Canberra

Commentary

From our Canberra Correspondent Natives would be the dominant

;ment in Papua-New Guinea

ten the Territory achieved self termination, the Minister for ;rritories, Mr. Hasluck, told the

Duse of Representatives.

HE Minister was outlining Aus tralian policy following a daration by the South African me Minister, Dr. Verwoerd, that stralia was practising the same ial policy in P-NG as South Africa s practising.

Ede declined to comment on Dr. rwoerd’s statement on the ground t he did not have an authentic t. 3ut he made it clear that Aus lia clearly recognised the major tor in self-determination would be native population. \nd in the short-term situation, stralia had embarked on a course removing all forms of discrimina i. fhe policy was that unless it could shown that a law was necessary protect the customs of the native )ple or to protect them from ary, there was to be complete lality before the law for all Terri y inhabitants. * * * [n the Senate, the Minister for the vy, Senator Gorton, who assists : Prime Minister, Mr. Menzies, in ninistration of the External Affairs •tfolio, was even more definite.

Ede went right out on a limb in ►wering Dr. Verwoerd.

There is no social discrimination P-NG,” he said. “All the people ng there, whether Chinese, puans or others, belong to the ne clubs and no of 1 kind is shown against them.”

Fhat might well be the ultimate al in P-NG, but as a statement present fact, it seems a trifle rry-eyed, as reaction in NG showed. 3y an unfortunate coincidence, >ut the same time that Senator rton was extolling this happy ion, Australian National University torian Allan Healy was putting a itrary view. de wrote to The Sydney Morning raid describing the “Europeans y” sign on Port Moresby’s Ela ach, within 30 yards of a war

memorial and 100 yards of the Administration’s sub-district office.

And in Port Moresby Mr. Maori Kiki was complaining that he had been refused admission to a football stand because of his race (see p. 118). jj- , , . •Yf r - wo ™ r l crac ks about apartheid m P-NG seemed to stem from misinterpretation of remarks which Mr. Menzies made after the Prime Ministers’ Conference in Lon- .

Not that Dr. Verwoerd was alone in putting a false construction on Mr.

Menzies’ statements. The pity of it was that Mr. Menzies took so long to set the record straight and ensure

the world clearly understood his statements on South Africa and the British Commonwealth did not mean he condoned apartheid, It was not until Mr. Menzies re turned to Australia and became aware of the strength of public opinion that he put the issue beyond doubt in jii s statement to Federal Parliament, , , , .

The " ( he made himself clear: I was ,. n ?‘ c .°. n f™ ed . to d ? fend apartheid, which I condemn he said.

My great object was to defend the interests, as I saw them, of my own country.

“I am against apartheid. . . It seems to me to be doomed to a most terrible disaster. The policy, if it con

tinues to be applied as it is now, will end in the most frightful dis aster. . . .

“The more zealously the Union builds up the minds and bodies of the Bantu, the more certain will it be that the day will come when, con scious of their own human dignityj their capacity and their strength, they will no longer tolerate the status of second-class citizens.

“When that day comes they will demand their due, not in an atmos phere of evolving friendship, but with hostility, and, for all I know, violence.] “The ultimate conflict may be bloody and devastating”. * * ik Persistent questioning in Parlia ment brought the disclosure from Territories Minister Paul Hasluck that there was a divergence between the P-NG Administration and the World Health Organisation on anti malarial measures.

WHO is aiming at eradication of malaria throughout the world, Hasluck said that there was a dif ference of opinion between experts as to whether eradication or control was the best method of tackling the problem. He was confident in his own men’s judgment.

He told the House that the Admin istration did not intend to accept any additional aid from WHO in malaria control.

A little tartly, he added that the Administration had “the potential to establish its own Territory-wide pro gramme, although in many areas local technical knowledge still has to be accumulated”.