Administrator

Of Nauru

Lieut-Colonel Chalmers

I Leut-Colonel F. R. Chalmers,

j of St. Helens. Tasmania, has been appointed Administrator of Nauru, in succession to Commander R C. Garsia.

The Australian Minister for Territor ies <Mr. Hughes), in making this an nouncement. said that Lieutenant-Col onel Chalmers had served in the Boer War and the Great War. and had been strongly recommended for the appoint ment by Brigadier-General Wisdom, for mer Administrator of New Guinea, and bv Major-General Sir John Gellibrand.

Commander Garsia would arrive in Can berra during September to hand over to his successor.

Lieut.-Colonel Chalmers served in the first South African War in 1889 and was a member of the Ist Tasmanian Bushmen. He received his commission and took part in the second war from 1901 to 1902, He enlisted as a private for service in the Great War and later commanded the 27th Battalion. He told reoorters that his toughest job was to bring home the troopship “Ormonde” with 2.000 Australian troops on board.

Since the war he has been engaged in mining and farming in Tasmania.

Tropical Services Ignored

THE editor of the “Pacific Islands Monthly”, on September 3. address ed the following letter to the edi tor of the “Sydney Morning Herald”: — I should be grateful if you will allow me to direct public attention to the cruel injustice to the Australian tropi cal services that is represented in the Federal Cabinet’s most recent appoint ment to a Territories administratorship.

I refer to the appointment of Lieut.- Colonel Chalmers to be Administrator of Nauru. I know nothing about Lieut.- Colonel Chalmers and. in no sense, am I casting any doubt upon his ability or qualifications. But I do know, either oersonally or by repute, every senior of ficial in the public services of Papua and New Guinea; and I say, without fear of contradiction. That there are among them at least half-a-dozen men emin ently well qualified, by training, experi ence and temperament, to act as Ad ministrator of Nauru.

I assert, further, that it is a shame ful thing that, whenever high execu tive appointments in the Territories are made bv Canberra, the claims of these well-trained and worthy men are con sistently ignored.

Australia is responsible for the admin istration of five tropical territories —namely. Northern Territory, Papua, Mandated Territory of New Guinea, Mandated Territory of Nauru, and Nor folk Island. Within the last four years, it has been necessary to appoint ad ministrators for four of them—namely, New Guinea, Northern Territory, Nor folk Island and, now. Nauru, in every case, the appointment has been given to either an ex-politician or an old sol dier. and in not one case is there any evidence that the men selected have had any previous experience of the arduous,

difficult work of governing a tropical ter ritory.

I am not dealing here with the per sonal qualifications or subsequent re cords of the appointees. The point is that Australia employs a large corps of trained men for the administration of her five tropical territories, and there must be something desperately wrong with her system if. after all these years, there are no men among them fit for promotion to the top positions.

As a matter of fact, there is nothing wrong with the system—whatever is wrong will be found in Canberra. Aus tralia is admirably served by the public officers in Papua and New Guinea; and. from personal knowledge, I should say they will compare favourably with the British Colonial Service, which is the corps elite of the world. Australia, like Britain, encourages well-educated young men to enter this administrative ser vice. as a lifetime career; but, whereas the best men of the British service are selected to be Commissioners and Gov ernors. Australia consistently ignores her tropical corps when the chief appoint ments are made.

It is no use the politicians replying that Australia’s tropical services are too youne. Australia has held Papua, now. for 50 years, and New Guinea for 20 years, and there are senior officials in

each country fully qualified for promo tion. And I can say—again from per sonal knowledge—that these men are dis couraged and heartbroken at the manner in which their claims are regularly pass ed over by Canberra.