Cautionary

Debate On New Guinea.

Un Produces Mild

Tale For Trustee

After a debate that ranged at times from the fatuous to the ill informed, the U nited Nations Trusteeship Council at New York, on July 20, approved its annual re , port on the Australian administra- I tion of New Guinea. The report might he described as a Cautionary Tale.

VOTING was 9-1. Russia voted against adoption of the report; Syria and Australia abstained.

Australian sources at UN head , quarters said that the report was the most balanced yet offered by the council on the trust territory of New Guinea.

I The report expresses satisfaction that the area under administrative control or influence increased from 84,500 to 86,100 square miles in 1954 ■“through the Administration’s policy lof peaceful penetration.”

DURING the debate, the Indian representative continued what I seems to be a New Delhi minor cold war against Australia over the ■administration of both New Guinea and Nauru.

For example, Mr. Rikhi Jaipal said that since the approval of the ■trusteeship agreement there had been little achievement in the New Guinea political field.

I He said that not one indigenous L-community had evolved to the stage i where it could advise the Adminis- Itration in a responsible, democratic ; manner, and added that the admin istering authority’s many achieve ments paled in significance beside ithe fact that so much of the terri- Itory had yet to be explored.

THE Australian representative (Mr.

W. D. Forsyth) said: “I believe that our work of penetration of the wild -'land and peoples of New Guinea is without parallel in history. I know of no case where a territory o* com parable size and a population of comparable characteristics have been brought within the framework of civilised society with as little loss aru *. Practically speaking, without bloodshed. ‘We had to do this slowly, patiently. You would surely not |prefer that we had done it with the brutal rapidity of a military con quest!”

IT was fruitless to deplore the scarcity of people yet ready for higher forms of self-govern ment said Mr. Forsyth. Time was essential, and patience was the only attitude that squared with the facts.

Australian authorities concerned

Tahitians at

Auckland

These people from Tahiti were recently snapped at Auckland, where the women mem bers of the group are now resident. Left to right: Mrs. Aurore Harvey, formerly Miss Thompson; Mrs. Liliane Boot, formerly Miss Walker; Mr. Charles Poroi, son of Papeete's Mayor; Mrs. Isabelle Muir, formerly Miss Walker; Mr. Muir; and two Harvey children