The Chief

Stephen Romney Maurice Gill, 65, is a third-generation missionary, has worked in New Guinea since he was ordained a deacon 42 years ago in the Church of England. In 1938 he became the Archdeacon of Mamba.

For a salary of about -L-25 a year (and with an old sewing machine to help make his clothes), Archdeacon Gill has been the Christian servant and leader of about 4,000 people in an area a little larger than Connecticut. In addition to his liturgical duties he has assisted at childbirths, performed operations, pulled teeth, built a church, a school, furniture work shops, a lighting plant and a wharf. When the Japanese blitzed his mission during World War II, his devoted people carried him off to the mountains, reverently hauled along his old typewriter so he could finish his translation of the Book of Common Prayer into the native (Wedauan) tongue.

Back in England last month for medical treatment, ailing Archdeacon Gill heard from his people. Their chief had suddenly died; equally troubling, they feared that their Archdeacon might not be coming back. "Oh my dear Father Romney Gill," they wrote. "This request is not from us the Manau boys merely, but it is from God we are speaking. You landed a long time ago on our shore, you brought to us the news of our Lord Jesus, and our fathers rose up and loved you and you loved our fathers . . . Now seeing your sickness our hearts are very troubled . . . But what does the doctor say? Listening to him, will you return or will you not return?"

He would return, he replied, and promptly set off for New Guinea. Last week, the Church Times had news to announce about Archdeacon Gill. Stephen Romney Maurice Gill was back at his post, and his parishioners, in their joy, had elected him chief of the tribe. "No white man," said the Times, "has ever before been so honored."

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