Ng's 'New Deal'

Propagandist Biurb Gets World- Wide Circulation

Y'HE following article appeared re

cently in “World Digest”—pub

lished in London and circulated

throughout the English-speaking

world. It is a condensation of an article by Douglas Liversidge in

“Volksgazet” published in Brussels.

We do not know who Mr. Liversidge is, or his qualifications to write about

New Guinea. Judging by his article,

he could be one of the 50 or so publicity gentlemen now in the em ploy of the Australian Government.

Our comments on the article are numbered, and will be found at the end.

A MILLION black, fuzzy-haired natives, many of whom have progressed at one bound from the Stone Age to the era of lipstick and canned meat, are struggling with a handful of white planters for social and economic better ment. (1).

It is a bloodless revolution that is going on in the jungle wastes of New Guinea.

When the Allied armed forces smashed the Japs, they brushed away the old colonial system. Money flowed freely.

The native tasted the luxuries of the western world; these he seeks to re tain. Completely unorganised though he is, he refuses to work under the old conditions. Occasionally he has gone on strike. (2).

The Australian government, faithful to its declarations in world councils, has endowed New Guinea with a new deal, increasing the wages of native labour, and framing an economic programme, which augurs prosperity. But the white coconut planter is trying to restore pre war standards. (3).

Australia’s new deal breaks brusquely with tradition, and ends the indenture system whereby professional recruiters were paid so much per head of native labour by the planter. These men trekked round the villages, offering gifts to the headmen in return for young man power. To-day, natives can be engaged only by an employer licensed by the Ad ministration. To safeguard populations, the number of employees is limited. A tentative minimum rate of 15/- a month —plus rations, housing, medical care and other amenities—has been fixed, com pared with the pre-war 10/- in Papua and 5/- in New Guinea. Rations com prise a scientifically balanced diet. Hours of labour have been reduced to 44 from the former 55 in New Guinea and 50 in Papua. The period of employment is limited to 12 months (as against the pre war three years), and re-engagement is not permitted until the native has re turned home for three months at the employers’ expense. (4).

Commercial interests oppose the new deal chiefly because of the increased labour costs. They quote the low wages of Ceylon, the Philippines, and the Dutch East Indies, and claim that the new rates impose hardship in competitive markets. But Mr. Ward, Australia’s Minister for External Territories, has re affirmed that Australia declines to change her policy. In future, he stresses, the basis of the island’s economy will be native and European industry, with the limit of non-native expansion determined by the natives’ welfare. (5).

Unlike the planters, traders generally (often Chinese) welcome the increased wages. More money means more trade.

And although the planter is disgruntled, Minister Ward confidently predicts that the new deal will be found advantageous

to both natives and Europeans, while en hancing Australian prestige in the eyes of the world.

THE task of bringing New Guinea’s inhabitants from savagery required immense patience and skill. Head hunting, cannibalism, immolation of widows, infanticide, and inter-tribal war fare were practices which beset the pioneers. Tropical diseases, especially malaria, and great diversity of languages and dialects were other problems. Witch craft, too, hampered early attempts to bring civilisation to the island. Even to-day primitive superstition is rife, for the native is. essentially a fatalist.

Years ago black magic prevailed on a horrifying scale. Witch-doctors claimed the ability to take the form of birds and bring death to selected victims. Poison ing was another common crime, and the natives, in their scattered communities, lived in constant fear of magic. Nowa days these rituals are suppressed where the activities of sorcerers create dis harmony and terror. (6).

Much has been achieved by anthropo logical research. Experts trained at the School of Anthropology at the University of Sydney blazed the trail. And language barriers were surmounted by an ever widening use of pidgin English. Science fought disease. Scientists from Austra lia’s School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene penetrated into the island fast nesses to study strange peoples. This pioneer work paid dividends in the New Guinea campaign in the war. (7), In New Guinea’s renaissance the natives have been free to choose their sites for village communities. Now, vil lage planning caters for hospitals and first-aid posts and, when opportunity permits, for schools and churches. In future the first charge on the soil will be provision for its inhabitants accord

ing to a positive plan of development. In this way, Australia claims, a big contri-

bution should be made to the history of the government of dependent peoples, to

which the empire building of the past was no more than a primitive prelude.

Pertinent Comment

1- —According to this, the planters are opposing the “social and economic better ment” of Brown Brother. That seems to be the official view. 2.—Characteristic of the cheap “penny a-liner,” the world over. The natives never “refused to work,” except for a brief period after peace came. The old contract-labour system was suddenly swept away by the Australian Socialists; and New Guinea’s Stone-Age man, com

pletely bewildered, just sits around wait ing for someone to tell him what to do next. 3-—-The only “prosperity” New Guinea now knows comes from the £3,000,000 per annum which Canberra is taking from Australia’s unfortunate taxpayers and distributing in the Territories. 4. —And now the thrilled and exagger ating writer should go to New Guinea and see the result of The New Deal! 5. The persistent suggestion by this class of writer that “commercial interests” always oppose the “social and economic betterment” of the natives that only persons like Mr, Ward and his Planners want to lift the standards of native life —is a very irritating thing. Planters, and employers generally, probably have given these primitive natives more prac tical and substantial help (in better food, better health, and better rules for com munity life) than all the Planners and bureaucrats have ever achieved. 6. —Although it carries the usual marks of sensational journalism, much of what is stated here is true. But the natives were brought from Stone-Age savagery, to at least a recognition of European control, not by .Mr. Ward and his teams of experts, but by the planters, miners, traders and missionaries of the pre-1942 era, working in friendly understanding with the pre-Wardian officials. 7. —ln this and the next paragraph there is a complete departure from truth —a quaint mixture of idealistic wish fulness with the usual propagandist blurb in favour of the Australian Socialist Government.