what was the usual procedure of sending bones to an abroad.
There was no usual procedure.
I think the concept of "abroad" is foreign to the nature of the Western Pacific High Commission. (The word "foreign" in the last sentence is a pun. You may laugh now.)
Gallagher was on Gardner on behalf of the WPHC. When they asked him to ship everything he had found on Gardner to headquarters in Fiji, the transaction was entirely within the WPHC system. The bones were not going "abroad." They were just going from one agent to his superiors in the same organization. There were procedures for sending corpses or cremains to Great Britain.
Here are the last notes I took in Auckland. They illustrate the kind of materials I was looking at and have the entries on the procedures in question:
1230369-72 WPHC 16/I Item 14 100-200 series
"Alleged Cannibalism by Press" (CF.113/14/6)
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Boards of Enquiry F.130/16/3
Card found underneath other cards:
"Index system. The entries in red type are not actual
files but are the titles and numbers of file series and
the black entries on these cards are file titles and
numbers of actual files in the series. The cards
headed in black type are normal index references.
The two sets of cards are intermixed for ease of
reference." May apply also to 1229050--although
those 4x6 cards with red titles are NOT intermixed
with the related 3x5 cards that seem to deal with
normal files. 123072 holds the red cards; they
also are NOT intermixed with the other cards,
even though they are the same size.
A quick sample of the red cards shows that they
seem to contain file headings that do NOT appear
in the black cards, e.g., "Deaths of Prominent
Persons" seems to have a long list of names that
I don't recall seeing in the black cards.
"Death of His Holiness the Pope" is on the list.
I didn't see the death of the King of Nepal in
the black cards.
"Corpses:- Policy re importation of corpses and
ashes of cremated corpses into U.K." (F.125/2/3).
"Diaries: Station. Phoenix Islands: GEIC"
(F.101/31/1).
"Graves:- Late Chief Headman Bambu (Eastern)"
(F.101/24/5).
"Human remains:- Importation into the U.K."
(F.125/2/3).
"Visit of Life Magazine Party" (CF .188/1/23).
"Edition of Life Magazine (Publication)"
(F.145/11/26).
"Missing Persons:- Enquiries re whereabouts"
(F.175/1/1).
"Museums. Honiara: Upkeep and maintenance"
(F.104/7/1).
"Phoenix Islands: GEIC. Station Diaries"
(F.101/31/1).
"Phoenix Islands Settlement Scheme: CD&W
D.2047" (F.101/27/2).
"Pope. Death of His Holiness the Pope"
(F.175/6/16).
"Radio Controlled Models" (F.141/10/2).
"Whereabouts of Missing Persons. Enquiries"
(F.175/1/1).
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I looked at all the black cards; I didn't look at
all of the red cards--just sampled them to learn
how they differ from the black cards.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Here ends the Auckland chapter. I'm flying out
around 3 PM this afternoon.
We've been looking for a needle in a haystack.
And the haystack has been winnowed and moved.
And we're not sure we've got the right haystack
to begin with.
( There may be just one piece
of paper that records what happened to the
evidence. It could be a telegram, a "despatch,"
or an outgoing letter.
The problem with that guess is that most telegrams
and letters seem to have been placed in files.
Wouldn't they open a file to contain the page
that says where the evidence went? Wouldn't that
file be at the level of the bones file (general,
not confidential or secret)?
ARGH!
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