Pre-Ed-Wardian Days

HOW WHITES ABUSED BLACKS IN NG IN

Interesting Lecture to Students By Anthropologist Hogbin (Lieut.-Colonel)

THE following is an exact copy of a report which appeared in the Union Recorder of April 29. The latter is a newspaper, published in connection with the University of Sydney, and presumably is read by many students.

ON Wednesday, April 21, Dr. lan Hogbin’s talk to the Anthropplogical Society on “Race Relations in New Guinea” contained a wealth of incident and anecdote, which, stemming from his wide knowledge of life in New Guinea, more than effectively bore out his central theme of race prejudice.

Dr. Hogbin began by pointing out that there were Europeans in New Guinea who had no racial prejudice and to whom skin pigment was a matter of indiffer ence. These people were usually to be found in official or mission circles, and among the independent miners were men who learnt to appreciate the native as a human being by working at his side.

Most of the European residents were, however, extraordinarily sensitive about what they referred to as “white prestige,”

They proclaimed themselves to be sup erior by virtue of their lighter hue and insisted that those otherwise endowed should on all occasions show them defer ence. Though the natives’ homage had to be sought, understanding and such everyday virtues as sympathy, kindness and consideration are looked upon as handicaps in dealing with them.

Dignity was best upheld by ignorance, discourtesy was thought to be indispen sable, and there were those who advo cated positive brutality.

During the war, Dr. Hogbin said, cer tain ANGAU officials who had previously

lived in the country had done their best to impose the principles of “white pres tige” on the troops. Instructions were issued that natives were not to be picked up by jeeps—where of necessity they would have sat in close proximity to a European—unless they were travelling on army business. A further striking illus tration of the popular attitude occurred in Madang immediately after its recapture, where two tanks were installed for drink ing, both full of the same chlorinated water, but labelled respectively “European Personnel” and “Natives Only.”

All coloured persons fell under the ban irrespective of their background and edu cation. Natives travelling to Australia by plane to complete their training as teachers received none of the food served to the white passengers, and had to be content with biscuits, even though they paid full fares.

THE use of the word “boy” for the native was indicative of the role to which he was assigned. He was ex pected to revere the white man in the way that a child looked up to his elders.

In 1947 the Administrator’s order that the expression must not in future appear in official documents, was the butt of much jeering from the “old hands” at what they judged to be administrative fatuousness. “Boy” was justified by some on the ground that the Melanesians were

a child race incapable of mental develop ment after the age of twelve.

These were the persons who opposed higher education for natives as a ridi culous waste of public funds, an attitude which was responsible some years ago for the cancellation of the permit granting seven natives the opportunity for medical training in Australia.

Rough speech was not infrequently ac companied by the use of strong-arm methods. In the booklet ‘You and the Native,’ prepared by the Allied Geograph ical Section, South-west Pacific Area, officers and NCO’s serving in the Pacific Islands were advised, when dealing with a recalcitrant native, to .“crack him.”

The booklet was written by a man who had lived in Papua for 20 years.

Dr. Hogbin believed that the simpler manifestations of the prevailing attitude had their origin, in part, in economics.

Each of the natives’ tentative advances touched the pocket and endangered some one’s livelihood.

Of importance also was the fact that white men were a tiny minority, and it was just possible that sexual jealousy might also be involved. The young labourer was often a better physical specimen than his master was willing to acknowledge.

HE then went on to describe the re action of the natives to the white attitudes.

Before the war the native, it seemed to many, accepted his inferiority. He was self-effacing and obedient, and neither answered back nor defended him self from cuffs and kicks; in other words, he knew his place. In those days they knew from experience how unpleasant the consequences of opposition were likely to be. But even then one had only to gain their confidence to realise the absence of any spontaneous regard for the white man.

The envy that they expressed for the

whites’ knowledge was attributed merely to opportunity and 'nowhere was it looked upon as a fundamental quality of genius inevitably associated with a light skin. Indeed even the least sophisticated natives considered themselves to be the white man’s intellectual equal. The groups living in the more remote areas, where information about our economic system had not yet penetrated, ascribed sup eriority of technical equipment to magic.

“White prestige,” and the claim which accompanied it, thus had had the reverse effect from what was intended—the re sult was not respect, but resentment.

Europeans were painfully aware that the old esteem, or what they took to be esteem, was no longer forthcoming. The people displayed no great keenness to enter employment. They reported as saults, asked for high wages and even went on strike when these were refused.

The chief reason for the change, Dr.

Hogbin believed, was that for the time being the natives were independent. Cash was far more plentiful than it used to be in 1939. Good wages were earned during the war, high prices were paid by the troops for curios, and generous payments had been handed over as com pensation for war damage. The supply of goods in the trade stores, on the other hand was extremely meagre, and there was little incentive to go on piling up more money. It was often said that the troops “spoiled” the natives, a view which one could only counter with the query, spoiled them for what?

History of Dr. Hogbin

THE comments which we should like to make here are probably the com ments that will be made by every European resident of the Territories, official and non-official, who has resided there long enough to understand Terri tories conditions, and the native mind.

Therefore, we shall refrain from the em ployment of language that might become offensive in character.

But perhaps our readers would like to know something about the gentleman responsible for tnese very remarkable statements.

Dr. lan Hogbin is a .gentleman in middle age. He was born in England, ai}d educated in Australia, and he has been for many years a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Sydney. He has done a good deal of what is called anthropo logical research work in the South-west Pacific—Melanesian natives seem to be his preoccupation—and he has written copipusly about his work. He is a good looking bachelor, of charming manners.

Activities of this kind are necessary, m an academic sense, and the gentlemen who engage in them can do little harm— unless they are put into positions where they are given authority to enforce their idealistic and generally unpractical ideas Then they become a super-nuisance. „r? hat , is what happened to Dr. Hogbin When that notable Trades Hall product, Mr. Eddie Ward, became Minister for Territories and proceeded to knock cor ners off hated Private Enterprise and create a Socialist Paradise for Stone-Age Natives he gathered around him a little croup of what he called “experts,” to instruct him on Territories affairs. The group included some notable academic planners and dreamy theorists, but not one man of practical Territories experi ence Prominent in the group was lan Hogbin, Doctor of Philosophy and pro fessional anthropologist.

The group was given a high-sounding v? me :T R L esearch Bureau, or something hke that—and attached to the Army; and all the members were awarded high Army Commissions. The head of it was a medical student from the University— he became a full Colonel. Dr. lan Hogbin was created a Lieut-Colonel, and he travelled around Australia and the Terri

tories, fully apparelled as a Lieutenant- Colonel and doubtless enjoying the usual pay and privileges of a battalion-commander He was never a combatant officer, in any shape or form, and it is ridiculous that a mere anthropological investigator should have had that' rank and uniform- yet he now doubtless wears a returned soldier’s badge, and he certainly is described in “Who’s Who” as having served in the AIF. He is legally entitled to all these things, having been selected for favour bv the Canberra Socialists; but that does not prevent old Territorians from being exceedingly bitter on the subject of “Lieut.-Colonel” Hogbin.

Thev will not feel any better after reading the above report!

After the war, Dr. Hogbin apparently remained in the highest councils of the Territories Administration. Not long ago, he travelled around Eastern Papua on the “Laurabada” with the Administrator, but few COUld describe his status, or say why he was there.

THIS journal always has expressed the belief that there was nothing wrong with Australia’s treatment of the New Guinea natives prior to 1940—that the native policy, measured in terms of native progress by decades, was sound and justified. Appoint probably had been reached in 1940 when it was desirable that the native nolicv be reviewed, to see if (a) n^e Ve Territory’s rich 1 revenues could not be more advantageously used for native welfare and (b) whether the svstem of indentured labour could not be more closely tied in with plans for technical training of natives.

That was an evolutionary move, and it wuKftTSTffl was no tetiSton whatever for the madheaded invasion of the New Guinea administration by Messrs. Evatt and Ward,

on the grounds that the natives had been enslaved, and the European companies guilty of ruthless exploitation. That move had its origin in Socialist politics.

It was undertaken by Australian Socialist interests eager to develop a political advantage, irrespective of truth; it was forwarded by Mr. Eddie Ward, as a matter of lifelong habit and as an out come of his psychopathic hates; and it has been eagerly supported by Lieut- Colonel lan Hogbin, Doctor of Philosophy and professional anthropologist, and various Pink Planners who have contri buted so much lately to world chaos.

Judging by the pernicious stuff in “Union Recorder,” Dr. lan Hogbin is still carrying on his work for Mr. Eddie Ward.