Time May Be Against

The Nauruan Aims

From our Canberra Correspondent Is time working for or against Australia in solving the )blem of the resettlement of the Nauruans when the phos ate deposits on their island home are exhausted?

adopting the tactics it has, the Australian Government obviously that the longer the Nauruans iven to make a decision, the likely they are to come round istralian thinking, the Government planning seems directed along this line, n a senior civil servant will a full-time study of the lan problem. is Mr. Reg Marsh, 57, until re- Assistant Administrator of the ern Territory. Before he went i NT some years ago he was a Assistant Secretary in the Terri- Department, closely associated banian affairs. at line Mr. Marsh will pursue as to be seen, but it is un he will deviate in general terms the course already charted, itralian policy so far has been re the Nauruans time, in the that they would come to see actical advantages of the Gov nt’s proposal for integration of auruans in the Australian com y- Government hopes that the ians will ultimately realise that ambitions for separate nation and for a new island of their re unrealistic.

In Sydney

August - September visit by Chief Hammer Deßoburt and f his councillors, Messrs. Ray- Gadabu and James Bop was isly directed along these lines, y were shown a potential island certainly, but they were invited i see for themselves what living ions would be like on an island on the mainland, y were taken to Darwin, they Hinchinbrook Island, off the , Barrier Reef of Queensland, Palm Island, Curtis Island near lampton, and parts of the mainl Curtis they flew over for an in small Cessna aircraft from lampton. Great Palm Island has 'original settlement, and it was aggested that the island would ailable—the visit was meant to them what living conditions 1 be like. (The Nauruans were pressed.)

They were taken to Darwin to give them some idea of how the different races can mix on the Australian mainland, and it was not suggested that Darwin would be suitable for them.

All in all, if their recent tour was designed to prove to the Nauruans that an island economy off the Aus tralian coast would be distinctly un satisfying after a lifetime in the shadow of the British Phosphate Com mission and its royalties then it may well have achieved its purposes. It’s probable that the only island that the Nauruans have yet seen that could approach their requirements is Fraser Island, seen earlier this year. They are not interested in any New Guinea islands.