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[Page 146]
Siar
Sydney,
27th February 1915.
The Administrator,
Rabaul,
New Britain:
Attached hereto I forward a report which has just been received by me from Major Martin, who was, as you are aware, acting as District Officer at Kaiser Wilhelmsland, in reference to the cargo brought by Mr. G. Taefert in the steamer "Siar" from Macassar to New Britain soon after the outbreak of the War.
There has been a good deal of correspondence in connection with this matter, and the file of papers I left with you at the Administration Office, as the case was then still under consideration.
Shortly, the facts are as follows:-
I received information somewhere about the end of September or beginning of October last that some cargo was being surreptitiously landed on the North Coast of New Britain; I sent round and seized it, and found from papers obtained that it had come by the "Siar", which was then lying in the vicinity of Kaewieng in New Ireland, acting as a sort of distributing centre.
The "Siar" had gone to Macassar at the outbreak of the War under the charge of Mr. Taefert, who is the General Manager of the New Guinea Coy, in order to obtain a cargo of rice principally, and when the Steamer returned, finding the British in possession, the cargo was apparently smuggled ashore at various places, but I was only able to get on the track of that landed on the North Coast of New Britain.
Taefert came into Rabaul and was arrested; subsequently the oath of neutrality was administered to him, but soon after I found that he had broken his oath and made certain false statements. Besides, I charged him with having brought the "Siar's" cargo into the possessions without having paid duty. For lieing to me and breaking his oath I sent him to Sydney, and he is now a prisoner here in Darlinghurst Gaol.
I also instructed the Treasurer to render an account to the New Guinea Coy. to the value of the whole of the cargo brought by the "Siar" as shown by the ship's papers.
Both Mr. Taefert, the General Manager, and Mr.Kuhn, the local Manager at Rabaul of the New Guinea Coy., claimed that the law had not been infringed, but that the "Siar's" cargo had been declared at the first port of call (Kitape), and that according to the German custom they were allowed 30 days in which to pay the duty after declaring.
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