Legco This Year

Some Say They Won't Like It BSIP Gets Its First Legco This Year

HONIARA, August 2. A Solomon Islands Legislative Council will be in operation in the Protectorate by December—together with the BSIP’s first Executive Council, which will include unofficial members nominated from the Legco.

ALTHOUGH there have been no firm official announcements yet, it appears certain that the Legislative Council will comprise 11 official members and 10 non officials plus the president, who will be the Western Pacific High Commissioner.

Of the unofficial members, natives will be in the majority—probably six natives to four Europeans.

The most interesting point in the composition of the BSIP’s new Legislative Council, however, is that apparently there are to be no elec tions. All its members will be nom inated.

This decision will cause rumblings among some Europeans, who have already indicated that they want to see at least the Europeans elected.

But from what I can gather at this moment of writing (when after only two or three days here I have had no real opportunity to plumb opinion), there is not likely to be any real opposition.

Many people seem to take the view that nobody really knows if the Council would work or not with a fully nominated membership, and that the best thing to do is to give it a try out and see what happens.

Both the BSIP Chamber of Com merce and one important segment of the European planters would like to see elected members. They have already told the Government so.

However, their views on who should be elected differ, and this in itself shows why there is not likely to be any united strong opposition to the Government’s plan.

Spending the Money

The Chamber of Commerce view is that nominated membership is unsatisfactory and that Europeans and Chinese should be given the opportunity to have a say in how the BSTP’s money is spent, since most of the Protectorate’s revenue comes from this population.

The Chamber points out, with some truth, that experience of advisory councils shows that a nominated member who may be unsatisfactory is nevertheless allowed to continue to sit until he decides to resign or retire, thus keeping out other good men.

It fears that this would happen on a fully-nominated Legco.

The planting group wants elected representatives, too but elected natives. It wants “no reserved seats” for Europeans and Asians, but it would like to see the entire unofficial membership comprised of natives.

Pushing the Natives

This group has already made it clear to the Government that it wants to see the natives pushed ahead as quickly as possible to en able them to handle their own affairs. Europeans, it says, certainly want to continue to live in the BSIP, but only with the support and trust of the natives.

These planters say, however, that nominated native members are likely to be merely rubber stamps.

The way I understand it, the Gov ernment’s attitude on the Legco is that the BSIP should head for a common roll, right at the beginning and there should be no European roll.

It is possible, of course, to elect Europeans without the need of a roll —there are several methods — but the Government apparently

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wants to keep away from elections until the natives are in a better position to understand them, and have had experience of them in their local councils.

It thinks elections could follow when experience is gained, and that it might be a good idea, as one of the first steps, to try to elect natives to the Honiara Town Council (which is a local government body, with some native members, but all are selected).

The Government sees the proposed composition of the Legislative Coun cil as anything but perfect but at least a start, and something on which to build quickly.

It thinks the Executive Council would in fact be the beginnings of a Cabinet, for the time when Cabinet Government would operate.

In its decision to add unofficial members to the Executive Council, it certainly is in advance of Papua- New Guinea, where unofficial mem bers have been fighting for years for a place in the Executive Coun cil, without result.

Sir John Gutch's idea In my view, the whole decision to push ahead in the BSIP with a Legislative Council at this stage—no matter how unsatisfactory it might be—is a lesson to some other terrl tories It is due to the nolicy of Sir John Gutch, the High Commissioner, who believes that it is better to be too early than too late. And he has held this view a lot longer than Prime Minister Robert Menzies, who ex pressed it only a few months ago in relation to New Guinea policy.

Sir John first mooted the pos sibility of a Legco in an address he made to the Advisory Council in November, 1958, at a time when there was no real demand for a Legco, and the subject has been kicked around a lot since then.

In February, 1959, the Govern ment sent out a long document to all interested bodies, outlining the Government’s thoughts on consti tutional developments and inviting the public’s views.

This document gave a very clear account of what the Government had in mind for a Legco and. in fact it seems the final composition will almost exactly follow the views so openly expressed in that docu ment.

This frank method of handling the problem before a clamour had been allowed to grow, has no doubt kept opposition down, and the changeover is likely to be pretty smooth.

It is possible that the Advisory Council has already had its last meeting, or certainly the last but

one, and that one won’t be of any great significance.

Admittedly there can be many a slip, etc., but the next few months should prove whether or not Sir John’s policy is as good as it certainly looks at this moment.