the killing of two European seamen in Tinputz Bay the previous year. The landed 20 members of the native police force armed with bows and arrows, who killed seven people, burned a village, and took its valuables. It was not until 1905 that a government station was opened in Bougainville. The station, situated in Kieta, was placed directly under the Governor of German New Guinea. The German protectorate over the islands initially had little economic impact. A handful of copra plantations were established, but proved unproductive, and the area was seen primarily as a source of labour for existing plantations in other parts of New Guinea. As of 1905, "there was apparently not a single permanent trading post manned by a non-native". The first fully commercial plantation was established at Aropa in 1908 by the Bismarck Archipelago Company. In 1910, the New Britain Corporation established a plantation at Toiemonapu. There was subsequently a rush of commercial activity, with ten enterprises established in 1911. By April 1913, land acquisitions of over had been approved by the administration, mostly by Australian companies. About of roads had been built by this time, and construction on a hospital for natives had begun. The total tax revenue for 1913 was almost 28,000 marks, about half of which was collected in Kieta. As of 1 January 1914, there were 74 Europeans in the area, one-third of whom were connected with the Marist mission and 17 of whom were British subjects (including Australians). There were also 20 "foreign natives", mostly Chinese and Malay. World War I and Australian administration Following the outbreak of World War I, the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force (AN&MEF) occupied Bougainville in December 1914, as part of the broader Australian occupation of German New Guinea. The 1919 Treaty of Versailles established the former German territory as a League of Nations mandate, the responsibility for which was awarded to Australia. The Australian military administration had adopted a "business as usual" approach and secured the support of the existing German business community. It was replaced by a civil administration in 1920, which expropriated the property of German nationals without compensation and deported them. The Australian administration continued the German approach of "pacification", intervening in local conflicts. This allowed labour recruiters to enter new regions and secure more workers for the plantations. In 1915, more than 60 native police officers were deployed to Soraken to