No Compensation
p. 23 · Read in the full issue
One Planter’s Comments
Letter to the Editor THE Western Pacific High Commission has announced; “Bearing in mind that the normal revenues of these territories (Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony and British Solomon Islands Pro tectorate) are insufficient to meet their recurrent costs of administration and that the principal factor to be considered is the degree to which payments by way of compensation are in fact needed to effect rehabilitation or to restore economic productivity, the High Commissioner has been unable to recommend to the Secre tary of State for the Colonies the payment of any war damage compensation by these territories.”
A study of this official jargon indicates that the High Commissioner is of opinion that war damage in the territories men tioned was not worth while worrying about and that, in any case, the cost of restoring plantations or commercial ven tures to their pre-war condition would be so paltry as not to warrant the attention of His Majesty’s Government.
I wonder how many of the companies and individuals who lost heavily as a re sult of the Japanese invasion will accept cheerfully such a glib dismissal of their claims. Furthermore, if it is really be lieved that the cumulative effects of many years of war damage are so negligible, how does it come about that even at this stage copra production in particular is so far behind pre-war volume?
I have no doubt that the individuals and companies who have tackled the job of rehabilitation would have little diffi culty in proving that heavy capital ex penditure without any governmental as sistance has been necessary to achieve
the mediocre results obtained to date.
Whatever assistance was offered by the government had too many strings tied to it to be in the least attractive.
This latest pronouncement will do nothing to allay the feeling of planters that their temporal lords and masters are not in the least sympathetic to their hopes of re-establishing themselves and stabilising their position.
The confession that the revenues of the territories are insufficient to meet ad ministrative costs will continue to be true until such time as the government realises that the development of these countries requires outside capital, which must be fostered and encouraged—a policy de signed to deal with conditions as they are now, not one based on illogical dreams of a tropical Utopia.
I am, etc.,
Manly, N.S.W.