Woeful Solomons

Activity Indicates Interesting Events in Honiara

From a Special Correspondent ALTHOUGH an air of excitement filled the Solomon Islands headquarters town of Honiara in early August, and there seemed to be important things afoot, officialdom was firmly Hush-Hush, and outsiders could merely guess at coming events.

It may be reported, however, that two developments are pending:— • Preparations are actively in hand for the transfer from Suva of the headquarters of the High Com mission for the Western Pacific (which has jurisdiction over British Solomon Islands, British section of New Hebrides, and Gilbert and Ellice Colony). • The British Minister for Colonial Affairs, Mr. John Dugdale, who was in and around Fiji from August 1 to mid-August, and who was to be in Sydney from August 15 to 18, was due to arrive in Honiara by Qantas Airways from Rabaul about August 20, and was expected to remain there for two weeks (un til the next fortnightly plane).

It is believed that the Minister will make some public statement about the new Western Pacific Com mission set-up, and the future administration of the Solomons.

VIEWED as a British Colony, the Solomon Islands are a woeful spectacle. With the recent departure of Mr. Corry, there are only a handful of independent European planters remaining in the group. European private enter prise has been driven out by war and Socialism. Retail trading, apart from the Government-owned Trade Scheme, is in the hands of Chinese.

Mr. Eric Lawson has resigned from the Trade Scheme management, to re-enter private enterprise.

The Administration, under the direction of the British Socialists, apparently cares nothing about development. It seems to be con cerned mainly with native welfare, and with the almost impossible task of establishing a town and port at Honiara, where a port should never be.

To-day, in all the Solomons, there is only one wharf at which an overseas ship can berth—and that is in the privately-owned port of Yandina, in the Russell group, head quarters of Levers. Tulagi—an ex cellent port—has been abandoned.

The wharf at Honiara has collapsed.

Nothing further has been heard about the proposal that Australia should take over British adminis tration in the Solomons and New Hebrides, which was seriously dis cussed at high levels last year. The few Britishers representing private enterprise in the Solomons definitely

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“to the kind is contemplated.

The equally small remnant of British interests left in New Hebrides, on the other hand hopes l et ' up C ?P“ tmue. The British say that the

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Viise and comfortable policy of a ? d are weU content with it. In their view, Australian administration would mean interference and irritation.