Planners
pp. 7-8 · Read in the full issue
New Guinea, New Labour Problems, and New Planners
THE labour supply problem in all the Territories of the South Pacific is serious, and in some cases is becoming worse. For the most part, the problem is blandly ignored by the nations concerned—especially by Britain, Australia, New Zealand and France—which are happy to think that an absence of labour embarrasses the accursed capitalist more than anyone else.
No one expects that much of value will be accomplished by the South Pacific Commission—not because the idea is not sound, but because of the source of the thing. The SPC is essentially a product of the tireless brain of Australia’s Dr. Evatt, cordially supported by New Zealand; and nothing of real value in the way of international co-operation has yet been produced by the New Planners of Canberra and Wellington. (One of the brightest cartoons recently produced was in “Sydney Bulletin.”
The scene portrayed was the Sydney Royal Show’s cattle-ring; and in the picture was Old Farmer Evatt, leading an ungainly and depressed bull, The bull was labelled “UNO,” and on Evatt’s lapel was a ticket “Bull Exhibitor”!) Yet if the South Pacific Commission—scheduled to meet in Sydney in May—would only apply itself to the problem of a labour supply for the South Pacific, it could do much to assist the economy of some of the
most important and valuable Terri tories. Here are some examples.
BECAUSE the Solomon Island -t* natives have been drinking deeply of a special Malaita brew of Marxist doctrine, the natives gener ally are withdrawn and sulky, and will not work. BSI copra is in keen demand, but planters cannot get labour. Levers Pacific Plantations Ltd., proposed to bring in a few hundred Chinese from Hongkong.
The British Socialist Government condemns the plan—not because it is economically unsound, but because it may harm the indigenous natives, So the hungry world goes without BSI copra, and the rehabilitation of BSI plantations becomes almost im possible.
In Papua and New Guinea, Aus tralia holds some of the richest Territories in the South Pacific.
They could be enormously developed for the production of essential foods and materials, if private enterprise were allowed to run free, and labour were provided. But Socialistic Aus tralia taboos private enterprise and exotic labour. All considerations are subverted to Mr. Ward’s Utopian plan of keeping the Territories a close preserve for a million Melan esians, who are only just emerging from Stone Age conditions.
Monsignor Hannan, a very well known and experienced Roman
Catholic missionary, just arrived in Sydney from Bougainville, said: “One way in which Australia can secure her hold on her islands possessions is by encouraging Chinese immigra tion. Chinese are among the best settlers in the Territories to-day.”
We may not agree with the idea 01 Asiatic immigration; but It is sig nme ant that this leading missionary sees the real character of the prob lerP Papua-New Guinea, . -New Caledonia, a great metal industry is in danger of being crippled because the Planners cannot a £f e f. on a of indenturing Asiatic labour. There is a similar position in the New Hebrides, where planting industries based on copra, conee and cocoa, cannot get labour to replace the departing Tonkinese, Similar labour problems, varying according to local conditions, may be uncl . ln Samoa, and French Oceania, , T , , T N all these rich Islands there are ± opportunities for development, Given the labour to till the soil and tend and harvest the crops, they can produce on an enormous scale, for the assistance of a hungry world, and the benefit of their native in habitants.
In all the countries of south-east Asia, there are literally millions of men who would sell their souls, as well as the labour of their bodies, for a chance to go away to these happy Islands as indentured labourers.
We need only bring the two to gether—the opportunities and the
labour forces —to achieve incalculable economic good. The New Planners of London, Canberra and Wellington retort that we should also achieve incalculable social harm.
That is where we join issue. There is no reason why, if the repatriation clauses of the indenture contract are firmly policed, there should be any harm at all. We have Chinese per manently established in Tahiti and New Guinea, and IndianJs in Fiji, thus creating difficult racial prob lems, because the repatriation pro visos of the indenture systems were not adhered to. But there is no such problem in New Caledonia, Samoa, New Hebrides, where the system of bringing in Asiatic labour was strictly policed.
THE men who advocate the proper development of the South Seas Territories are just as sensitive as the Planners concerning the welfare of native races. In Fiji, for example, every European in Big Business—the “ruthless exploiters,” according to Mr. Ward—is the friend and well wisher of the natives, jealously guarding their rights and helping them, as individuals and as a com munity, towards higher cultural standards and the ability to govern themselves.
Men without knowledge and experi ence—and that term comprises the majority of the Planners—commit the gravest sin against the natives by “spoiling” them. The natives generally react splendidly to dis cipline, strength, jyjd firm, scrupulous justice. But' their re action to weakness, and indulgence, and the Brown Brother complex is calamitous —as is being proved in New Guinea now.
However, the Planners are in the box seats, for the moment; and their invariable reply to anyone who argues in favour of firm, disciplined control of the natives, and the use of private enterprise in developing the Territories, is “Oh, he’s only the mouthpiece of the vested interests.”
They can see no good in the old regime, such as that directed by the late Sir Hubert Murray.
THERE are high-class native popu lations in the phosphate islands of Nauru and Ocean—or there were, until they were decimated by the murderous Japanese invaders —and they have not been harmed by the introduction of many hundreds of Chinese and Gilbertese labourers, to work the phosphate deposits.
On the contrary, because a phos phate royalty is paid scrupulously to the indigenous landowners, the Nauruans and the Banabans of Ocean Island are the richest and best educated native communities in the Pacific. Because the world had to have phosphates, and local labour was undependable, the indentured labour system was made to work — with very happy results.
Similarly, the world now wants, most urgently, the products of the other Pacific Islands. Local labour is undependable—there is no reason
why the indigenous land-owners should work, anyhow. Indentured labour could be used there just as successfully as in Nauru and Ocean Islands—and for the enrichment and benefit of the natives. Why not?
It is all a matter of a realistic approach to these matters, of firm administration—and of keeping the Planners in their place.