A Lesson in Violence: The moral dimensions of two punitive expeditions in the Gulf of Papua, 1901 and 1904

This article explores the moral dimensions of the deployment of violence in colonial British New Guinea through close examination of the two punitive expeditions conducted in 1901 and 1904 in response to the killing of missionary James Chalmers by Kerewo people in the Gulf of Papua. I focus on the different discourses embedded in the texts produced to describe those expeditions, with particular attention to the language used to justify the recourse to violence and the thin line that separated a lawful punishment from an amoral reprisal. Differences in the reactions of Australian public opinion to these two acts of violence toward "Native subjects" are weighed against the changing political context of the transition from British colony to direct Australian administration.