At the Colonial Ministry of plump Queen Wilhelmina last week distressed officials admitted that some 9,400 miles away in Dutch New Guinea a number of her loyal subjects were undoubtedly being cooked and eaten.
Particulars the perturbed Dutch statesmen could not give. They knew only that a man-eating Papuan tribe had raided the village of Atoika and, after an all night battle, sat down as victors to a banquet at which they ate not only slaughtered enemies but fallen members of their own attacking party. Then, having rounded up the plumpest, tenderest women of Atoika, the victors loaded them with spoil, led them off to various cannibal villages in the interior.
In making this announcement the Dutch officials stressed that Her Majesty Queen Wilhelmina, "greatly, moved," had ordered her Governor of Dutch New Guinea to hunt down the cannibals without mercy. Native runners presently reported that members of the Dutch East Indian police had overtaken and routed a large war-party of the cannibals—recovered several women.