With Nominated Members

The Fight Is Not Over Yet

Fate Of Council May Rest

From Stuart Inder

Port Moresby, April 20.

n T 1 r e .y ital Q ue stions that arise from today’s Legco walk-out are- Do the three members mean it when they say they will resign when the Incorne Tax legislation is passed in June? If they do, what

WELL, they mean it.

They will resign in June on very clear principles “as a protest against the undemocratic use of the official majority to pass this law without the prior independent inquiry”—the inquiry that had been urged by everybody—and “in objection to the lack of sufficient representation of the people

of the Territory in their legislature”.

If they don’t resign, then it will be because the Government has de cided not to go on with the Bills, or because the problem of sufficient representation has been adjusted. It appears impossible that either of these developments could occur in that time. Certainly the Federal Government now appears com

ed to Income Tax commencing 1, whatever second thoughts It have about the composition of Council. th the three elected members >f the Council, with a little less half their three-year term still un, the Assembly would then iced with by-elections, t would the same three re nate? If they did not and stood on the principles for which resigned, would anybody else of value have the temerity to 1 for election in their place? at would remain to be seen a boycott of the elected posi of the P-NG Legislative cil is a very real possibility. It 1 not be the first, nor probably ast time in British history, study of this will show that er political representation has ra had to be fought for, and ilmost always reforms have not until a crisis has arisen— times in bitter circumstances.

Dse are facts of colonial history i each of the three members r are of, and has in fact been ing lately. One suspects they been re-reading their facts increasing dismay; for isn’t it 3 nature of human reasonable :hat these men should secretly hoped the disturbing pattern 1 not, could not, be repeated ly in P-NG; that a modern, itened, Australian Government 1 in the end take a wider view others? finally the hard realities have to be accepted. The strength )liath is finally revealed, and grimly sees he must set to >ring about the showdown he will end in victory.

Showdown Coming

a showdown is on the way, ■ Canberra hasn’t already seen n the three weeks this report to get into print, it ought ) delude itself any longer, this moment of writing the d members do not know what the showdown will take, or long the crisis will take to up. They do not know if there e a boycott. They have made ms, laid no political schemes, have decided merely to stick irinciple and let the chips fall they may. > attitude should be indication h to any thinking person— resumably Canberra has some ;hat this is the real thing, is no political playing to the V here. These people aren’t ians, but real men. elected members have made stand but It will be with the ft of the nine nominated ers that a victory will be won. it of the latter’s letter to the nor-General?

It the nominated members given an outline of the cir ances leading up to today’s ;; have pointed out that the ative Council has now ceased

according to the principles of British legislation (because of its lop-sided composition)—a n d left the matter to him.

Composition Changed

This appeal to have the composi tion changed could bear fruit. A change might, in fact, be the only way in which the Government could avoid an impasse.

For there is another danger be sides the one of a boycott of elected members—a boycott of nominated members.

Feelings have been running high and I have the names of at least two men seriously considering hand ing in their resignations to the Council. These two could easily set off a chain reaction.

And what an intriguing set of possibilities opens up with the resignations of, say, half the num ber of nominated members!

They would have to be replaced, but there is not a very big number of the right type of people who could be recommended in their place. And would those available accept the nominations in view of the reasons for the resignations?

The Government could find in the next few months that it may have been better off if it had accepted the recommendations of the Select Committee to investigate how the Council could be reconstructed to better effect, which was set up in 1954. and whose report was shelved by Mr. Hasluck on the firmly established Hasluckian principle that if you don’t like it you ignore it, and if you ignore it, it doesn’t exist. [The committee recommended nine elected members instead of the pre sent three, an official majority of only one “while the Australian Govern ment was making such substantial grants to the Territory”: eight nominated members, including rep resentatives of Missions, Natives and the Chinese community: and, finally, any number of native observers, who would take part in debates, but not vote.] Grown Fast So fast has Mr. Hasluck’s Terri tory grown since that report was written and shelved that even the committee which nutted it out would want something better now.

There is need now—now;, not in the future—for elected native mem bers. There is hardly an intelligent man in the Territory who doesnt agree that that need, not accepted in 1954, is a vital requirement to day. It is quite possible for native election machinery to work satis factorily to this end in some areas.

Yet we are speaking of a Council that has 29 members— only three Europeans of whom are elected now.

And shortly there might be none, as a protest against the aetMMisof those too stupid to distinguish the thin lines that divide democracy from bureaucracy and bureaucracy

from oppression.