Fijian Seamen

Mr. Ward And The

11HE following letters are published for general information; From Hon. E. J. Ward, Australian Minister for External Territories, to the Editor of the "Pacific Islands Monthly.” under date December 30: “Dear Mr. Hobson, —My assistance has been sought by the Fiji Seamen s Union, Suva, in conection with the following matter. *T understand that in your issue of May, 1947, you made some reference to the Fiji Seamen s Union, to which that organisation took strong exception.

T am informed that the organisation wrote to you on June 30, 1947, asking for the publication of their reply to the charges which had been made. How ever, it is claimed that this reply was neither acknowledged nor published in any subsequent issue of your paper.

"Whilst i have not read your May is sue, and therefore do not know the nature of the article to which objection was taken, I think, in fairness to your readers, and the organisation concerned, the an swering arguments should have been pub lished.

"Although some time has elapsed since the publication of the offending article, I still think the matter may be in some way corrected by the publication of the statement forwarded to you by the Sec retary of the Fiji Seamen’s Union.

"I should be pleased if you would give this matter your attention and let me have advice in due course, as to what you propose to do.

Yours Sincerely,

(Sgd.) E. J. Ward.

From the Editor of “PIM,” to the Australian Minister for External Terri tories, under date January 7: "Dear Mr. Ward, —I acknowledge re ceipt of your letter of December 30 on the subject of a statement sent to me for publication by the Fiji Seamen’s Union.

“Publication of the statement you refer to was not refused it was merely de layed. In my opinion, the statement had been written for the Seamen’s Union by someone who was not an official of that Union, and I have a pretty good idea of the identity of the writer. Consequently, before deciding upon publication, I had enquiries made in Fiji. Those enquiries took some time; and I did not pass the statement for publication until about October. The statement has been in type for some time but, owing to extraordinary pressure on space, it was not published in November or December. I expect that it will be published in January. I at tach hereto a pull of the statement.

“The circumstances of your communi cation are to me a little surprising. I cannot understand why the Fiji Seamen’s Union should write to you concerning this matter. And I cannot understand, why you, who have so pointedly ignored the publication in the ‘Pacific Islands Monthly’ of scores of grievances relating to New Guinea for which you are held responsible should now take it upon yourself to intercede with me in rela tion to a matter that concerns only Fiji.

“So far as the Fiji letter is concerned, I will take this opportunity of informing you and anyone else interested that the ‘Pacific Islands Monthly’ is opposed to the formation of trade unions among South Sea Islands natives not be cause trade unions, in themselves, do not serve a useful purpose, but because they, sooner or later, permit themselves to be used as the units of political party or ganisation, and thus become the play things of professional policticians. The

deterioration of European national life, which I have seen during my lifetime, is largely the work of professional poli ticians; and, in my small way, I shall do all that I can to keep that evil out of the Pacific Islands.

Yours faithfully,

R. W. Robson.

(Letter from Fiji Seamen’s Union is published on page 63 of this issue).

Chief Judge C. C. Marsack, formerly Stipendiary Magistrate at Palmerston North, New Zealand, has taken up his duties of Chief Judge of the Apia High Court, Western Samoa, where he has relieved Chief Judge J. R. Herd.. Judge Herd, who with Mrs. Herd left Apia by the November “Matua” has been ap pointed Stipendiary Magistrate at Palmerston North in succession to Chief Judge Marsack.

The marriage of Mr. Dan Antill, of Witu, New Guinea, to Miss June Brown, of Sydney, took place in the Rabaul dis trict in November. Miss Marjorie Allan was bridesmaid and Mr. Harry Briggs best-man. The reception was held at the Kokopo Club.