 The nuns distanced themselves from Father Malone's claims about a campaign of persecution and "bureaucratic sadism" by Palm Island officials, and he had been removed from Fantome Island by March 1969.The Director of the Department of Aboriginal and Island Affairs, PJ Killoran, suggested that Father Malone's complaints were due to his "medical condition".Meanwhile, by 1969 the electricity system at the lazaret needed rewiring and conversion to AC supply to power the modern appliances the patients hoped to use, such as electric guitars and television sets.