Unruly Malaitamen.

Sorry Results of “Turning the Other Cheek” in B.S.I.

LAST April we published an article on the unruliness of native labourers in the Mandated Territory and the un fortunate position of their employers who are practically powerless to stop what is threatening to become a serious problem. According to the following let ter, which was received from a corre spondent in the Solomon Islands, the problem is just as acute there. There is no doubt that petty strikes and disturb ances among ship labour are helped by the attitude of the crews of visiting ships. The employer’s powerlessness to do anything more than merely repri mand the culprits is making the posi tion worse. Our contention that the judicious use of the cane applied vigor ously and at the right time is the only certain deterrent is supported by our correspondent.

Letter to the Editor.

One reads with interest the account in your March issue of the pitched battle between native labourers at Port Moresby, and the apparently lenient treatment of the offenders, but at least something was done in that case, which is more than we can expect under simi lar conditions in the Solomons.

Passengers on the “Mataram” were given a demonstration of the cocky Ma laitaman and his disregard for law and order when the ship was loading copra at Yandina plantation on March 14. The plantation boys resented the ship send ing extra boys ashore to speed up the loading and started a riot, in which there was much shouting and waving of sticks, iron bars, and miscellaneous weapons of offence and defence.

Those of us who know the trend of

local matters could see, only too plainly, the reflection of present Government at titude in the demonstration. Had Dis trict Officer Pilose still been in charge of this district such a disgraceful scene would not have taken place.

A little judicial application of the cane is the only method the Solomon native appreciates: in fact, that is a principle which applies throughout the world to all semi-civilised people, and even to unruly white children.

Pilose understood the natives and handled them justly but without fear or favour. He realised that petty fines and imprisonment under conditions which prevail here are not a deterrent and his methods were reflected in the smooth running of the plantation labour in his district.

When one compares the dignified at titude of Mr. Pilose in upholding the white prestige with that of a recent ar rival in the Service who spends his time teaching the already aggressive Malai taman to box, and other officials who hold “Eastern evenings” in their homes in Tulagi, at which the native cookboys, policeboys, and oddments gather with their ukuleles and make the night hide ous with shouting and dancing around the verandah till the early hours of the morn; the contrast is all too apparent.

Nothing so far has been done, to pun ish the participants in the Yandina af fair, and it is probable that nothing will be done until the Resident Commis sioner returns from furlough, when we expect he will take hold of affairs in his characteristic, firm manner.

I am, etc.,

Halaita.