Moresby PS Protests
pp. 30-32 · Read in the full issue
From a Special Correspondent
Port Moresby, June 17.
THE threatened protest meeting of civil servants in the Moresby area (see “PIM” for June), took place on Thursday June 10. Several hundred people stopped work at 3.15 p.m, and assembled in the open at Konedobu.
Officials of the Public Service Associa tions reviewed the history of the dispute, and then put a motion of protest before the meeting.
The motion, which was carried, pro tested on seven grounds:— ■ That the salaries specified in the new classification are still inadequate; ■ that salary increases should be re trospective to March 1, 1947; ■ that cost of living is still alarmingly high; ■ that the housing situation is de teriorating; ■ ,that the Government’s failure to secure staff will cause an administrative breakdown; ■ that the recently imposed electricity charges are exorbitant; ■ that there has been undue delay in providing a Public Service Ordinance and arbitration machinery.
The motion concluded with a state ment that the Public Service Associations have no confidence in the present ad ministration of the Department of Ex ternal Territories.
On the same date as the nrotest meet ing, a spokesman of the Public Service Associations announced that a reply to a previous communication had been re ceived from the Prime Minister, in which he stated that the matters raised in the motion of protest were receiving con sideration.
The Combined Council of the Associa tions will meet again next week to dis cuss latest developments, MEANWHILE, an officer of the De mrtment of External Territories, Mr. Crawley, has arrived in the Territory. He has met representatives of the Public Service Associations and ex plained asnects of the new salary scales.
He has also promised to bring certain matters, raised bv the nublic servants, to the attention of his Department.
Prince Tug!. Crown Prince of Tonga, arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, on the June “Matua.” He will undergo medical treatment.
Mr. Walter A. Foote, United States Consul-General in Batavia, visiting San Francisco in May, announced to the World Trade Association that Indonesi an trade will revive. In normal times, the Netherlands Indies export four times what they import. Principal exports are rubber, palm oil, copra, tin, fibres, and petroleum.