HC Deb 23 August 1881 vol 265 cc722-3
MR. HOPWOOD

asked the Secretary to the Admiralty, Whether it be true, as stated in the "Standard" newspaper of the 17th instant, that another expedition of Her Majesty's ships has been sent against the Solomon Islands to inflict forcible retribution on the natives?

MR. TREVELYAN

Sir, Commander Bruce went in the Cormorant to Gaieta Bay to the village of the tribe which had murdered Lieutenant Bower and his boat's crew. There Bishop Selwyn was waiting, having persuaded Kalikona, the Chief of the tribe, to surrender the actual murderers, among whom was the Chief's own son. The ringleader of the massacre was delivered up first, and executed. Then the Bishop came on board, bringing with him the Chief and his son, and bringing, likewise, the watch and compass of Lieutenant Bower and the weapons of his crew, as well as the skull of the poor officer, which had been kept as a trophy. The son, who was only 16 years of age, was spared, but has been retained as a hostage for the surrender of the rest of the murderers, one of whom, the man who actually shot Lieutenant Bower in the tree, as I have learnt from a private letter of the Bishop's, has since been captured. Commander Bruce in his official Report writes— I have the honour to bring most prominently before your notice the assistance I received from Bishop Selwyn, without whose great influence over the Natives, energy and courage in landing unarmed on Kalikona's beach, when that Chief was surrounded by armed followers, whom no force could have brought from his lair in the bush, and without whose assistance it would have been, I believe, impossible to have achieved the result, and certainly without great destruction of life and property. The people of that region have been impressed by the judicial character of the proceeding, as compared with all that has gone before it. "Certainly," the Bishop writes in a hasty and familiar letter, which I shall, however, take the liberty to quote— If all these men are surrendered without the Cormorant landing a man, or firing a shot in anger, it will be very much better than the usual indiscriminate Hazing, and the moral effect will be very great—is very great, in fact. The people all say they will never cut another ship out again. I believe this to have been the first instance in which one of these cases has been dealt with in a manner that can give any hope for the diminution of violence and outrage in the future; and I think that much credit is due to Commander Bruce, and nothing short of gratitude to Bishop Selwyn.