Pag. Com’N

Problems Of Sth.

Retirement of Secretary-General

IT was announced in Australian and New Zealand newspapers at the end of February that the Secretary- General of the South Pacific Commission, Mr. W. D. Forsyth, had decided to re linquish that position, and had asked the Commissioners to release him so that he might return to the service of the Aus tralian Department of External Territories.

He was given extended leave in 1948, to take up his present position.

It has been known for some time that Mr. Forsyth wished to return to the Australian service. He is outstanding among the able young men who came to the front while Dr. Evatt was Australia’s “Foreign Minister” —he was actually in Paris, in personal attendance on Dr.

Evatt, at some international conference there, when he was appointed to the Evatt-sponsored S. P. Commission. Al though he is only 42, he had had a distinguished career—first as a scholar and teacher, and then in the diplomatic service. In 1948, he was Counsellor at the Australian Embassy in Washington, and Australian Representative on the Trustee ship Council.

As soon as he took over his new job, Mr. Forsyth' displayed a genius for or ganisation and an extraordinary capacity for hard work; and the six nations con cerned can thank him for the speed with which the Commission took shape and character, and began to function.

It soon was apparent, however, that a blunder had been made by the gentlemen who selected Noumea, in New Caledonia, as the headquarters of the Commission.

Neither the Commissioners, the expert personnel nor the Commission’s staff like life in Noumea, where there are many difficulties connected with langu age, transport, communications, accom modation and cost of living. It is not suggested that the Noumea location led to the retirement of Mr. Forsyth; but it can be presumed that it added to his difficulties.

Mr. Forsyth’s decision to return to the Australian Department of External Affairs—where the condition of interna tional relations will provide him with better and wider opportunities—adds one more to the Commission’s headaches.

It means that the Commission’s two principal executive positions (Secretary- General and Deputy Chairman of the Research Council) now have to be filled.

If they are not adequately filled, the Commission cannot function as its founders intended.