[?]Ges Up

[?]Ike Off

[?]PPY Accident Saves Mr. Chalmer's Face

E announcement by the Colonial Sugar Refining Co. Ltd., in :h, that the recent conference een the Company and the Sugar cers’ Union had resulted in the ;ing of higher wages and 'ances, was followed by an uncement by Mr. N. Chalmers he had called off the strike for June 1, 1956. . Chalmers, of course, is the pean president of the Kisan h, a union of Indian sugar ers. (See PIM, March, page 23). e inference obviously intended s March announcement was that vage increases and the calling f the strike were connected. , Chalmers, in his letters to the made it abundantly clear the threat to strike and yse the sugar industry was in )rt of his demand for changes

in the Fiji constitution. It was purely political. He had hoped to bring the Fijians into the demand for consti tutional reform but in that he failed lamentably, and succeeded only in awakening the Fijians to the fear of racial domination and aroused bitter animosity as a result of his attacks upon the morals of Fijian women.

The wage increases provided Mr.

Chalmers with a convenient excuse for withdrawing the threat of a strike, which in no way was con cerned with wages, and which was unlikely to have eventuated, anyhow.

The wage increases came from the annual conference of the Company and the Union. It was the eleventh of its kind and the ninth at which Mr. Clive Elliott, CSR Chief Man ager, has presided. Agreement was reached at the end of a ten hours meeting.

The new minimum wage is 58/- a week with certain valuable con cessions not enjoyed by workers in other industries. t Mr. John Thyer, P-NG Patrol Officer stationed at Madang, was married on February 25 to Peggy Cadd, of Agery, at Marryatville, SA, and will return to Madang shortly with his bride.

t There are over 900 entomologists active in the Pacific area and, to facilitate co-operation between them, they are listed in a volume just re ceived, and available from, the Pacific Science Association, Bishop Museum, Honolulu 17, Hawaii.