[?]ing Space for

[?] ther Pacific Migration? [?]ing Space for Gilbertese in BSIP

has been learned that ten Gilbertese have just spent several months in the Western mons where they have been Idering “the suitability of Gizo imited Gilbertese resettlement.” e Gilbertese have now gone to Tarawa and what their re ns are to Gizo as a new home unknown. (The Gilberts are rowded, of course, and resettle ■ of surplus population is a [C problem). they are considering Gizo itself, settlement will, indeed, be ex ngly limited. Gizo island—one b most picturesque spots in the —is largely a hump of red nic mud, with a tiny fringe of land around the edge. My g impressions of it are the that to see anyone you walk le steep path or another like lountain goat; and that, itically in the background yhere (or it may be fore d) is the towering, floating that constitutes the island of ibangara. why Gizo? I understood the District Officer in charge zo 18 months ago, that these rn Islands were reasonably

well populated, and that the natives thereabouts were keener than most BSIP indigines to develop their land. Why not Guadalcanal or somewhere else where there is space and few people.

It could be said, of course, that the largeness of Guadalcanal would be totally foreign to atoll natives. But in for a penny, in for a pound—Gizo bears about as much resemblance to the Gilberts as the Nullabor plain of Central Australia does to NSW’s Blue Mountains.

Hu Farm, a dozen miles or so outside Honiara, and from which it was planned to teach the BSIP natives to be peasant farmers, is now for sale. Why cannot the Gilbertese buy that? To be sure they would be miserable. But all migrants are—and their children and grandchildren might benefit.

Eighteen months ago, I and the PIM suggested that Guadalcanal might blossom and bloom if selected Fiji-Indians wen? invited to take up land there. This seedling idea was planted on barren ground and was ignored except for a mild rebuke frem the High Commissioner to the effect that there was not enough land for the Solomon Islanders themselves.

It would be interesting to know how many more acres of Guadal canal are under cultivation in Oc tober, 1954, than in April, 1953.

In many respects the US Marines appear to have wasted their time when they bothered to take that

country back from the Japs.