Soft Pedal Urged for Raluana Affair

Raluana Affair

rOSE people who hoped for fire works or spectacular Admini stration action to bring the Raluana and other dissentient groups into the fold of Native Village Councils in the Gazelle peninsula area of New Britain, are

apt to be disappointed.

The Raluanas and a few other minority groups of the total 35,000 Tolai people have consistently re fused, on one pretext or another, to join a Village Council. The Ad ministration has alternately threat ened and cajoled them and, finally, the matter was to have been settled once and for all as soon as the Administrator, Brigadier D. M.

Cleland, returned to the Territory after leave at end of April.

It was believed that the Ad ministration would insist that the Raluanas and the other dissentient groups get into some Village Council—or else the Administration would lose face or antagonise those Tolais who are already operating Councils and helping to pay for their own social services.

But it seems that it may now be otherwise. Shortly before he left Rabaul on transfer, District Com missioner J. K. McCarthy—who a year ago was at the receiving end of a crutch wielded by one irate Raluana —had this to say: In the last three years there have been five Native Village Councils set up in Kokopo and Rabaul which cover some 30,000 Tolais. A proportion of these people numbering approximately 1,500 have not joined the Councils and have opposed being included in them.

Information from themselves regarding their opposition is not clear.

The Village Council system, as estab lished in Kokopo and Rabaul, has met with some very fine results, especially in the fields of health and responsibility. There is no doubt that the native people of the Tolai have shown themselves willing to shoulder responsibility. Last year the people of the Councils here paid £39,000 towards the upkeep of their schools, Aid Posts, Hospitals and roads.

But the minorities consider that by going into Councils they are going to lose some element of their native rights.

They fear they will be overruled by others. The groups that oppose the Councils are not financially well off. They do not own much land.

My advise to my successor is that these people should be given the opportunity of forming their own groups and small Councils. This has been objected to by some people, who have studied Native Village Councils and it has been tree y said that it is impracticable to form small Council groups. But that is a small price to pay for the sake of good native administration.

The Village Council system was initially described as voluntary, in

which event the Raluanas were only exercising their privilege in refusing to join the movement. Subsequently, there was a considerable amount of Administration pressure and, unfortunately, the whole affair, which should have been one of domestic politics, received a great deal of publicity. Today every shade of opinion exists among the residents of New Britain as to who is right is wrong about the Raluana affair — but most agree that the Administration could have handled fv, p niptfpv hpftpv me matier oeiier.