They Want to Stand On Their Own Feet

By Robert C. Miller, United

Press Staff Correspondent.

JE of the surprises at the Conference was how Pacific Islanders renounced Santa ns. he delegates representing more i 3,000,000 people in the South ific made it bluntly plain that r have outgrown the “spoon ling” era of paternal govern it by the six nations linistering them, he Dutch New Guinea delega at Suva mirrored the ctically unanimous feelings of the delegates by emphasising

that co-operatives should be established among the peoples of the Pacific Islands, but without financing by the administering governments. Radji Ibrahim Bauw, the Radja of Roembati, a 36-year old Moslem father of seven children, agreed that co-operatives were needed to help bolster the economies of the Islands, but insisted they be developed and administered by the people and not the governments.

“The Governments,” he charged, “have treated us too long as

Iren. We don’t want any more bis Santa Claus treatment. We t to be stimulated to work for elves, calling on the government if help is realy needed.” ; the wirely little delegate ;e, there were vigorous nods of •oval from the rest of the erence members, anea Tamarua then spoke up jehalf of the Cook Islanders, will pay back with interest money we borrow to organise start our co-operatives,” he ted, emphasising his remarks ounding on the table, le outbursts came as no rise to the members of the lation South Pacific Corn ion, who said the discussions ! typical of the “stand on our feet” attitude of delegates, rtainly no group of individuals sat down together with a ter awareness of the respon ses they faced, and the ner in which they tackled their nunity problems was the most ing thing of the conference, my of the delegates were only v years removed from the most itive of jungle life; they had wage difficulties; they lacked

the polished oratory to express themselves and their ideas; there was none of the skilled phraselogy at Nasinu that one hears at the United Nations and none of the plush surroundings that the UN claims are so necessary for its attempted diplomacy.

But there was statesmanship at Nasinu in abundance, along with that rarest of rare combinations, honesty and sincerity mixed up with good old commonsense. It was unfortunate that the Trust Territories Committee of the UN (now touring Paci fi c Trust Territories), couldn’t have attended a few sessions of the South Pacific Conference. Even more unfortun ate that the entire UN coudn’t have gone to Nasinu and watched how the little people produce democracy with single syllable words that sometimes come out in Pidgin and mixed up a bit grammatically, but which originate in the heart, not the head. t A village in Dutch New Guinea went a-feuding in April and murd ered 29 people in a neighbouring village. Government patrols are investigating.