South Pacific Commission

Ninth Session Reviews Important Activities

rHE ninth Session of the South

Pacific Commission opened at

s headquarters in Noumea on Mon ay, April 28 and was expected to

ist about 12 days.: The following

ttended:

Australia

enior Commissioner: Mr. J. R, Halligan, Special Adviser to the Minister for Territories. ommissioner: Professor K. O. Shatwell, Professor of Law and Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Sydney.

Iternate Commissioners: Mr. D. St. A.

Dexter. Officer-in-Charge of the South Pacific Sub-Section, Department of External Affairs. Mr. E. N. Kruger, Officer-in-Charge of South Pacific Com mission Section, Department of Terri tories. dviser: Mr. H. D. Anderson, Australian Consul. Noumea.

France

;nior Commissioner: M. R. L. Lassalle- Sere, Inspector-General of Overseas France and Senator of the French Es tablishments of Oceania, immissioner: M. A. C. Jouanin, Adminis trator of Overseas France and Chief of Cabinet, New Caledonia.

Netherlands

-nior Commissioner: Mr. N. A. J. de Voogd, Minister Plenipotentiary, Ne therlands Embassy, Canberra, mimissioner: Mr. J. A. van Beuge. New Guinea Division of the Department of Overseas Territories, The Hague, ternate Commissioner: Mr. P. J. Mer kelijn, District Commissioner of the Civil Service in Netherlands New Guinea.

New Zealand

nior Commissioner: Mr. C. G. R.

McKay, formerly Secretary of the De partment of Island Territories.

Iviser: Mr. D. S. Reid, Department of Island Territories.

United Kingdom

■ting Senior Commissioner: Mr. H. H.

Vaskess. C.M.G., 0.8. E., formerly Sec

retary of the Western Pacific High Commission.

Acting Commissioner: Mr. C. S. de C.

Reay, 0.8. E., Commissioner of Labour, Fiji.

Alternate Commissioner: Mr. H. A, C.

Dobbs, Assistant Secretary to the Wes tern Pacific High Commission.

United States

Acting Senior Commissioner: Dr. K. C.

Leebrick, Liaison Officer-Historian.

Trust Territory of Micronesia.

Acting Commissioner: Mr. C. G. Ross, Office of Dependent Area Affairs, De partment of State.

Advisers: Mr. R. S. Herman, Secretary of Guam; Mr. P. E. Haring, American Consul, Noumea.

Principal Officers

Secretary-General: Sir Brian Freeston,

Kcmg, Obe.

Deputy Secretary-General: Mr. John Ryan.

Deputy Chairman of the Research Coun cil: Dr. E. M. O-jala.

Executive Officer for Health. Research Council: Dr. E. Massal.

Executive Officer for Social Development.

Research Council: Mr. H. E. Maude.

Obe.

The Session is under the chairman ship of Mr. N. A. J. de Voogd. He has spent 22 years in Holland’s

foreign service, mainly in the Far

East.

Activities In Three Fields

A main task of the Session is to review the Commission’s work pro (Continued on Page 121.)

ramme. This covers 37 projects in le three principal fields of economic evelopment, health and social de dopment.

As Coconuts are the main crop of ic South Pacific, the Commission as appointed to its staff, to advise rovernments on measures for the svelopment of the coconut industry, Ir. W. V. D. Pieris, lately Acting 'irector of the Ceylon Coconut Re :arch Institute. He will work in lis region for two years.

To help Governments to meet a intinued expansion in world demand >r cocoa, the Commission recently Mr. D. H. Urquhart, late- Director of Agriculture in the Gold oast, to survey the prospects for >coa in the region. Mr. Urquhart is already began his tour, and camming the prospects for coffee, id tea as well.

Because supplies of fish—a basic ►od—are insufficient in some terri iries, while in most there are press g problems concerned with trans it!, storage, processing and market g, the Commission has organised a acific Fisheries Conference, which ill open at Noumea on May 14.

The Commission will have before at this Session the report of Dr. atala on the Gilbert Islands, which concerned with the economic pro ems of atolls generally. Among s many recommendations, he has :plained how coconut groves can 5 improved, pig production in cased, and fish resources protected, ithout upsetting the delicate balance !ween man and nature.

In the field of health, the Com ission nutritionist and biochemist e continuing their field and boratory research on diets of acific island children and adults, id on food values of the coconut id its by-products.

The Commission has engaged a >ted American specialist in leprosy, r. Norman R. Sloan of New York, undertake for the Netherlands ew Guinea Administration an in

vestigation into leprosy problems.

An important part is being taken by the Commission in a campaign against elephantiasis and filariasis, two mosquito-borne debilitating diseases prevalent mainly in the Eastern Pacific. On the recommen dation of last year’s conference in Papeete, the Commission is acting as focal point for collecting and dis seminating information on filariasis.

Professor J. P. Thijsse has just completed an islands survey, to de termine the types of native houses and public buildings most suited for the widely-varied climates and con ditions of the South Pacific.

To stimulate production of simple literature for island peoples in Eng lish, French and vernacular langu ages, the Commission recently set up the South Pacific Literature Bureau at its social development office in Sydney. Mr. D. B. Roberts, formerly Acting Director of the Central African Literature Bureau, is in charge.

The Fourth Meeting of the Com mission’s Research Council will open on June 10.

Mr. L. J. Dumbleton, Senior En tomologist of the Cawthron Institute at Nelson, New Zealand, has been appointed Plant and Animal Quar antine Officer to the South Pacific Commission, and is expected to take up his duties in Noumea at the end of May. Mr. Dumbleton has con ducted several surveys related to problems of plant and animal quar antine in Western Samoa and Cook Islands.

The protection of primary pro duce and livestock is of vital im portance in the South Pacific, in view of the growth of sea and air communications.

Two motor buses are now operat ing in Santo, New Hebrides, in opposition to Tonkinese taxi-jeeps whose owners find their incomes re duced as a consequence.