France In The South Pacific

High French Official Comments on Article in PIM

PARIS, April 9.

IN an interview with this correspondent, M. Nicolai, Chief of the Cabinet of the Ministry of Colonies and Associa ted States, said Australia was now and especially since the last war, de veloping a tendency to expansion in the

Pacific which led it to criticise its neigh bours. He was answering an editorial in Pacific Islands Monthly of February.

M. Nicolai explained that this expan sionist movement was quite “normal” in a country which had given to the world all the proofs of statesmanship and courage which Australia had given. But this tendency gave the Australian people the habit of criticising their neighbours, because they believed unconsciously they could do better.

Commenting on the editorial point by point, M. Nicolai said “I can give you an example of what I mean when I say the Australians are taking an increasing interest in their neighbours, “Unofficial talks have already taken place, with the full acceptance of Great Britain, with a view to having Australia replace Britain in the Franco-English condominium of the New Hebrides.

“Of course,” he said, “Britain could not give to Australia more than Britain has-herself. She could only ask France if we would agree to administer the New Hebrides with Australia instead of with Britain.”

M. Nicolai said that although this showed clearly the general tendency of Australian politics, and explained the criticism in the editorial about the French Territories, he thought there were

The editorial in the February PIM pointed out that New Caledonia and French Oceania were inclined to drift into closer association with the British Do minions of the South Pacific, and with the United States, and correspondingly farther away from France, because of the following influences: (a) Close personal and commercial ties were formed between the Anglo- American nations and the French Pacific Colonies in 1940-45, while the Colonies were completely* isolated from France, and were making common cause with the Anglo-Americans in the war against Japan. (b) The New Caledonian and French Oceania people are not happy concerning the class of officials whom the Govern ment of France send out to take charge of their administration—too large a pro portion of them were Vichy-ites. who more or less collaborated with their enemies after 1940. (c) The French Pacific Colonies are not happy about the apparent drift of Prance towards the Left. The French Government seems to be dominated by Socialists, and an alarming number of the French people adhere to the Communist Party.

“no real problems for France there.” “If France had no more difficult problems to solve in its foreign territories than those the PIM writer mentions, we should be very happy indeed,” he added.

M. Nicolai explained, with a smile, that . the so-called French Socialism —“The i little sister of Communism” —had had J some pretty strong brothers in both j Australia and New Zealand, where j Labour Governments had gone much j farther to the Left than the French Gov- ■ ernment had ever been. “After all,” he< said, “England is a full-fledged Socialist c country, and I don’t suppose anybody will J believe England is in favour of Commun- ■ ism.”

M. Nicolai admitted that there had been, and still were “local troubles from the difficult years of the last war.’’ But, he said, they were only purely local com ditions, which would disappear with time and goodwill.

The French Colonial Service, he ex plained, uses a rotating system for its Civil Service people, and it might well be true that some men who had served during the war in Dakar, for an example, had been sent later to the Pacific Islands.

But, he said, the fact that Civil Service men were, during the war, in a Territory controlled by the Vichy Government, did not mean that these people were in favour of such a Government.

The French Pacific Islands had always been places where a lot of local “poli tics” had been noted as between different factions there. But these things never went any further than the local level.

Speaking about the so-called “Anglo- American influence” in the French Pacific Islands, M. Nicolai said: “The French Territories have the same nostalgia for the dollar, and of the easy spending American people as any other country in the world which had the American Army and which has had to come back to its own poor currency afterwards.”

It is quite normal, he said, that “French Civil Service men should be on a kind of a defensive stand in front of this dollar trend. When France finished the war she was a poor country, and she cannot spend as much money as she would like to in these Territories.”

Though, he said, he understood per fectly the Australian trend to replace the British influence in this part of the world, it should not be forgotten that France came out of the last war physically and politically exhausted, and that it takes time to rebuild a new world.

Mr. and Mrs. W. B. Faithorn, of Port Moresby, were visiting Mr. Leo Austin, formerly of the Papuan service now of Casino, NSW, in mid April. Mr. Faithorn who is Chief Magistrate in Moresby says that drunkenness, gambling and attempts to molest European women have greatly

increased among Papuans since the war.

The Rev. and Mrs. H. C. Kent, who were missionaries with the Methodist Indian Mission in Fiji before the First World War, celebrated 40 years of marriage in Victoria in April. They were married in Suva by the late Rev. A. J. Smale.