Pacific Inspection

High British Official On Central Pacific Inspection

Sir Cosmo Parkinson, Who Has

been Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies and has since 1942 been visiting British outposts as per sonal representative of the Secretary of State for the Colonies, left England last May on his Pacific tour, and has since visited Fiji, the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, the New Hebrides, the Solomons and Tonga.

Sir Cosmo said there were no big prob lems affecting the islands which had been brought about by wartime conditions.

Asked whether the outlook and way of liv ing of the natives had been altered through the new economic conditions created by the presence of large military forces and wartime activities, particularly in islands used by the Americans, Sir Cosmo said he did not think the natives had been affected to any great extent.

Things would gradually go back to normal.

Talks with colonial officials convinced Sir Cosmo that they had their minds set on what could be done to develop the islands. The Colonial Development and Welfare Act of 1940 and its subse quent amendment permitted the spend ing by the British Government of £120,000,000 .on colonial development over a ten-year period. Each colonial Governor, said Sir Cosmo, was work ing out plans for the best possible de velopment of the Colonies and for the improvement of the health and welfare of the natives. Money would be allotted to put the plans in motion, but a lot would be spent on geological and other research work. The church missionaries had contributed much to the health and education of the natives, but there was much more yet to be done by the British Government.

As far as the resources of the islands were concerned investigations were going on at present. Two men were now in vestigating timber resources in the Solo mons on behalf of the British Adminis tration, and an expert from the Imperial College of Agriculture at Trinidad was inspecting banana cultivation in the Pacific. Experiments were being made in

the Solomons with various crops for local production. Those islands were still in the military zone, but local administra tion was still functioning.