney was established which covered such things as anthropology and law as well as more practical subjects such as hygiene.

(NAA 4 Mandated Territory of New Guinea Records, 1921–42)

Wish to know more the book

Kabakaul

The Battle for Kaiser-Wilhelmsland (Deutsch-Neuguinea

is available on the link below

KabakaulThe Battle for Kaiser-Wilhelmsland (Deutsch-Neuguinea), | eBayAt Britain’s request a small volunteer force, the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force, was assembled in August 1914 to invade German New Guinea and destroy German wireless stations, while New Zealand occupied the Pacific colony of German Samoa and Japan declared war on Germany. By October the Japanese naval forces had seized the German territories of Marianas, the Carolines, Marshall Islands and Palau in Micronesia. Removing a threat on Australia’s doorstep and the acquisition of German New Guinea | eBay!