Bunge Family Collection
After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 and the end of German rule in Samoa , most German government officials , including Mr Berking , resigned rather than serve under the oath-of-loyalty terms offered by the New Zealand Administrator , Col . Robert Logan . Despite this boycott , Berking appears to have cooperated to help the kiwis on a regular basis in the Customs Department . In the chaos of a new administration “ disorder reigned in all government departments ,” he wrote later . Working without pay , “ I was at the disposal of Colonel Logan and his Customs officers at any time of the day or the night .”
Despite his cooperation with the occupying forces , Mr Berking was shipped out of Apia in May 1916 to become “ Prisoner of War No . 63 ” in the New Zealand internment system . This photo shows him waving a finger in greeting to the photographer as his belongings and those of other new arrivals are unloaded at the wharf on Motuihe Island , in Auckland Harbour , on 22 May . Karl Bunge in the white hat also arrived that day , as did George Lober ( dark hat on right ).
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