Hearty, But Damp Farewell For Popular French Commissioner

Popular French Commissioner

AFTER 4\ years in the New Hebrides as a highly popular French Resident Commissioner, Mr. Maurice Delauney left Vila by air for Paris on March 30 to take up the post of French Ambassador to the Gabon, a republic that used to be part of French Equatorial Africa.

Despite heavy rain, he was given a hearty farewell by a large crowd representing all communities at Vila’s Bauerfield airport.

Because of the rain, Bauerfield was closed to the DC4 aircraft of UTA in which Mr. Delauney and family were due to fly to Noumea, and Hebridair’s smaller Dornier was pressed into service for the flight.

The rain also shortened a kava ceremony held in Mr, Delauney’s honour by the Fijian and Wallisian communities.

Mr. Delauney said in a farewell speech that he believed there was every chance of establishing a well-integrated and balanced society in the New Hebrides.

In another farewell message broadcast from Radio Noumea, Mr.

Delauney said that, in his opinion, the New Hebrides constituted a factor of stability in the South Pacific “firstly because they form a meeting point, and generally a positive one, between the Anglo-Saxon and French worlds, and secondly because they enable people of diverse origins to find an acceptable way of living together politically and economically.”

• Pictures show (top) Hebridair’s Dornier aircraft ready to take off from Bauerfield with Mr. Delauney and family, watched by a crowd under unbrellas, and (below) Mr. Delauney drinks a bowl of kava at the airport ceremony arranged by the Fijian and Wallisian communities. The British Resident Commissioner, Mr. A. M. Wilkie, is on the left.

Photos: Reece Discombe.