Caledonian poll
p. 34 · Read in the full issue
"More say for us” call in New Caledonian poll
From Fred Dunn in Noumea At the end of one of the most anaemic election campaigns on record, New Caledonia’s nationalist Union Caledonienne had a sweeping victory in the poll for a new Territorial As
sembly on July 9.
A FEATURE of the election cam paign was that nearly every party came out strongly in favour of a greater degree of local autonomy, although all rejected any hint of in dependence.
This point of view is expected to be pushed with extreme vigour in the days to come.
In the poll, the Union Cale donienne won 22 seats (a gain of at least 10 per cent.) to 11 seats for the Entente UNR and three seats for independent candidates. The three independents are expected to vote with the Union Caledonienne.
Two of the independents, Messrs.
Alain Bernut and Gerald Rousseau, are editors of Noumea’s Journal Caledonien, an outspoken weekly with a record circulation of more than 7,000 copies. This journal has vigorously attacked the administra tion of the High Commissioner, Mr.
Jean Risterucci, and Mr. Risterucci has had to institute a “fireside” chat on Radio Noumea to try to defend it.
The Entente UNR is a fusion of local capitalists and the UNR, President de Gaulle’s ruling party in France.
However, the New Caledonian party adheres to few of the doctrines of France’s UNR, and even its leader, Mr. Georges Chatenay, has become a declared enemy of the powerful Rothschild complex behind Societe le Nickel, which runs the country’s nickel industry.
Mr, Chatenay has been particularly active over the past year in trying to get International Nickel, or any other foreign complex, into New Caledonia to compete with Societe le Nickel (see also p. 128).
Other members of the Union Cale donienne are New Caledonia’s biggest independent nickel miners, Senator Henri Lafleur and Mr. Edouard Pentecote.
Probably for the first time in history, Societe le Nickel now has no support in the Assembly.