Socialist Regime May Be Nearing Its

End In New Guinea

THE following was included in the A news broadcast from the ABC on Sunday morning, July 25: “The Minister for External Territories, Mr. Ward, has stated that the limit on expansion by white-men in New Guinea will be determined by the welfare of the natives. New plantations may be estab lished on T y with the approval of the Administration.

“Mr. Ward was replying to RSL com plaints that ex-Servicemen who did not live in the Territories before the war were not allowed to settle there. He said that people wanting to enter New Guinea or Papua must lodge a bond to ensure that they did not become a charge on the Administration and must be assured of a job, accommodation and transport.

“The acquisition of land was not actually forbidden, but the Administration would only allow the development of new areas if the welfare of the natives was not affected.”

There is nothing new in this. It is consistent with the policy which has been pursued by Mr. Ward ever since he became Australian Minister for Territories, and the Red Czar of New Guinea. But it is interesting to have this official pronouncement from the gentleman.

As a declaration of policy, it is like something out of dreamland—nebu lous, impractical and absurd. Euro pean enterprise and settlement can be kept out of New Guinea, of course

—but at a cruel and unjustifiable cost to the Australian taxpayer, and by sacrificing the safety of the Common wealth.

IN pre-Wardian days, European settlers mostly Australians-were encouraged to go into Papua and New Guinea, and develop the agri cultural and mineral resources of those huge islands. As a result, they produced large quantities of copra, rubber, cocoa, gold and shell; and the Government’s share of the nroceeds— derived from direct and indirect taxation—paid for all administration (which included the costs of supply ing various services for the benefit of the natives). Thus, the activities of planters, traders and miners all over the Territories did much towards “Europeanising” the natives, and towards providing the Territories with public utilities which were of great service in wartime.

The latter is an important con sideration. The Netherlands Indies, New Guinea and the Bismarck Archi pelago represent a nearly solid barrier between North Australia and the countless millions of Southern Asia, who now are becoming more Com munist every month, and who will come like a Red flood into the South Pacific, sooner or later. It is of supreme importance to Australia that

at least the nearer section of the barrier—eastern New Guinea and the Bismarck Islands—be developed and controlled by Australians, so that they may provide some sort of organisation that can be adapted for defence.

But under the Kings Cross planning of the present Territories Minister (a Kings Cross Planner is first cousin to a Bloomsbury Planner—and there is nothing in the long history of Eng land more calamitous than the accession to power of the Bloomsbury type of professional politician) Euro pean enterprise in the Territories is and has been sternly discouraged, the defence consideration ignored, and—failing adequate revenues from the Territories themselves the Aus tralian taxpayer has been and is being heavily called upon. In the year ended June 30, 1947, Australia contri buted some £2,000,000 to Territories administration, and in the year ended June 30, 1948, it will be found that the sum is nearer £3,000,000. Prior to the war and Wardism, the Territories cost Australia almost nothing.

All this is being done because, in the opinion of Mr. Ward, supported by some of his Ministerial colleagues and by a scintillating array of “advisers”—not one of whom had had any real practical experience of Territories conditions —the Territories must be kept as a close preserve for the primitive Melanesians who are the aboriginal inhabitants of the big islands. Mr. Ward and his supporters regard the Australians who pioneered Papua and New Guinea, tamed the '

head-hunters and established rich and valuable industries, as mere “profiteers” and “exploiters.” Mr.

Ward says that they “enslaved” the natives; and persons who challenge his dicta or criticise his policies are either ignored or described as “mouth pieces of vested interests.”

WITH the world literally clamouring for all the products of these tropical lands, there was every reason to expect, after the end of the Pacific war, the introduction of a Golden Age in New Guinea. From 1945 onwards there was—and still is—an extra ordinarily rich market for almost everything that the Territories could produce. There was enterprise avail able in the form of hundreds and thousands of young Australians, who, with encouragement, would very wil lingly have gone to these islands to establish themselves in both primary and secondary industries. And abun dant capital was provided in the fortuitous funds of the War Damage Commission—more than £12,000,000 accumulated as an insurance against possible loss through Jap invasion, and now available for rehabilitation purposes.

Had there been any intelligence, vision and real national purpose be hind the Wardist regime, Australia could have established in New Guinea, within five years of the Jap surrender, a large and flourishing Australian Colony, which would have strength ened her defences and her economy, and have been of immeasurable benefit to the indigenous natives.

But Mr. Ward and his team of Socialist dreamers chose instead the policy that already has cost the Aus tralian taxpayers £5,000,000, and that has demoralised the natives and broken the hearts of many of the Territories’ pioneer settlers. That generalisation is neither too sweeping nor too severe.

Mr. Ward, at first, tried to exclude altogether the big trading companies, the private ship owners and all young men who were eager to attempt a little pioneering on their own ac count. He set up a Production Con trol Board (to buy all the country’s produce and sell the producers all their requirements); and a Shipping Board, which made all sea transport a Government monopoly. He swept away the old native labour indenture system—which had been evolved in 20 years of trial and error, and which worked quite well for both whites and blacks—and put in its place a half baked product of anthropological planning, that is of little benefit to the natives and mostly an expensive embarrassment for the white em ployers. The years 1946 and 1947, which should have seen the beginning of great progress and prosperity in Papua and New Guinea, were a period of muddle and waste and extreme discouragement for everyone con cerned. including Administration officials.

The planters were discouraged be cause they could not get sufficient labour to rehabilitate their plan tations; they were forced to sell to

Mr. Ward, at Mr. Ward’s own price, the limited amount of copra they could produce, instead of getting the benefit of the world market; and they could not get enough transport from the Government either to shift their produce or to bring in their supplies.

The miners were discouraged because owing to lack of labour and transport, they could not get on with the re establishment of their valuable in dustry. The whole European com munity—and especially Mr. Ward’s own staff, the administrative officials —was unhappy and clamorously dis contented because the operation of the Wardist system sent all living costs sky-high.

THAT was in 1946 and 1947. The year 1948 has seen Mr. Ward in precipitate retreat. He has allowed the big trading companies to resume some of their operations. He is with drawing his control over sea trans port. He has announced the discon tinuance of the Production Control Board system—which means, presum ably, that control of copra production and sale will be restored eventually to the planters and the traders. He has been assailed by the public servants and threatened with a strike, if he does not recognise that the im possible living conditions he has created entitles them to some special consideration; and he is trying now to soothe them. But his pronounce ment of July 25 shows he still has a kick left.

UNLESS every sign and portent lies, the Australian Socialist Govern ment is on its way out. There will be a general election about July, 1949; and, within a year, we hone, a non- Socialist set-up in Canberra will introduce, in Papua and New Guinea, an administrative policy in which native welfare, European settlement, the establishment of industries, the encouragement of enterprise, and cer tain defence considerations will be brought into proper relation with each other, and in connection with which Australian financial obligations will be given some thought.

By 1950, we hope, the Australian Territories will have established a neat little political graveyard wherein there will be buried deep, under appropriate headstones, the Socialist policies of Mr. Eddie Ward, along with other unpleasant memories like •the Jap invasion and the timber getting enterprises of Mr. Jock Garden.

Mr. Ward’s pronouncements upon European enterprise in New Guinea, and the importance of sacrificing our interests to what he calls native wel ware, should not be taken out of focus. Within half a decade, we be lieve, “the Ed-Wardian era in New Guinea” will have taken its due and proper place as a strange episode in South Pacific history.

The Dutch ship “Tabian” called at Noumea, New Caledonia, in July, to re patriate the first 2,000 Javanese in dentured labourers who are returning to the Netherlands East Indies.