Australian Amalgamation Plan May

Include B.S.I. and N. Hebrides Territories Wait Patiently While Canberra "Dithers"

ALTHOUGH there has been a certain amount of quick action in regard to the “fortification” of Port Moresby (described elsewhere), other matters in relation to the Australian Pacific Terri tories have moved with appalling slow ness__or not moved at all.

Away back in November, there was to be immediate action to “amalgamate”

Papua and New Guinea. Not a thing has been done, since then.

It is known that, for months, Mr.

Harrison has had his plans ready for Cabinet sanction. But Cabinet, hopeless ly torn by internal dissension and pub lic criticism, has ignored these matters, along with scores of other things equally or more important.

In order to get the attitude of Aus tralia into focus, in relation to Pacific Territories affairs, it is necessary only to give a few facts and dates.

The Rabaul eruption occurred in May, 1937. The Federal Government consult ed scientists, and announced, most de finitely, in August, 1937, that the ad ministrative establishment must be re moved from Rabaul at the earliest pos sible moment. After months of unex plained delay, the Griffiths Committee was appointed, in January, 1938, to find a new site for the capital. In April, 1938, it recommended Lae. In June, 1938.

Mr. Hughes (then Minister in Charge) announced that he had rejected Lae and selected Salamaua. He announced, also, that a new road would be built at once, between Wau and Salamaua. In Sep tember, 1938, the selection of Salamaua, owing to public criticism and opposition, was abandoned. In October, 1938, Mr.

Harrison took Mr. Hughes’s place as Minister in Charge of Territories, and soon afterwards announced a policy of amalgamation, details of which were to be worked out by an expert committee.

It was presumed that the search for a new capital for New Guinea would now become part of the amalgamation plan.

The Wau-Salamaua road plan was pre sumed to be unaffected.

But nothing has been done. New Guinea is just carrying on. Rabaul has settled down again as the capital of the Territory.

The Wau-Salamaua Road

THERE is no official explanation of the extraordinary delay in getting on with the Wau-Salamaua road: but the facts are given in an article on an other page.

Sir Hubert Murray And Sir

Walter Mcnicoll

THERE are indications that, if and when amalgamation becomes effec tive, the administrative c<pntrol of the two Territories will be revised: and it is presumed that the present two Ad ministrators will be asked to retire.

It has been a matter for comment that, while two newspapers which are believed to have access to Ministerial sanctums have announced “the early retirement’ of Sir Hubert Murray (who has been a mild critic of amalgamation) nothing has been said about the retirement of Sir Walter McNicoll (who has been a con sistent advocate of the plan).

Sir Hubert Murray has stated, public ly and privately, in the last month, that he has no intention of retiring.

No serious issue is likely to arise, any way On present indications, both Ad ministrators probably will have been re moved by Anno Domini long before the amalgamation plan is likely to function.

The expert committee probably will spend at least a year travelling around Papua and New Guinea, “investigating”. In the year after that, it will report. A slow-moving Cabinet probably will dither over the report during many more long months; with the likelihood that some major trouble—a change of Government, a war, a depression—will cause the in definite shelving of the whole plan. On past history—especially in relation to Is lands affairs —chances are 10 to 1 in favour of something like that occurring.

If the unexpected happens, and the plan functions soon, and there is a mov ing round of high administrative offi cials, people who are most likely to ap pear prominently in the picture (in ad dition to present Administrators) are:— Mr. Harold Page, Government Sec retary at Rabaul, New Guinea.

Mr. Leonard Murray, Official Secret ary at Port Moresby, Papua.

Major-General Sir Charles Rosen thal, Administrator, Norfolk Island.

Mr. J. R. Halligan, Ofiicer-in-Charge of Territories Affairs, Canberra.

Solomons And New Hebrides

IF and when the new plan functions, it is likely to have a wider applica tion than Papua and the Mandated Territory.

Speaking at a public luncheon to Sir Hubert Murray, in Sydney, on February 22, Mr. R. W. Robson (editor of the “P.1.M.”) pointed out that the main im petus of the move towards amalgamation undoubtedly came from Australia’s sud den. belated recognition of her defence needs. Australia was subverting every thing to defence; and an essential part of the defence scheme was the distribu tion of mobile naval and air forces through the islands to the north and north-east. That rendered necessary a more efficient control over Papua and the Mandated Territory: and it also called for a more definite plan of deve lopment and settlement.

But, he continued, if that were true in relation to Papua and New Guinea, it was equally true in relation to the Solo mons and New Hebrides. It would be

illogical and absurd to place a defence organisation in Papua and (to the limits permitted by the Mandate) in New Guinea, and do nothing in the Solomons and New Hebrides which, from the de fence angle, were just as important to Australia.

It could be taken as certain, he said, that if there was to be an inquiry into an amalgamation plan, that inquiry must eventually be extended to the future of the Solomons, and of British interests in the New Hebrides.

Mr. Harrison, during the month, again referred to his vision of a large, com petent Australian Colonial service, gov erning all the Australian tropical Ter ritories as a single unit. No over-ripe imagination is needed to see the now undeveloped and miserably financed Ter ritories of Solomons and New Hebrides being brought within the orbit of the new Australian Colonial service, as pai\, of the defence plan.

If the High Commissioner for the West ern Pacific were to surrender his 8.5.1. and New Hebrides responsibilities to Australia, and take over from New Zea land responsibility for the Mandated Ter ritory of Samoa, it would be nothing more than a logical, long-awaited, and ap parently inevitable development.

Apart from officials, there now are no purely British interests in the Solomons or New Hebrides. The British Imperial interests there commerce, planting, shipping, currency, mission activities— are at least 95 per cent. Australian.

How Solomons, Hebrides and Fiji

Come Into the Picture

THUS Earl Beatty, a British naval offi cer, speaking in Sydney on February 151— “Day by day Australians see the en croachment of a Great Power to the north. They see her steadily advancing down in their direction. We must see that those islands in our possession are made strong enough to prevent this en croachment.

“A number of harbours suitable natur ally and strategically must be chosen and put in a state of defence. We must have bases from which the cruisers de fending our merchant convoys can oper ate, and where our merchantmen can rendezvous.

“The strengthening of Singapore has strengthened Australia’s position. The fortification of Darwin and Port Mores by is excellent as far as it goes. But there must be extension of these bases further to the east a chain from Sin gapore to Fiji, outposts of our defence.

“We have much to do in that direc tion. It is one of the principal necessi ties to the defence of this country, for not only would these outposts serve as naval bases, but as severe deterrents to any raiding force. Such a force must see that its lines of communication are free before it can venture, and these bases would act as forceful deterrents”.

New Guinea Plane Damaged

THE engine of a Guinea Airways single-engined Junker machine, on a test flight, cut out just after leaving Wau aerodrome on March 8. Pilot Jack Robins could not get back, so he very skilfully landed in a cleared area near by. The plane hit an obstruction and was badly damaged. No one was injured.

Mr. H. Hunt, of N.Z., has married Miss G. Acraman, of Fiji.