South Solomons Missionaries Bayoneted by Japs

BRISBANE.
The two Catholic priests and two Catholic nuns whose bodies were found by the natives at Tasimboko, British South Solonions, after the Japanese had been driven from that area, had been seized twice and questioned by the Japanese before they were bayoneted to death, it is revealed by details that have now become available in U.S.A.
The slain missionaries were four of the five members of the mission .staff at Ruavatu on Guadalcanal. They were the Rev. Henry Oude-Engberink, a Marist, born in the Netherlands, who was the Superior; the Rev. Arthur Duhamel, S.M., a native of Lawrence, Mass., and Sister M. Sylvia, of France, and Sister M. Odilia, of Alsace-Lorraine. The nuns were Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary. A fifth member of the staff, Sister M. Edmee, escaped death.
The story of the terrible experiences of the priests and nuns can now be told.
Twice the Japanese went to the mission at Ruavatu to seize the missionaries and put them through a questioning. The first time they took the two priests and two of the three Sisters away with them to Tasimboko, a few miles west of the station. On this occasion the Japanese held the missionaries prisoners for only a few hours and then released them. However, while they held the missionaries prisoners the Japanese showed them the battlefield behind their own lines, apparently for the purpose of impressing the priests and Sisters with Japanese military might.
Three,weeks later the Japanese again visited the mission at Ruavatu and took Frs. Oude-Engberink and Duhamel and Sisters Sylvia and Odilia to Tasimboko again. This time the missionaries were held prisoners for a total of 15 days, and they were never released alive.
When the Japanese saw that they had lost the battle of Tasimboko, they ruthlessly bayoneted the missionaries before withdrawing from the scene. This was veriaed by the clear marks of a bayonet thrust to be seen in the throat of each missionary when their bodies were found.