Commentary

he CSR Co. and the

jji Government

f; gain nothing by closing our eyes to the real meaning of the public statement made by [6 Colonial Sugar Refining Co. d. in Suva on July 17. (See page The people and the Government ' Fiji have been told, very politely, it quite definitely and firmly, that the cost of producing sugar in iji rises any further, so that the iterprise becomes uneconomic, the SR Co. will contemplate with •awal from Fiji.

Fiji’s exports are worth about £l4 illions per annum. About half of icm is sugar.

Already, Fiji is suffering acute •owing-pains production now is irely sufficient to feed the increas ig population, and apparently not lough to allow higher living andards.

If the situation is as CSR Co. in cates—that the profits of its enter rise in Fiji now represent less than ink interest on its capital outlay iere —the CSR Co. cannot be amed for its stand.

Fiji is only one of the many fires hich heat the irons out of which ie CSR Co.’s powerful empire has ;en built. (On the day this is ritten, the newspapers are an mncing that the CSR Co. has fered £62 millions Australan for e Australian Masonite Corporation, tie stock market values the Co.’s 10 shares at away over £60.) If the money that CSR Co. now is invested in Fiji were put to work Australia, under the present boom nditions, it probably would earn iry much more profit. But that is big “if”. Any attempt by CSR Co. fold up its enterprise in Fiji r transfer of capital elsewhere iuld vastly reduce the book value the Fiji investment.

None knows this better than the 3R Co. Nonetheless, the CSR Co.’s esentation of a few simple, funda ental, economic facts to the Fiji overnment and people will do no inn, at this time.

The CSR Co. and the Indian mmunity made modern Fiji. The >R Co. and/or the Indians could stroy it.

The men of the British Colonial fice, painstakingly and conscienti- L .sly governing Fiji, must have re used long ago that the Colony was owing out of its economic boots, id reported accordingly to White dl. Other-than-sugar industries ould have been encouraged. But itil the Burns Commission was 'Pointed the Colonial Office did

little about it. Bedevilled by acute problems in other colonies, it left “quiet and peaceful” Fiji alone.

Now, Fiji’s Government is in the embarrassing position where this powerful Australian corporation can say to it: “You will, of course, do what you think best in raising the Colony’s basic wage and living standard —but please note that if we cannot make at least the bank rate of interest on our investment, we must consider withdrawal from Fiji.”

What is the answer to that one?

What is the minimum standard of living sought for the poorest class of Indians in Fiji? What is the amount of the CSR investment in Fiji, and how is its return on that investment calculated?

We —the outsiders looking in—do not know any of the answers.

But we do suggest—and by no means for the first time —that as a point has been reached which vitally affects the economic structure of Fiji, and as 90 per cent, of Fiji’s economy is owned in some form or other by Australian corporations, it is about time that the Australian Government was invited to take more than an academic interest in the politico-economic situation now being so anxiously examined by the Fiji Government, the CSR Co., and the Burns Commission, * * *

Germany Comes In And

The Picture Changes

FOURTEEN years have passed since the Hot War ended, and the Cold War began.

Many of us have become so accustomed to seeing the original sides lined up against each other, in the Cold War—U nit e d States, Britain and France facing Com munist Russia and her enslaved satellites—that we do not readily perceive some most significant changes in a new alignment of World Powers.

The West no longer consists of a Big Three. Following her breath taking recovery in national morale and economic strength, Germany has ranged herself beside the Big Three. Now, it is the Big Four.

Russia hates this development.

Again and again, throughout the centuries, the Slav has run head on into the Teuton; and always to his great undoing. It can happen again.

The Teutons, the Scandinavians and the Anglo-Saxons form a racial group which never will accept Com munism. But a more important

factor is that the Germans never will rest until they have recovered East Germany from the Soviet group.

Another factor—curious and un expected—now is really bothering Moscow. France and Germany ancient enemies, now are getting together in a way not seen for a thousand years.

Under the Fourth Republic, with nationalism battering her colonial empire to pieces, France was shrinking, as a world Power, and actually was being taken over from within by the Communists. The Fifth Republic, under De Gaulle, appears to be staging a great re covery; and France and Germany, forgetting old hatreds, tend to form a close union against Communist penetration and the Red Block.

Hence, all this present manoeuvr ing over West Berlin. The Franco- German rapprochement has caused a near panic in the Kremlin.

The changes in the world picture are not all on one side, however.

The emergence of Red China as a world Power cannot be denied —and is something of tremendous signific ance, especially for the South Pacific countries.

But, while Germany falls promptly into line with the West, there is no natural union between Russia and China. Alliance between Chinese and Russians will last just as long as the professional Communist organiser can keep his hold over the Chinese masses.

Ours now is a world of tensions and tortures and uncertainties — things which have profoundly in fluenced the thinking and the out

look of all the new generations who have grown up into citizenship dur ing the last 20 years. But at least the events and developments of the last two or three years, vis-a-vis the Soviet, do not seem to have made the outlook any worse. The chief headache now is carried by that very lonely figure, Nikita Khrushchev. * * *

Listen, Australia, to

The Words of Haiti!

THE heading in a leading Aus tralian newspaper was “Aus tralia Called On to Hasten Self-Rule in New Guinea”.

That was over a report from New York, on August 4, that the Trustee ship Council of United Nations had demanded that Australia adopt, “without delay”, development plans necessary for the attainment of self-government in New Guinea.

Haiti proposed the motion, and Burma, China, India, Paraguay, the United Arab Republic (Egypt and Syria), United States and the Soviet supported it; and Australia, Britain, Belgium, France, Italy and New Zealand opposed it.

Could there be any more illumin ating commentary on the futility of this United Nations Trusteeship system than the recital of those names!

The motion was opposed by Western nations with high standards of living, and far-reaching experi ence in the successful administra tion of primitive countries. But it was carried on the casting votes of Haiti, Burma, China and Egypt, which lag far behind Western standards of life and government: and of the Russians, who never miss a chance of condemning the West, whatever the form of the motion.

The Australian administration in New Guinea may be criticised on some grounds—more especially in relation to policy—but it certainly cannot be challenged on lack of developmental plans, or energy, or money.

Since the end of the last war, Australia has spent no less than £llO millions in Papua and New Guinea, and about £65 millions of that is represented by free gifts of money from Australia.

In the same period, the New Guinea Administration has incurred the wrath of a large section of Aus tralians because far too much energy, money and thought is being de voted to native welfare, and not nearly enough to the help and en couragement of Europeans and European settlement and enterprise there.

Thus, while we may criticise the shape of the Australian achieve ment in New Guinea, none of us can deny that, in volume and in thrust and in sincerity, and in the Westernising of those very primitive

I? million people, Australia has done a most creditable job—a far better job than has been done by any other holder of a “C” class

trusteeship.

There are over 500 separate languages in New Guinea. How many Trusteeship Council people realise the significance of that simple fact?

The Trusteeship Council produces this type of report every year. This year it is more than usually piffling.

The fact that Australian newspapers have given it prominence is the measure of the Australian news papers’ knowledge of New Guinea conditions generally.

At present, the non-official classes in NG are united and defiant in their discontent with the Hasluck Administration. But that will pass.

Would it be possible to keep that spirit alive, and direct it into a campaign for the release of New Guinea from UN, and for its attach ment permanently to Australia, as a Territory?

Which is better for New Guinea’s natives—control by Australians, who have been there for 80 years, and know what they are doing, or by babbling useless States of the calibre of Haiti, or Burma or Egypt, who have contributed absolutely nothing to the progress of modern civilisa tion? * * *

Matters Which Concern

Australian Territories

Minister Hasluck

THE full High Court of Australia will get to work on the joint Constitution of Australian Papua and Trusteeship New Guinea with in a few days.

Whether the New Guinea admin istration structure survives or is breached, the fact remains that the Administration, and its Legislative Council and all its Ordinances, are in jeopardy; and if the party that is defeated elects to go to the Privy Council on appeal, they may remain in jeopardy for some time.

Sooner or later, the creation of the Legislative Council under the Papua and New Guinea Act would have come under review. There always has been a doubt about the validity of it, in the minds of eminent constitutional lawyers.

That it has come to a challenge now, to the embarrassment of both Canberra and Port Moresby, is en tirely the fault of the Australian Minister for Territories, Mr. Hasluck.

There was no need for this struggle. If Mr, Hasluck had dealt fairly with the leaders of the Terri tory’s non-official classes, when they pleaded for more consideration in the manner of implementing the taxation of incomes, he could have had their co-operation and goodwill.

It meant only the postponement of

the important taxation chaj a year, at the price of sorr fusion and inconvenience in of Treasury officials in Port IV/ Instead, Mr. Hasluck gas non-official leaders clearly toe stand that their represen would receive his most carefl sideration, so that they mj provided for in the Tax Bills all the time the Tax Bills, and printed, were lying in room in Moresby, ready to 1 sented to the Legislative 0 Up until then (April) no oc said that income tax was t; m as on July 1; and the ( had not been warned of it.

Those who now condem leaders of the Taxpayers A tions for precipitating the Court action and gravely emb ing the Government, h a appreciation of the anger elected Legco members and th official leaders, who feel ths were deliberately “led up the path” by the Minister.

The boycotting of the Leg elections may seem to be ; treme measure. But thosu criticise should pause firs? examine the exchanges betwe Territories Minister, from Nov 1958, until June, 1959. The;; will place the blame where longs.