In Review
p. 15 · Read in the full issue
The Month
The death of Tonga’s long-reigning and much-loved Queen Salote overshadowed all other events in the Pacific in December, which looked, at first, as if it would be an excep tionally dull month. As it was, the month was probably a bit more lively than usual, even with the customary pre- Christmas slowing-up and the lull over the holidays.
December 5: Electors in France’s Pacific territories went to the polls to elect a new President of France. General de Gaulle was strongly favoured in Wallis and Futuna, and the New Hebrides, but the vote for him was only lukewarm in New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
In American Samoa, Flag Day celebrations and celebrations to mark the opening of Pago Pago’s new Intercontinental Hotel began.
December 6: The biggest air and sea search in the history of the United States Trust Territory began after an 18 ft canoe, with three men aboard, disappeared off Angaur Island, Palau District.
The three men were located, but a search plane, with two men aboard, was lost.
December 9: More than 4,000 people, mainly Fijians, held a protest march in Suva against a move to open shops on Sundays.
December 10: Leonard Francis McEachern, a well-known New Guinea businessman, appeared in court at Port Moresby on a charge of having fraudulently uttered a false document.
December 15: In London, Teehu Makimare, a Cook Islander, received the 1964 Stanhope Medal for Bravery for his outstanding courage, endurance, self-sacrifice and qualities of leadership during an involuntary drift voyage of two months and more than 2,000 miles from Manihiki to Erro manga, New Hebrides, in 1963 in a 17 ft boat.
December 16: By 91 votes to nil, with 10 abstentions, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution on 26 territories, considering that the establishment of military bases there was an obstacle to freedom and independence; asking the administering powers to dismantle these bases and allow UN visiting missions to visit the territories; and deciding that the UN should assist the people of the territories to decide their constitutional
status. The 26 territories included nine in the Pacific—-American Samoa, Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony. Guam, New Hebrides, Niue, Papua, Pitcairn, Solomon Islands and the Tokelaus.
December 19: In the run-off poll for the French presidency, electors in France’s Pacific terri tories voted much as they did in the first election on December 5.
Brian Mansfield Dunn, a 25year-old Seventh-day Adventist missionary, died in hospital at Honiara from a spear wound.
He had been found with a spear in his back at Uru Inlet, Malaita, three days earlier. Dunn, an Englishman, had arrived in the Solomons from Melbourne in November. A 22-year-old Solomon Islander was charged with his murder towards the end of the month.
December 21: By 12 votes to five, Fiji’s Legislative Council approved proposals for a new constitution for the Colony. The five dissident votes were registered by Indian members.
December 22: The United Nations General Assembly adopted resolutions on Nauru calling on Australia to rehabilitate the island and give the Nauruans independence by January 31, 1968. Australia was also asked to set an early date for Papua-New Guinea’s independence.
December 29: Two Australian police officers and six native policemen were injured when 80 Finschhafen natives attacked the Rabaul Police Station in an effort to release several fellow tribes men. The officers were Inspector Max Hayes and Sub-Inspector Fred Mercer.