Sweeping Changes May Breathe Some

Report from South Pacific Conference

Sweeping Changes May Breathe Some Life Into S.P. Commission

From Stuart Inder

Pago Pago, July 18.

The South Pacific Commission is to be remade—nothing now can prevent it. This Fifth South Pacific Conference is likely to be the last of the type that has operated now for 12 years.

LTHOUGH this conference has L hardly begun, and 64 delegates id advisers from 16 Territories, the mgdom of Tonga and Independent est Samoa are at this moment dis ssing the early matters on the ;enda, those two facts are quite jar. What happens here won’t alter lything—unless for the better —for ready the die has been cast during e developments that have led up to is meeting.

The important point is that most, not all, the six member Govern ents of the SPC now realise that iese conferences achieve little in pro irtion to the work that is put into icm and that there just has to be a lange if the SPC is to survive.

The stage was set last year, when ew Zealand, acting on behalf of le other Governments, began to Dilate and circulate proposals to be iscussed at a review conference de gned to take a long backwards look t what has been happening to the tommission.

The review conference was to have een held earlier this year—possibly bout April—but it was delayed.

The most important proposal that ould have been put before the re iew conference was that these three ear conferences of South Pacific copies be reconstituted—that, in fact, ley be abolished, together with the Research Council, and a new body to e called the Regional Council be stablished.

The Regional Council would meet ossibly at yearly intervals and its lembers —elected or nominated by be dependent territories—would be iven a far greater say in what it bought the SPC should do for the outh Pacific.

The members, in some fashion (the

details of which were not worked out), would be brought much closer to the real problems of their areas than this unwieldy body of delegates which is now meeting in Pago to dis cuss an agenda that basically was laid down three years ago (following the last conference at Rabaul).

This new proposal is the freshest breath of air yet to blow through the six Governments. In effect what it means is that the South Pacific people themselves will be given the chance to say something worthwhile and have it acted upon for the common good.

The changes in the South Seas have been so vast, and have occurred with such swiftness, since the charter of the SPC was worked out, that such a scheme to involve the Islanders themselves in the business of solving their own problems could hardly be delayed, for delay would kill the Commission. There have been too many complaints for too long about the ineffectiveness of the SPC, forced on to it through the confines of its own charter.

No Real Use The idea of a common meeting ground was a good one in the South Pacific of only 12 years ago, but what today is the real use of 70 people giving their views, often uninformed, on such expert subjects as “the im portance of organised adult educa tion” and “methods of islanders in business methods (two subjects on the Pago agenda).

The SPC is quite able to formulate expert plans if it knows what the specific problems are, how the people who live in the South Seas rate their priority of importance, and how they think they want them handled.

(Continued on page 149)

The review conference proposals, as far as I can judge from many talks here, were well received by the mem ber governments. (The proposal to form the Regional Council appears to have been put forward by the UK.) There have been some wheels within wheels, as usual—but the principles may well be accepted.

It looked earlier in the year that the review conference would be able tc meet and come up with something specific that could have been discussed at the meeting of the Commission that will follow this Pago conference of islanders. But then there was a delay, at first inexplicable. It became obvious as time progressed that the date for the review conference was being held up by Australia and America, who felt that a conference at this time would be embarrassing to their relations with Indonesia over the Dutch New Guinea question.

An added complexity is that American policy in the South Seas is obviously not supported unanimously by its own experts. Thus in his open ing remarks at the Conference, the chairman, America’s Dean Knowles A. Ryerson, always one of the SPC’s staunchest supporters, made it clear that he for one did not agree that the review conference should have been delayed.

He hoped that the postponement was “but a short temporary one”, and the SPC could soon turn in its old model, “useful as it has been”, for a modern, new one, “using the high octane fuels of island en thusiasm, ideals and eagerness”.

Dean Ryerson said quite clearly that the time had come for more participation of Islands people, and he hoped the SPC itself would give first consideration to qualified Islands applicants. Obviously referring to the review conference proposals, he said it was hoped the South Pacific Con ference itself would more actively help in deciding Commission pro grammes, “with possibly more fre quent meetings and more responsi bility”.

The real significance of his words went over the heads of most of the conference delegates, unaware yet of the important changes that are being planned for a new model SPC that might not be jet-propelled, but at least would have a modern-type motor in place of a horse and nosebag.