Happen Again

Robaul Riots Could Happen Again

i FTER the week-end of serious note in Rabaul in late July, Nr tlle T °l a i leaders told the •v t i i dl ? llnistrat or that they “would y to build up friendships between Finland” 8 the people of the Fine. Fine. If only it were true! lade a statement had been ots in PlJlan leaders after similar their area, or by Samoans or

Cook Islands’ leaders following trouble there, one could expect it to mean something.

Coming from New Guinea, it is rather a glum joke. With the best will in the world, individual native “leaders” there just haven’t the authority to prevent the kind of mayhem that occurred in Rabaul for the simple reason that the greatest portion of the New Guinea popula tion still consists of savages.

In urban Rabaul in July savage attacked savage because neither side knew any better. Two savages were killed when the police moved in to break the fighting up.

Exactly the same thing— except, fortunately, that there were no deaths —has occurred in urban Port Moresby during the last two or three years.

The tragedy is that more instances are almost certain to occur.

If they are to be prevented, they certainly won’t be through lining all the savages up and telling them that they really must behave decently.

Then what is to be done?

Before the war, and as far as we know, for a long time afterwards, the Administration made a point of knowing what natives were in town.

If they were unemployed, then back home they were packed before they had time to get into mischief.

The repatriation laws are still on the books, but there have been com plaints for a long time that in some areas unemployed natives are allowed to wander about at will, sponging on their “one-talks”, pilfering, filling themselves with sly grog. Is it any wonder that tribal animosities and savage urges flare up?

There must be room for a general all-round tightening up of the native situation in P-NG’s urban areas, and this should be done right away.

At the same time, anybody who suggests that pre-war methods are all that are needed, is a bit starry eyed.

There are capable men of long pre-war experience in senior positions in the Administration—Police Com missioner C, Normoyle and Native Affairs Director J. K. McCarthy are two of them—yet the urban troubles of the last few years can still occur.

Obviously they occur because present conditions are not pre-war conditions.

Problems of urbanisation are occurring right throughout the South Pacific, and the problems will con tinue to grow.

Natives drawn to urban areas for legitimate reasons are capable of developing into trouble-makers for equally legitimate reasons.

A recent brief pilot survey of the Port Moresby area by an urbanisation expert of the New Guinea Research Unit (see p. 18) has indicated that there are probably about 14 000 foreign natives in Port Moresby now, and that the problems they have brought with them are developing apace We don’t need a pilot survey to tell us that Rabaul is in exactly the same position.

What we would like to know is what are the ingredients to the problem—how do trouble-makers develop to such an extent in th<» towns that they can be killed and injured in rioting?

How much of the blame can be placed on the Administration? Is it really true that the Administration is better at winning wars than the peace? That officers with the skill and intelligence to handle bush kanakas in the ranges fall down on the job in the towns because the problems are so different? Or is the system at fault?

If the recently-formed New Guinea Research Unit can find the financial backing to go-ahead with full-scale investigations into urban problems, and the problem of getting a point of view across to the natives, then it will be performing a useful function in the Territory, And one that will not be before its time.