[?]rly Received By

[?]acific Federation [?]rly Received By 'Conservatives'

Prom a London Correspondent ou people of the South Pacific )uld like to know how you and ur thinking are regarded by illars of the British Conserva *arty, you may read this sum of the Conference of the Con ave Party’s Commonwealth Jil, which meets annually and ises Colonial affairs, ivas held in April under the manship of Lord Souiberry, OBE, MC, and was a triumph ganisation. ground had been thoroughly red, The papers had been n, edited, scrutinised, printed istributed among the numer epresentatives, so that they be pre-digested. re was a large attendance, ites of non-European races in considerable force, and I very vocal from the floor. agenda was heavy. Malta Cyprus were prominent. The Pacific Territories were al a humble position at the end two-days programme, i paper, whatever its length iportance, was given five !S for presentation, and each r from the floor got three is. principal speakers (all high the political world) were the •secretary for Foreign Affairs an Harvey, MP); the Under ry for Commonwealth Affairs [• M. Alport, MP) ; the Par tary Secretary for Education Iward Boyle, Bart.); and the lan of the Parliamentary mwealth Affairs Committee, summarised the discussions, rated on the various burning ns presented, and directed nking. per on “The Future of the Pacific”, prepared by a Per- No Importance, was squeezed ae end of a long programme, eemmg feature was that it resented” to the Conference •erson of Very Considerable mce, who treated it with respect it deserved, contradicted a statement fiaristmas Island (of atomic fame) which had come from Australia; he queried ion figures, which had been by some other high-up; and e rattled on at full speed, the remainder, with a dis ag side-glance at the South Commission and the propo a Federation of South Islands matters which )rmed the gist of the paper.

Person of Considerable Im -3 didn’t seem to think much r the subject or the paper, fer, the Person of No Im ? did manage to get a very

brief innings from the floor, in which he high-lighted these two features—especially the question of Federation.

Then he dropped a brick. He actually suggested that Britain ihould call a Conference composed of Australia, New Zealand and Britain to confer on this matter of greater unity between the British South Pacific Territories.

This strangely, was very favour ably received by the principal speaker (the Parliamentary Chair man of the Commonwealth Affairs Committee, Sir Ronald Robinson).

At least, he said, it was something “they” might be able to do some thing about.

Generally, the press ignored the Conference.