Administrator

Nauru’S New

Now On Duty

ONE of the most-criticised of the Aus tralian Socialist Government’s “poli tical appointments”—that of the se lection of the South Australian Labour Party leader, Mr. Richards, to be Admin istrator of the Trust Territory of Nauru —was brought to finality on December 21, when Mr. Richards arrived in Nauru on one of the British Phosphate Com pany’s ships.

Our Canberra correspondent says there is no truth in the report that the Administrator-elect’s departure from Australia early in December was connected with the Australian general election on December 10, when the Socialists were thrown out of office and replaced by a Government pledged to wipe out political appointments of all kinds.

But it is no secret that the appoint ment is viewed with sharp disfavour by

the Menzies Government. Furthermore, it is no secret that certain high officials in Canberra recommended that one of three men, all experienced in tropical islands administration, be selected for ap pointment; and that these officials did not conceal their disgust when the Chifley Cabinet selected instead a Trades Hall personality, who —so far as is known— had never seen a Pacific island, Mr.

Richards is now in receipt of £1,500 per annum, plus £l5O per annum “entertain ment allowance,” plus a furnished resi dence.

A Nauru correspondent writes: “Our new Administrator is qualified by size; Pacific Islands natives are always im pressed by big men as leaders. We have learned with interest that he is a tee totaller (he was a prominent Rechabite in Adelaide) and a non-smoker. Mr.

Richards was married just before leaving Adelaide, and his wife has accompanied him to Nauru. We like her but we are sorry to note that she is in poor health, and is apparently feeling this equatorial climate in mid-summer.”

Nauru wishes the Adelaide Trades Hall could supply a medical officer as easily as it supplied an Administrator. The

island has been without a medical man for some time. The MO from Ocean Island has been over in Nauru, relieving; and he now has remained on there to introduce and assist the newly-appointed doctor from Australia, who is a Pole.

The Department of External Terri tories, late in 1949, sent a number of New Australians —Central European men with European medical degrees—to be medical officers in Papua and New Guinea.