One, Says Mr. Barnes

There Are More Ways Than One, Says Mr. Barnes

IN his most important statement since becoming Australia’s Minister for Territories, Mr. C. E. Barnes said in Canberra in May that independence was not the only possible future for Papua-New Guinea.

But internal self-government was probably the first stage in whatever political set-up was chosen.

Mr. Barnes made his statement after the House of Assembly in Port Moresby agreed to set up a committee to investigate a constitution (see this page).

Opening a seminar on PN-G’s future, held by the Australian Association for Cultural Freedom, Mr. Barnes said it was wrong to talk of complete independence for the Territory as the inevitable, only or immediate outcome.

“We have undertaken to advance the people to self-determination,” he said. “That means the right to choose.

“Independence is certainly one possible choice but there are others.

Continued membership of the British Commonwealth is one of them.

“Some association with Australia is another, and there is an infinite variety of such associations which are open for discussion between the representatives of the Territory people and of the Australian people when the time comes, if this is what the Territory people wish.

“Internal self-government is no doubt the minimum, and probably the first stage in any event.”

Mr. Barnes added that self-determination did not depend on the achievement of economic viability, but the closure of the gap between the Territory’s income and expenditure needed to be discussal.