Cinderella Solomons?

[?]rguments in Favour of an Asiatic Colony

[?]Hat Shall We Do With The

By Paul Mason

EOPLE ask: What is wrong with the British Solomon Islands Protectorate? t would be easier to make a short of “What is right with the EP?”

'hat word “Protectorate” is the . BSI should be a Colony, t takes courage these days to de d Colonialism; but then it took rage to colonise and build Em ts. The advancement of the pies of this world to-day owes it of its progress to that spirit, he crushing of the colonising •it in the Solomons goes back a : way. The Commissioners, mak laws and administering them

r the Pacific Orders-in-Council, the word “Protectorate” always ■e them to influence their ies.

VERNMENTS must live on the leople they govern—unless they an find some other people to )rt the m. The Solomons nistrations for many years dis ced the true colonist. 3y found by experience that had to have outside capital to nd thereby exist. Their solution o encourage the big companies, irms were less of a headache ie officials than the small ists; and, anyway, it was a ectorate,” and colonists were anted. little men started to move out after the first Resident Com ber moved in with his Gov :nt, and by 1939 very few re d, leaving the field to the n companies.

Companies, given incentive, nd will develop such a place; leir profits are taken out of

juntry, leaving the indigenes

better off. The true colonist is in his adopted country with

the fruits of his labour The country’s welfare is his welfare The natives, whose care should be —and was supposed to be—the main object of the Protectorate did not thrive or advance much. Such pro gress as was made was almost wholly

due to the Christian Missions. The position in the Solomon has de teriorated since 1921.

The w e 11-meaning, blundering idealists of the Post-World War II period did not help.

They had hoped to run the country with the indigenes and the Chinese. They failed, and then sought to woo the big firms, with varying success. Only of latter years nas the little man been given en couragement.

Unfortunately, it is too late The Government has grown too big in proportion to the country’s earn

Fhe writer of this article for the PIM Mr. Paul Mason, a planter in Bougain e, who first went into the Solomon »nds some 40 years ago. He now lives se to the boundary between the British smons and the Australian Solomons ka and Bougainville), and he has owed developments thereabouts for r decades. aul Mason was a much-decorated man World War 11. He was a coast-watcher i stayed on Bougainville and, although ted constantly by Jap patrols, he kept Americans in Guadalcanal apprised ost daily of Jap ship and plane move its in the Rabaul area, and so con uted much to the American success in bitter campaign.

js; which means the tax burden too great to encourage new terprise. flow loans are offered by the Gov iment to induce the development the country. But with copra nost the only source of revenue, d with a big possibility of the >ra market collapsing after the )F contract terminates, the future gloomy. iome fool economist introduced ome tax into the Solomons —a mtry which has practically no in nal turnover of taxable produc i wealth. Such direct taxes are urden on production. The burden Id easily be more evenly dis »uted by import and export taxes diich already existed, and are ier to collect than income tax.

IE Chinese have proved good subjects. Unfortunately, these people are traders and have not ti encouraged to become pro ers—except perhaps as builders, they are not given a stake in country they cannot be ex ;ed to give allegiance, tie native people lack social inisation, self-discipline and the and incentive to work. Why lid they work? Life is good to n. Thousands of tons of nuts, y to be turned into copra, simply annually on the ground on de

id plantations, including their

own. A native by his own labour could harvest and cure £4 worth of copra in a working day.

That natural law that people who live soft have to fight hard— unless some other people are prepared to fight hard to protect them—is still true. Someone has to protect the natives of this Protectorate. Britain cannot. Australia is not in the posi tion to protect herself and her high standard of living, and can only hope that when in need the USA will again come to her succour. r[E answer? Annex— make a Colony of the Solomons. Ask the Australian Government to in clude BSI in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea. Do anything to scrap the word “Protectorate.”

Among the land-famished hordes of Asia many immigrants could be found, suitable as labourers and settlers.

The Indians in Fiji are a problem for Fiji and the Fijians. But the Indians have made, in an economic sense, Fiji and the Fijians. Look at Hawaii—now ready to be accepted as the 49th State of USA—a land richer by far than many American States. It can be done, too, in the Solomons.

Among the hungry millions of Asia, settlers could be found who would be only too willing to accept a period of labour in the Solomons

to enable them to obtain a plot of land of their own. Properly led and managed, these people would become more loyal than the indigenes.

Ample capital, given incentive, would be forthcoming to set them up.

These newcomers would, by pre cept, competition and example, give new life to the native people. They would be loyal so as to protect their new standard of living. t In a court hearing at Manihiki atoll, Cook Islands, in December, Mehau Johnson was found guilty of witchcraft and sentenced to five days gaol by High Court Commis sioner Abela Williams.