Errol John (Jack) Emanuel

The first Australian Political assassination

Royal Papua and New Guinea Constabulary

The Assassination of Errol John (Jack) Emanuel,

GC: Derek Bell

Jack Emanuel was awarded the George Cross posthumously for gallantry in the service of the Australian Administration of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea between July 1969 and his death on 19 August 1971. His award was noted in the London Gazette of 1 February 1972.

The author of this article, Derek Bell, is now retired and living in Brisbane. He acknowledges input by Harry West, Harry Bryant, Mike Baker and Grev Feeney. Publishers Harper Collins, Pymble, NSW, gave permission to use material from Trevor Shearston’s book A Straight Young Back.

Introduction

At 9.30 am on Thursday 19 August 1971, the District Commissioner of the East New Britain District, Territory of Papua and New Guinea, Jack Emanuel, was stabbed to death at Kabaira Plantation on the Gazelle Peninsula. This article describes the background to the murder, the police investigation and the subsequent trial in the Supreme Court in Rabaul.

Background

As the Emanuel murder was believed by many to have political undertones it is necessary to look at the background. In May 1969 the Mataungan Association (MA) was formed on the Gazelle Peninsula. As the self-appointed voice of the Tolai people, one of the most politically sophisticated groups in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, it sought the abolition of the recently created Multi Racial Local Government Council, and early independence for both Territories. During 1969 to 1971, there was friction between supporters and opponents of the MA. Buildings were destroyed and villagers assaulted. The Administration maintained a strong police presence and intelligence collection capability throughout the Peninsula. The latter activity had two forms; the official network which reported through a District Intelligence Committee headed by District Commissioner Harry West to the Territory equivalent in Port Moresby; and from July 1969 a second source, Jack Emanuel who was detached and appointed District Commissioner (Special Duties). These duties included one-on-one meetings with influential Tolais in both factions, in villages usually after dark. Emanuel reported privately to the head of the Department of District Administration in Port Moresby, Tom Ellis.

To paraphrase the comments on sentencing by the Emanuel trial judge, land to the Tolai is the centre of their existence as a people. From the late nineteenth century there had been gradual encroachment on traditional Tolai lands by German and Australian interests. A recommendation by District Commissioner Bates at Rabaul just after World War Two, that the Administration buy up all run-down plantation land and hand it back to dispossessed Tolais, was vetoed by Canberra. From 1946 onwards the people of the Kabaira area occupied about 120 acres of unused plantation land owned by expatriate interests under a Torrens title. From 1967 there were intermittent attempts to evict the villagers from Kabaira Plantation. The Kabaira villagers continued for six years to seek a solution in their favour from the Land Titles Commission. A 1971 court decision on land at Vunapaladig nearby, made it clear to the Kabaira groups (Rasimen, Volavolo and Melivuan villages, not surprisingly all pro Mataungan) that the courts would not support their claim and their sense of frustration and anger increased. They felt that the courts were denying them protection and that they might lose all their land to a titles system which they did not understand. The leading villagers in the Kabaira area decided to bring their grievances to the notice of the new District Commissioner, Jack Emanuel, who had taken over from Harry West in April. They met with him both in Rabaul and at Kabaira.

The Assassination

At 8.20am on Thursday 19 August 1971, about 30 villagers from the Kabaira area moved on to Kabaira Plantation, chased the plantation labourers away and started cutting grass. The plantation manager was alerted and the small police presence which had been left on the plantation after a previous trespass on 11 August radioed the authorities in Rabaul. The District Commissioner Jack Emanuel and two squads of police totalling 60 men under the District Police Senior Superintendent Greville Feeney arrived from Rabaul about 9.20 am. They were confronted by the grass cutters, and a large number of villagers on a hill nearby. A group of ten village leaders wearing face and hair decoration confronted Emanuel and Feeney. One of them, William Taupa, appeared angry and excitable and was shouting “the title to the land is not right”. He approached Emanuel and they spoke briefly before Emanuel took Tapua by the arm and they moved away from the main police party. Taupa then guided Emanuel towards a path into the bush and they both walked off out of sight. Feeney remained with the main party at Emanuel’s request.Twenty minutes later when Emanuel had not returned, Feeney with two police constables set off down the bush path looking for him. About 120 metres down the track he found the body of Emanuel. He had apparently been stabbed to death. There was no sign of Taupa. The area was deserted. Feeney returned to the main group which was being subjected to stone-throwing by villagers in the bush and on nearby ridges. Police attempted to disperse the villagers using tear smoke. No arrests were made. Reinforcements were called. A police investigation team arrived from Rabaul and examined the scene for evidence.Emanuel’s body was found on the track, lying face up with blood on his clothes and the undergrowth. His glasses were located nearby. Two pieces of a broken rusty Japanese wartime bayonet were found about 30 metres from the body. Emanuel had apparently been stabbed and had walked several paces back down the track before collapsing to the ground.Police mobile squads moving through the area later that day searching for villagers found the Kabaira area almost deserted, with only a few women and children present.

Police investigation

An emergency meeting was held at 5.00 pm in Rabaul attended by senior police and District Administration officers, chaired by the newly arrived acting District Commissioner, Arthur Carey from Kimbe. The police investigation team was led by Inspector Derek Bell, who had flown in from Port Moresby at 4.00 pm that same day with Sub Inspector Peter Hilder, a fingerprint expert. The investigation team at his disposal included Sub Inspectors Horrie Kneebone, Harry Bryant, Michael Baker, Peter Walker and Graham Watkins, and eight other ranks: Constables Tobutinga, Kompaun, Senat, Togarana, Godana, Takwa, Wagi, and Paris. He could also call on 120 police mobile squad personnel based at Tomaringa, for large scale search and arrest operations. As the trial judge wrote in his Reasons for Judgment: “The problem facing police was of immense magnitude [and there were] pressures on them to obtain quick results.”Road blocks were set up. Taupa’s wife and a road block detainee were questioned and the latter provided useful information which enabled a suspect list to be commenced. Next day at 4.00 am large scale raids were carried out on three Kabaira villages. Taupa was arrested at 7.30 am walking to the airport to catch a flight to Port Moresby. Five witnesses from Kabaira were interviewed. The suspect list grew to 41. Taupa named a young man Anton Tovaliria as the killer of Emanuel. Early next morning a wider search of the area netted 26 witnesses and suspects, including Tovaliria. The suspect list was now 120. It was apparent that the murder was part of an orchestrated plan. The small police investigation team was in danger of being swamped by the numbers involved. Taupa and Tovaliria were interviewed by the team of Baker and Bryant, and charged with murder. Seventeen men were charged with riotous behaviour. An investigation master plan was used to keep track of witnesses, suspects and arrested men. It held details of suspects’ whereabouts on the day and their knowledge of planned events. As witnesses and suspects were interviewed the plan was enlarged and became the basis for further investigations, arrests, interviews and charges. On succeeding days over the next six weeks arrests were made, interviews conducted, charges laid, and appearances made in court. Search warrants were taken out and executed on the offices of the MA and the home of the Kabaira MA Councillor Joseph Togigie. Early interviews were held at Livuan Police Station, a temporary operations post halfway between Rabaul and Kabaira. After a week the centre of operations moved to Rabaul.The interviews revealed that a plan to kill Emanuel was discussed at late night meetings of Kabaira area leaders in the two weeks leading up to 19 August. Taupa was the driving force behind the plan. He argued that the government was ignoring their land grievances and it was necessary to highlight them by killing a “big man”. Taupa chose Emanuel as the victim and Tovaliria as the assassin. The plan, known only to a group of village elders, called for a trespass by large numbers of villagers on to Kabaira Plantation land to induce intervention by the District Commissioner. (This action earlier, on 11 August, had resulted in Emanuel attending the scene with a large contingent of police, and the eviction of the villagers). Taupa was confident that he could separate Emanuel from the main police party and persuade him to accompany him alone down a bush track to a spot where Tovaliria, hidden behind a tree, could stab him to death. And so it unfolded, exactly as planned.By the end of the investigation 150 men had been interviewed, 45 records of interview had been obtained, 21 men were charged with murder and 45 charged with riotous behaviour. The records of interview were conducted by officers in Kuanua, Pidgin and English, using police constables as Kuanua interpreters where possible. The records were typed in Pidgin by the officers conducting the interview. The Deputy Crown Solicitor’s office was consulted on the evidence and the charges early in the investigation. It sought additional information from time to time and gave advice to the team in the lead up to the committal proceedings in the Magistrates Court. Thirteen of the men charged with murder, including Taupa and Tovaliria, were committed for trial in the Supreme Court. It was proposed that the remaining eight would be tried after the completion of the main trial.

Horrie Kneebone & troops - Emanuel Investigation.

Horrie Kneebone Sgt Wagi & Mick Baker - Emanuel Investigation.

Dereck Bell, Sgt. Wagi with suspects - Emanuel Investigation.

The trial

The trial was held at the newly constructed Rabaul courthouse before the Chief Justice, (Sir) John Minogue, and was expected to last three weeks. It opened on 3 February 1972 and ended on 20 June 1972. The Crown was represented by (Sir) Gerard Brennan QC, who later became Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia. He was assisted by Norris Pratt, Deputy Crown Solicitor, and Clive Wall, QC, currently District Court Judge in Southport. Taupa’s counsel for the first three weeks was John Galbally, QC, leader of the Labor Party in the Victorian Legislative Council. Latterly it was David Martin, QC, of Sydney. Tovaliria’s counsel was Ted Lusher, QC, of Sydney. Each QC had a junior counsel assisting. The remaining eleven accused were each represented by criminal law barristers from Australia and TPNG (including Eric Pratt and Brian Hoath, later District Court Judges in Brisbane). It was a battery of legal talent never seen before in a Territory court. The small and relatively untried police team thought wistfully of David and Goliath. The media were represented by local and international journalists.

14 Tolais for trial

The Canberra Times Tuesday 26 October 1871

RABAUL, Monday (AAP). - Fourteen Tolais were committed in Rabaul District Court today for trial for the wilful murder of the for mer East New Britain district commissioner, Mr Jack Emanuel.Seven other Tolais were discharged - one of them last Friday - when Mr R. W. Cruickshank, SM, ruled there was insufficient evidence against them.Mr Emanuel, 52, was stabbed to death with a Japanese bayonet at Kabaira plantation, 22 miles from Rabaul, on August19.The committal proceed ings, in which 21 Tolai's had been charged with the wilful murder of Mr Emanuel, lasted 10 days.Those committed for trial are:

Five men found guilty of murder

The Canberra Times Saturday 17 June 1972

RABAUL, Friday (AAP). — Five natives were found guilty in Supreme Court of New Guinea in Rabaul to day of the wilful mu der of a District Commissioners, Mr Jack Emanuel.

The Territory's Chief Justice, Mr Justice Minogue, acquitted four others, accused of the same crime.

The nine men, all Tolais from the Gazelle Peninsula had pleaded not guilty tothe wilful murder of Mr Emanuel on August 19 last year.

Mr Emanuel, the District Commissioner for East New Britain, was stabbed to death at Kabaira plantation, 22 miles from Rabaul.

Mr Justice Minogue convicted the man alleged to have stabbed Mr Emanuel with a bayonet, Mr Anton Towaliria, 20, and the man who allegedly planned the operation, Mr William Taupa, 4S, as well as three others who he said had aided and abetted: Mr Joseph Tomarum, 25; Mr Lekius Topait. 34; and Mr Otto Kaliop, .Mr Justice Minogue is expected to pronounce sentence early next week.

Trial translation service criticised

The Canberra Times Saturday 29 February 1972

RABAUL, Tuesday (AAP). - The Papua New Guinea Adminis tration was not provid ing an adequate trans lation service for the Jack Emanuel murder trial, the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Minogue, said today."I can't see a solution unless the powers that be in the Administration realise the importance of the proper servicing of the law", he said in the Supreme Court.He was speaking after ruling that statements made by the 13 Tolais who have pleaded not guilty to murdering the East New Britain district commissioner should be tendered in Pidgin.An interpreter would then take them from the court and translate them into English.

One of the defence counsel, Mr E. A. Lusher, QC, asked whether the one interpreter would translate all the statements.Mr Justice Minogue said he could not guarantee it.

"The Crown has been aware of the trial for some months", Mr Lusher said. 'The need for interpreters should have been obvious".Mr Justice Minogue said he had found this is one of the greatest difficulties in the Territory. The situation had almost reached breaking point in Port Moresby.

The murder of Jack Emanuel, district commissioner

BY ANDREW LESLIE PHILLIPS

Memoirs – Part 6

EAST NEW BRITAIN District Commissioner Jack Emanuel’s murder was political.

In May 1969, a year before I arrived on Rabaul’s Gazelle Peninsula, the Mataungan Association was formed. As the self-appointed voice of the Tolai people, one of the most politically sophisticated groups in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea, it sought the abolition of the recently created Multi Racial Local Government Council.No doubt they were influenced by the spate of African liberation movements. Like the Bougainvillians the Tolais wanted independence. During this period there was friction between supporters and opponents in the Tolai community and property was destroyed. A whiff of revolution was in the air.Jack Emanuel had been detached and appointed District Commissioner on special duties, to convene one-on-one meetings with influential Tolais from both factions. Emanuel reported privately to the head of the Department of District Administration in Port Moresby, the legendary chief kiap Tom Ellis.From the late nineteenth century there had been gradual encroachments on traditional Tolai lands by German and Australian interests. A recommendation by a District Commissioner at Rabaul just after World War II, that the Administration buy up all run-down plantation land and hand it back to dispossessed Tolais, was vetoed by the Australian colonial government. From 1946 onwards the people of the Kabaira area occupied about 120 acres of unused plantation land owned by expatriate interests. From 1967 there were intermittent attempts to evict the villagers. For six years, the Kabaira villagers continued to seek a solution from the Land Titles Commission. They felt the courts were denying them protection and that they might lose all their land. The leading villagers in the Kabaira area decided to bring their grievances to the notice of Jack Emanuel. On the morning of Jack Emanuel’s death, about 30 villagers from the Kabaira area moved on to Kabaira Plantation, chased the plantation laborers off the land and started cutting grass. The plantation manager was alerted and a small police presence, which had been left on the plantation after a previous trespass, radioed the authorities in Rabaul. Jack Emanuel and two squads of police totaling 60 men, were sent to investigate. They were confronted by the grass cutters and a large number of villagers. A group of ten village leaders wearing traditional face and hair decoration confronted Emanuel and the police. One of them, appeared angry and excitable and approached Emanuel and they spoke briefly. Emanuel took the man by the arm and they moved away from the main police party. Emanuel was taken into the bush and out of sight. The police waited. Twenty minutes later, Emanuel had not returned. A small party of police constables set off down the bush path to look for him. They found his body lying on the ground. He had apparently been stabbed to death. The stone-throwing started. Police attempted to disperse the villagers using tear gas. This was when journalist Dick Pearson and I arrived at the scene. Emanuel’s body was found on the track, lying face up with blood on his clothes and the undergrowth. His glasses were located nearby. Two pieces of a broken rusty Japanese wartime bayonet were found close to his body. Emanuel had apparently been stabbed and had walked several paces back down the track before collapsing to the ground. Interviews revealed that a plan to kill Emanuel was discussed at late night meetings of Kabaira area leaders in the two weeks leading to his murder. They argued that the government was ignoring their land grievances and it was necessary to highlight them by killing a “big man” and they chose Emanuel as the victim. The plan, known only to a group of village elders, called for a trespass by large numbers of villagers on to Kabaira Plantation land to induce intervention. They were confident that Emanuel could be separated from the main police party and persuaded to venture to a spot where the killer hid behind a tree. He would be invited to sit to talk through the grievances. The killer would come from behind and stab Emanuel. And so it unfolded, exactly as planned. To its credit, Australia threw some its best legal minds onto the case. Jack Emanuel’s murder caused fear and alarm throughout the region. There was pressure on the police to arrest those responsible promptly. The arrest and conviction of the accused had a settling effect on the local population, Tolai and expatriate. My actions in immediately reporting the death that day earned me points with the head of radio, Jim Leigh. Soon afterwards I was promoted and sent to one of the best postings in Papua New Guinea, Goroka, in central New Guinea, where I became radio station manager.

Chief Justice Minogue in his Reasons for Judgment said: “It can safely be said that in the administration of criminal justice in this country never has a criminal charge been the subject of such thorough and exhaustive investigation as the charge against 13 men who were arraigned before the Court on 3 February last.”As the Crown cases had little forensic evidence, they rested heavily on the confessions of the accused, as recorded in their interviews by police. Each of these was challenged by their counsel and was the subject of a voir dire, or “search for the truth”, to determine if that evidence should be admitted. This sometimes required the police witnesses to be examined in the witness box over several days. Officers particularly targeted were Sub-Inspectors Baker and Bryant, who had interviewed Taupa and Tovaliria, the former on three separate occasions, as his first two interviews were assessed as untruthful in the light of the evidence of other witnesses. Defence counsel went to great lengths to destroy the credibility of police witnesses in their efforts to have the confessions thrown out. Each facet of the investigation was placed under a magnifying glass. Minute procedural errors by the investigation team assumed Dreyfus-like proportions in the hard light of the courtroom and in the press reports. The duration and intensity of the trial had an effect on the health of Chief Justice Minogue. After a trial of five months the Chief Justice found Taupa and Tovaliria guilty, and sentenced them to 14 years and 11 years respectively. Three conspirators were sentenced to shorter sentences, and eight were acquitted.

Discussion

In the years following the Emanuel trial there has been speculation about the role of the MA in the murder. Trevor Shearston’s book A Straight Young Back (Harper Collins, Pymble, 2000) throws some light on this. Shearston, a former teacher in PNG, based his novel on the Emanuel murder. His research took him to PNG where he read the transcript of the trial in Port Moresby, and interviewed Taupa and Tovaliria on the Gazelle. Both men admitted to Shearston their presence at the killing, but denied that it had been planned, and claimed that Tovaliria had killed Emanuel in self defence. This is at odds with their police interview records, and their evidence and those of other witnesses in court. Those who knew Emanuel can attest that, while he carried out Port Moresby’s hard line policy to the letter, he was essentially a quiet, unaggressive man. Shearston also interviewed leaders of the MA, Daniel Rumet, Damien Kereku, Melchior Tomot and John Kaputin. Oscar Tammur was sick and refused to talk to him. Rumet denied that the MA had any involvement in the murder. He said that the MA executive knew of Emanuel’s nocturnal wanderings alone around the Gazelle shoring up support for the Multi Racial Council and attempting to weaken that for the MA. He said if they had wished to kill him they could have done so with minimal risk of detection at night, and would hardly have planned to entice him away from a heavy police guard at a plantation land dispute. Kereku claimed that Emanuel as District Commissioner was worth more to the MA alive than dead, as his Port Moresby inspired eviction tactics pushed more and more Tolais into the MA camp. What is certain is that Kabaira was a Mataungan area and its MA councillor and tax collector Joseph Togigie was involved in discussions with the Administration on the plantation land dispute there. There was evidence from the records of interview of co-accused and suspects, that Togigie was prominent and supportive at two meetings held by Taupa to plan the killing. This was sufficient for Togigie to be charged with wilful murder and be committed for trial. After the main trial the Crown elected, for a range of reasons, not to proceed with Togigie and seven others, so his case was never tested.

Conclusion

The Emanuel murder caused fear and alarm throughout the Gazelle. There was pressure on the police to arrest those responsible promptly and have them dealt with by the courts. At stake was not just the political authority of the Administration, but the principle of the rule of law, and public perception that law enforcement was competent and professional. The arrest and conviction of the accused had a settling effect on the local population, Tolai and expatriate. Had the arrests not been made quickly, or had the primary accused been acquitted, there might well have been violent repercussions. Many individual police members, in a baptism by fire, gained valuable experience from the investigation and trial, and there were general benefits for the training curriculum. The final analysis acknowledges political distractions, logistical and language difficulties, and an unusually protracted and detailed examination of the evidence. But thirty-six years on, it can reasonably be argued that in the investigation of Emanuel’s murder and the trial of the accused, justice was well served. The trial is the longest and costliest in Papua New Guinea's history. It began on February 3 and has lasted for 136 sitting days.

EMBARGOED Until 0001 hours 18/ 1/ 72

PRIME MINISTER

AWARD OF GEORGE CROSS ( POSTHUMOUS)

Statement by the Prime Minister, M~ r William McMahon Her Majesty The Queen has approved that the George Cross be awarded posthumously to the late Errol John Emanuel in recogqition of the conspicuous courage he displayed as District Commissioner for the East New Britain district of Papua New Guinea.

As Deputy District Commissioner at Rabaul from July 1969 and later as District Commissioner for the East New Britain District, Mr Emanuel was engaged in the arduous role of influencing deeply hostile groups of the Tolai people to discuss their difficulties i. n a peaceful and tolerant atmosphere. Even when tension was at its highest, he visited villages by day and night, almost always alone, to talk personally to leaders of all groups to gain their confidence and. trust. On a number of occasions, between March and the date of his death in August, 1971, involving public confrontations and imminent violence between police parties and large groups of people, Kr Emanuel displayed outstanding courage. on each occasion Mr Emanuel deliberately left the cover of police protection and, regardless of his own safety, moved among the people in order to pacify them. Each time h-e war, personally responsible for avoiding possible bloodshed or loss of life. He never wavered from his task, choosing to expose himself to danger rather than risk the lives of his fellow officers and the police, culminating in his untimely death on 19 august 1971 while carrying out his official duties. M1r Emanuel's sustained acts of conspicuous courage over a long period in circumstances of extreme danger and in complete disregard for his personal safety were in the highest traditions of bravery and sacrifice carried out beyond the call of duty.

CANBERRA 17 January 1972

BACKGROUND

Errol John ( Jack) Emanuel joined the Papua New Guinea Administration on 24 August 1946 as a Patrol Officer. He served with distinction in the Papua, Mainland and Island areas of Papua New Guinea and spent mors than 9 years between 1956 and 195 as Assistant District Officer and Deputy District Commissioner working among. the Tolai people in the vast New Britain district. In July 1369, he was posted to Rabaul as Deputy District Commissioner and was appointed District Commissioner for the East New Britain District in March1971 until the date of his death on 19 August 1971. The award of the George Cross to the late Mr Emanuel is the 9th award to an Australian over the past 25 years, the most recent being in 1955 to-the late Chief Petty Officer J. Rogers for his outstanding courage during the " Voyager" disaster. Mr Emanuel was born at Enfield, on 13 December, 1918, and is survived by his widow and three children ( including a son and a daughter from an earlier marriage). His first wife died-in 1965 and his widow is now residing in the Brisbane suburb of St Lucia.

Kiaps killed on duty: Jim Sinclair

John Green, Government Agent, 14 January 1897, Tamata, Northern Division, British New Guinea, together with Corporal Sedu, and Constables Dumai, Gaiwa, Mirio and Taurauki, Armed Native Constabulary.
Robert Dorrien Kirby, Patrol Officer, April 1916, Kikori River, Territory of Papua.
Ian Mack, Assistant District Officer, 10 June, 1933, Upper Ramu, Central Highlands, Mandated Territory of New Guinea.
N.C.Elliott, Patrol Officer, 1 July, 1939, Aitape, Sepik District, Mandated Territory of New Guinea, together with Constable Aipoum, New Guinea Police Force.
T.A.Hough, Patrol Officer, December 1936, Upper Leron River, Morobe District, Mandated Territory of New Guinea.
Gerald Szarka, Patrol Officer, Geoffrey Harris, Cadet Patrol Officer, 6 November 1953, Telefomin, Sepik District, Territory of Papua New Guinea, together with Constables Purari and Buritori, Royal Papua & New Guinea Constabulary.
Jack Emanuel, District Commissioner, 11 August, 1971, Kabaira Bay, Gazelle Peninsula, Territory of Papua New Guinea.

Other kiaps received serious wounds during conflict with tribesmen, most notably Albert Nurton, Assistant District Officer, on 24 September, 1936, Rai Coast hinterland, Madang District, Mandated Territory of New Guinea. Nurton was so severely wounded that a leg had to be amputated.

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