The Secretary for the Colonies

Meets a BSI Planter

WHILE in London recently, Mr. R.

Symes, planter, of the British Solo mon Islands (he is president of the |BSIP Planters’ Association and a member of the Advisory Council) was able, after much persistence, to more or less blud geon his way in to see the present Secre tary of State for the Colonies, Mr. Grif fiths.

Mr. Griffiths did not want to be seen; but, having once submitted, he was, ac cording to Mr. Symes, quite pleasant and seemed sympathetic to the troubles of BSI planters. Mr. Griffiths expressed amaze ment at the high rate of taxation levelled on the planting industry in the Solomons. It had, he said, not been pointed out to him before, and, it is understood, he will now have some one “look into the matter.”

He suggested that in future the BSI Planters’ Association place their com plaints directly before him instead of sending them through the regular chan nels—that is through the Resident Commissioner, BSIP, to the WPH Com missioner in Suva, and thence to London.

High Taxation for Planters

THERE are about a dozen independent planters in the BSI. It is. therefore, hardly surprising that their combined voices do not reach as far as London.

Lever Brothers, who have extensive planting interests in the Protectorate, are not interested in joining forces with the other planters; now, as before the war, the Lever Combine is interested in cheaper copra—not dearer copra, (A BSI planter in Sydney in November in forms us that Levers in Sydney quoted iiim £l4O per ton as their selling price for crude coconut oil. The source of jopra for this oil is not known, but it aossibly is P-NG copra, which is sold to Australian millers by the Australian gov ernment at the same price that is paid )y the MOP under long-term agreement, We are informed that a ton of copra nakes about I of a ton of coconut oil.) In the Solomons there is a 15 per cent, jxport tax on copra—levelled on the full (ross MOF price, not on the price received >y planters, which is less handling iharges. In addition, all income earned rom copra is subject to heavy income tax.

To take Planter X as a hypothetical iase:— L £ jross annual return on MOF

, P pce 10,000

✓ost of production, including

15 per cent, export tax .. 5,000 profit sio oo »SIP Income Tax 2.000 *ett income of planter £3,000 The gross return is based, of course, on he MOF price, which is about 50 per ent. of the world price. If the BSI Planter, who wanted no part of the MOF -years agreement, was getting the world rice for his copra, his expenses would be greater anc *’ though his income tax export tax would be more, he would irin c Pl ne ou t 9* the deal about twice as off as he is at present. It has been stimated that of the gross amount ■arned by BSI planters, the MOF—that Lou ? ritish Socialist Government— noLu Ut 45 per cent -i the BSIP Govem ab°ut 25 per cent.; and the pro ducer gets what is left.

THE planters of the Protectorate have no voice in their own affairs: they are suffered, not encouraged: the majority of officials sent out by the Colonial Office appear to feel that the Proctectorate would do as well without planters. Not one penny of war damage compensation was paid them. No assis tance, or even transport, was provided for these people to return after the war—the handful who did return made their own way back, carrying with them the bare essentials for starting off afresh.

Now that their plantations are produc ing again, almost three-quarters of the gross proceeds of their labours are skimmed off to help fill the coffers of the British Socialist Government—perhaps to help them finance more nutteries or egg farms in Darkest Africa.

None of the Big Firms have been so foolish as to re-establish themselves in BSI since the war; both W. R. Caroen ter & Co. and Burns Philp & Co., Ltd., have some shipping services in the Group, but neither has trading establishments or copra interests. There has not been one acre of new land planted in coconuts, and many leases of virgin land have been turned in.

This is not surprising when the ground rent for virgin land can be anything up to Q/- per acre per annum. (Continued Next Page.)

One asks, at this stage: what does the British Government intend for the Pro tectorate? And the answer, five years after the end of the war, is obviously, “Nothing.” Whether this is due to sheer inertia or deliberate Socialist policy is a matter of opinion.

It would be hard to convince any in telligent individual that Colonial Service officers approach a term in the Solomons with any enthusiasm. They must of ne cessity look upon their stay there merely as an interlude on the way to better things in Fiji or the West Indies or West Africa. If there is in existence any for ward-looking, constructive and practical plan for the development of the British Solomons, we have not heard of it.

Such rebuilding as there has been in the Protectorate since the end of the war

appears to have been in constructing houses at Honiara for Government offi cials to live in. If there has been any' attempt to lay the foundations of new' industries, native or European, we have: not heard of it.

IT might be asked, why do planters stay there under such adverse con ditions? The answer, of course, is that even with the worst that the British Socialists can do, copra is still profitable.

Looking beyond the immediate scene, however, the fact that there are only a* dozen or so European planters in the whole of that vast fertile area is testi mony to the fog of frustration that! shrouds the Protectorate at the present) time.

No doubt the UK Socialists, if and when they spare a moment’s thought fori this distant speck-in a once mighty Em pire, feel that they are making the Group safe for the Solomon Islanders. The Solo mon Islanders, however, seem even more reluctant than do the Papua-New Guinea natives to get down to hard work on theiß own account.

Presumably, the Whitehall Socialists be lieve that, come another war in the Paci fic, the United States will again be undei some moral obligation to prevent the British Protectorate from becoming ar outpost of Asia.

RETURNING briefly to Mr, Symes anc his interview with the Secretary foi the Colonies: The professional ami ability of the politician can be generally discounted, so it seems unlikely that th« amazement of Mr. Griffiths at the high taxation suffered by BSI planters will b* sustained sufficiently long for him to do anything practical about it.

The only way that the few planters in the Protectorate have of getting any rei dress for their grievances is in making common cause with the stronger planters organisations of the Australian territories and Fiji, who also have grievances—aIJ though in lesser number than their BSi friends.