Britain’s SW Pacific

[?]Itorial Note

Britain’s SW Pacific Headache

U E must recognise the courage, T and the healthy spirit of optimism with which Sir hert Stanley faces his heartbreak ? task of trying to find a way which this great archipelago may developed for the general good, rightly argues that it is primarily job for private enterprise.

But —as the PIM repeatedly has mted out—the obstacles may not surmounted by a British Colonial nee preoccupied with Africa and est Indies affairs, and with little -erest in the South Pacific.

Fiji does not come into the pic re That Crown Colony already well-established and self-support

ing, and making sound economic progress under its own steam. The only other British possessions in the South Pacific are the Gilbert and Ellice Colony (an over-popu lated chain of atolls where no further developmental effort is needed), the British share of the New Hebrides (where all develop mental and settlement possibilities are literally paralysed by the exist ence of the Condominium), and the great Solomons archipelago, potenti ally rich but still economically use less, because neither Australian planter, South Seas trader nor British Government ever has found the initiative to establish a worth while industry there.

Sir Robert Stanley is doing—and will do—his very best, with the

limited facilities at his command.

But the task is one for Australia; and nothing much can be accom plished in the Solomons until that fact—with its economic and defence implications—is accepted by high officialdom. t Polynesian Association of Sydney meets at about 6-weekly intervals, or when any particular group of Islands people happens to be visit ing Sydney. It meets in a hall be low Victorian Tourist Bureau, north side of Martin Place, between Pitt and Castlereagh Streets, For in formation contact Mr. Len Moran, phone FW4661, between 6 pm-7 pm daily; postal address: PO Box 2232, Sydney, NSW.