Commentary

Problems Of

nds Federation

1 matter of federation in the slands has come up again. From can Samoa there has come talk the possibility of a union be- American and Western Samoa, i the Western Pacific there is talk of an association between P-NG and the BSIP (see be- South Pacific politics progress, in expect more and more of kinds of proposals, and one t need to be a prophet of an brilliance to predict that lay there will be unions of s sorts in the South Pacific, ; there has been, and continue in Europe. And, as in Europe, ents for and against them will : as the Islands themselves ;. Nothing at all can be lost by I the ball about regularly, for lever knows what the game reveal. v practicable is a Samoan fed i at the moment? latest talk from American has been spurred by the g independence of Western in January. A New Zealand report says the move in Ameri imoa is “strong”, and that in ag term there is a prospect of being included in a Pacific » Federation with the two s. don’t agree that the move in can Samoa for a union is but there has certainly been talk, all of it informal. One loesn’t make a union and most can Samoans scoff at any idea mion with the west, the first place, they wouldn’t o be dominated by their neigh (whose chiefs could outrank , and secondly they haven’t any on at all of dropping dear old Sam and his dollars. American ’s revenue in the last financial was $1,168,000, but payroll for Samoan employees alone > $1,400,000, and people from ites get an additional $318,000. those figures must be enough licate that American Samoans dly in need of money to do all ings that have to be done in ad to paying Government em s. They are certainly not likely t any money from Western even if Western Samoa was

at all interested in an association, which she certainly isn’t, any more than Tonga is. And with an American Samoan population of 20,000, half of them of school age, things are not likely to get any better.

In short, American Samoans don’t want union with West Samoa, any more than they want independence, because either way it would mean the end of the gravy train.

But for the long-term future, who can tell? ☆ ☆ ☆

Make a Move Towards

Melanesian Union

HOW practicable is a Melanesian federation between Netherlands New Guinea, Papua-New Guinea and the British Solomon Islands Protec torate?

Speaking in Sydney in September, Mr. A. M. Healy, of the Australian National University, Canberra, made the very good point that if anybody thinks the idea is at all practicable, the time to start moving towards it is now, when it is possible to put the thought into local minds and have them get used to the idea.

Mr. Healy enlarges on his Sydney comment in the latest issue of the journal of the British Overseas Ser vice, Corona. He says if a federa tion could be accomplished, there is little doubt that in the long run the result will be much more viable than any of the three territories separately.

Practical moves towards an associa tion made soon, he says, will not pre judice the right of the native people ultimately to decide for themselves —they will simply facilitate what seems to be the best solution.

This is talking sense.

There is not much point to con tinual discussion on a federation in every pulpit except the ones that count—those in the three territories concerned. But very little is heard on the subject in the Islands.

What is official thinking on the subject?

The people who shape policy in both Netherlands New Guinea and the BSIP would like to see a federa tion, and are in fact quietly work ing toward one. In Papua-New Guinea there is no such enthusiasm.

Economically, the western and eastern sectors of an association would be the weaker partners, and P-NG is jealous of its own potential in that

regard. It does not want to carry the other two territories.

But this view is a narrow, short term one. There are many reasons why an eventual association between the three territories is desirable. The idea has been broached many times by many people over the years—long before Mr. John Kerr, QC, made it a topical subject for discussion in 1958.

If the Australian Government sees anything at all worth while in a political association of some sort among the three territories then— without prejudice—it can do no harm and probably a lot of good by saying so. ☆ ☆ ☆

A Sugar Scheme

To Build On

WHAT can be said on the subject of the Fiji Sugar Inquiry Report that hasn’t already been said in the report itself? The report is all that anybody could have hoped for—it’s the blueprint for the future that everybody wanted—and to argue de tails now is merely to quibble.

Certainly final designs don’t always follow blueprints exactly, but adjust ments can be made here and there as the building job progresses. The first task is simply to get cracking.

And that’s the Government’s job.

There must be no delays from now in getting the framework of the new design erected—the length of time taken so far is already too long.

The big job of construction is still ahead. Surely nobody expects the architects of the plan to get in there with hammer and chisel and build the whole thing as well! ☆ ☆ ☆

The West New Guinea

Problems Draw Nearer

WHAT would the Dutch do if Indonesia mounted a large scale invasion of Netherlands New Guinea soon? PIM asked, and answered, that question in August. “The Dutch”, we said, “would contain the invasion just long enough to hand the whole mess over to the United Nations, for they haven’t the military forces to be able to do any more”.

Those were Dutch intentions in August, and thus the moves the Dutch made in the United Nations in Sep tember to offer the UN the chance to take over the country now, with certain safeguards, are of special interest.

Do the Dutch suspect that the

Indonesians have finally worked themselves into a state to launch a full scale attack on the mainland?

It could well be. And it would be better, of course, to hand over responsibility to the UN before that kind of trouble started. One might ask what else are the Dutch to do to extricate themselves from the position forced on them by their enemies.

With these recent events, the problems of the island of New Guinea are brought even closer. Already P-NG has felt the pressures which the Dutch have imposed on their side of the border, for the recent increased tempo of political and economic advances in P-NG is due to a very big extent to these NNG pressures, no matter how Canberra might deny it.

Perhaps the time is not far off when the internal problems of politics and economics will be added to by the physical problems of border control.

Do we know now just who does cross our borders?

There always has been an inter mingling of natives along the Terri tory’s border areas and recently there was even one report that a native group well inside the Australian border honestly thought it came under Dutch control. But that is one thing.

Mr. G. A. V. Stanley, DSC, a geologist well known in P-NG after 30 years residence in close contact with the natives, believes that num bers of Dutch New Guineans move right round the P-NG coastal areas continually without anybody realising it. Many come from as far off as the north west of NNG, out there towards the Indonesian islands, and work their way around the coast, stopping here and there en route, and so back to their own Territory. They are attracted by the bright lights and the urge to travel, as are many natives in the South Pacific, and they easily find jobs as technicians of a sort, and as motor drivers. The big use of native labour by the oil companies working in the west in the last few years has made it easier for these people to reach the big smoke. Mr.

Stanley says there are probably as many as a 100 to 150 of them work ing in Port Moresby. Some get married and go no further.

Could the Indonesians now, or some time in the future, possibly make use of some of these people for intelligence work on the P-NG side of the border —just as they have made use of Indonesian sympathisers in the western isles of Dutch New Guinea during landings on that coast?

Problems like these will, as we have said, grow more rather than less.