Top U.K. Official

In New Hebrides

Dies At Sea

Mr. A. M. Wilkie, British Resident Commissioner in the New Hebrides for the past four years, died aboard the liner Achille Lauro, en route from Sydney to the UK on August 13. He is believed to have had a heart attack. jl/fR. WILKIE, who was 49, was taken ill with a strained heart during a visit to Honiara in mid- April. He remained there until July 20, when he flew to Sydney to join his family for a sea voyage to, and leave in, the United Kingdom.

The French Resident Commis sioner, Mr. J. Mouradian, and the Acting British Resident Commis sioner, Mr. C. H. Allan, announced the news of Mr. Wilkie’s death in a special broadcast over Radio Vila on August 16.

Special memorial services were held at the Roman Catholic Church and the Margaret Whitecross Paton Memorial Church in Vila next morn ing, attended by both Resident Com missioners, members of the National and Condominium Services, and many people from the British, French and New Hebridean communities.

In his radio broadcast, Mr. Moura dian described Mr. Wilkie as “a cultured man with a lucid intellect”.

“His mastery of the French lan guage, his knowledge of our literature, his understanding of our customs and our ways of thinking had straight away put the French colony in the

New Hebrides at their ease and he enjoyed great popularity amongst our fellow-countrymen,” he said.

Mr, Allan, in his radio address, recalled that Mr. Wilkie—Alexander Mair Wilkie—was born in Scotland in 1917 and was educated at Billhead

High School, Glasgow University and

Christ’s College, Cambridge, He began his career in the British Colonial Service as a cadet in Kenya in 1940, During the war, between 1940 and 1943, he served in the East Africa forces. He was promoted to Assistant Financial Secretary in Kenya in 1950 and was seconded to the British Treasury in London in 1953.

Mr. Wilkie went to the Solomons as Development Secretary in 1955, becoming Financial Secretary to the Western Pacific High Commission in 1957.

He was appointed British Resident Commissioner, New Hebrides, in 1962, having been appointed CMG the same year.

Mr. Allan said: “During his service as British Resident Commissioner, Mr. Wilkie entered into his task with untiring energy and determination and brought to all problems which came before him that shrewd Scottish judgment which we all came to know so well.

“He travelled widely in the New Hebrides, visiting all islands and com munities and never spared himself in his service to its peoples,”

Mr. Wilkie left a widow, Margaret, and three young children, Alison, Gordon and Malcolm.

Mr. Wilkie, photographed in Honiara in July by Ted Marriott, shortly before he left for Sydney and London.