Ex-Minister Seeks

Seat He Lost

In Bribe Case

Mr. Julian Dashwood, a former Cook Islands Cabinet Minister, has lodged an appeal against being struck off the elec toral roll on the island of Mauke following his conviction in June of corruptly attempting to obtain a bribe while a Minister of the Crown.

Mr. DASHWOOD wants to get back on the roll so that he can contest a by-election to fill the Mauke seat in the Cook Islands Legislative Assembly. The seat has been vacant since his conviction.

The Cook Islands Premier, Mr.

Albert Henry, told the Press about Mr. Dashwood’s appeal when he visited Auckland early in October en route to a South Pacific Com mission meeting in Noumea.

“The people of Mauke wondered why Mr. Dashwood had been struck off the roll, and when it was ex plained to them, they asked him to appeal so that he could stand again,”

Mr. Henry said.

He added that the closing date for nominations and the election itself had been delayed for a fortnight so that the New Zealand High Com missioner to the Cook Islands, Mr.

L, J, Davis, who would hear the appeal, could consult Mr. Dash wood’s lawyers in New Zealand. Mr.

Davis, who arrived in Auckland at the same time as Mr. Henry, con firmed that Mr, Dashwood had lodged an appeal, and corrected an impression given by Mr. Henry that Mr. Dashwood was appealing against his conviction.

Pleaded Guilty

“Mr. Dashwood could scarcely appeal against his conviction since he pleaded guilty,” Mr. Davis said.

Mr. Dashwood, a 67-year-old Englishman, has lived in the Cook Islands since 1929. He is the author of a novel and a hilarious autobio graphy, South Seas Paradise.

He won the Mauke seat in the general elections in April last year by 197 votes to 43. Eight months earlier he had been suddenly and mysteriously sacked from the Cook Islands Executive Committee (Cabinet) headed by Mr. D. C.

Brown. On that occasion, he proclaimed—like Macarthur after the fall of the Philippines—“l shall return”.

His conviction of the charge of attempting to obtain a bribe followed the theft from his room of certain documents, which were photostated and widely circulated on Rarotonga.

The theft of the documents roused widespread indignation among the Cook Islanders, but the chief emotion engendered over the revelation about the bribe was one of sympathy for Mr. Dashwood.

At a public meeting on Rarotonga

attended by about 1,000 people on May 19, Mr. Henry (speaking as leader of the Cook Islands Party) said that if a businessman had done what Mr. Dashwood was alleged to have done, it would have been “looked upon as good business tactics “But unfortunately this sort of thing cannot be done in Govern ment,” he added.

Footnote : If Mr. Dashwood loses his appeal, the Cook Islands Party’s candidate for the Mauke by-election will be Mr. T. A. Henry, Mr. Albert Henry’s son.