N. Guinea May Appeal
p. 18 · Read in the full issue
Would Be Free Of
Australia
To Uno
AMOTION that a select committee be apointed to inquire into Australia’s administration of Papua and New Guinea is at present before the Austra lian House of Representatives at Can berra.
It has been debated on a couple of occasions and adjourned—but the general effect of the debate is to show how ill informed are the members of the Aus tralian Parliament concerning conditions in the New Guinea area, for which they are responsible.
The motion was submitted by Mr. T.
V. White, of Victoria, one of the few men in the House who really does understand Territories affairs. He gave an effective description of the New Guinea set-up — an unwieldy public service, most lavishly supplied with Australian money, trying to provide a score of untimely amenities for primitive natives who are not yet out of the Stone Age, while European planters, miners and traders —apparently because they are individualists engaged in private enterprise—are either ignored altogether, or are subjected to all kinds of Social istic disabilities.
Mr. Anthony, a NSW Country Party member who also is a regular champion of white Islanders’ rights, said that he had received correspondence from Lae, indicating that New Guinea residents proposed to appeal to the United Nations against the treatment they were receiv ing from the Australian Government.
It was clear, he said, that although much was planned for the natives, the white population was not being consi dered at all. The letter claimed that white men had been discouraged in their attempts to establish plantations. It was a reflection on the Australian Govern ment that Lae residents had to netition for protection from their own Govern ment.
In the absence abroad of the External Territories Minister, Mr. Ward, a Gov ernmental reply was attempted by the Army Minister, .Mr Chambers, He pre sented the usual outworn excuses and ar guments—that the New Guinea natives had given magnificent services to the Allies in the war; that thousands had been killed and most of their property destroyed; that boys trained by the mis sions were highlv intelligent, and capable of taking the places of white men in stores, but while white men received £4 and £5 per week, the poor native got only a few shillings per month; and no one should criticise the Australian Gov ernment for wishing to give the natives just recompense for their war services.
Which indicates such a completely ill informed, ill-balanced and prejudiced Governmental view of conditions in New Guinea that it is little wonder the un happy European residents there are prepared to appeal to the United Nations in order to escape from Australia!