High Commissioner
p. 29 · Read in the full issue
P-NG Administrator Should Be High Commissioner Present Position Absurd— Could Be Embarrassing
ALTHOUGH Papua-New Guinea outstrips most other Islands territories of the Pacific as to size, population, potential wealth and strategic importance, the head of its Administration is still His Honour the Administrator, while the heads of other, less important, Islands territories are either Gov ernors, High Commissioners or the like.
Mr. E. A. James, elected Member for Papua in the P-NG Legislative Council, believes that it is high time this ridiculous position was remedied —and many people will agree with him. The matter was first discussed in an article in PIM in August, where it was said that if Brigadier Cleland should' have much to do with his neighbours and colleagues in other Territories the set-up could be embarrassing for him as a mere Administrator and bad for Aus tralian prestige.
It is a fact that since the death in 1940 of Sir Hubert Murray, who was Lieutenant-Governor of Papua and entitled to be addressed as His Excellency, Australia has kept her chief executive officers in Papua and New Guinea as “Administrator” and therefore ranking after Governors, High Commissioners, Common wealth Ministers and even Aus tralian State Ministers. No reason has ever been given for this absurd policy and it is variously attributed to a hang-over from Wardist social ism or a jealous preservation of Canberra bureaucracy.
Mr. James, during the November session of the PNG Legislative Council, said that steps should be taken immediately to have the head of the P-NG Administration given a title befitting his position, and suggested that he should become His Excellency, The High Commis sioner for Papua and New Guinea.
Diffidence, belittlement and self abasement were not attributes that had any merit in the field of inter national affairs, he said, and if the present Administrator of P-NG ever found himself in conference with the leaders of other South Pacific territories—such as the Governor of Fiji, the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific, the Governor- General of Netherlands New Guinea and the Governor of American Samoa, to name but a few —he would find himself down at the end of the table, last in order of pre cedence.