Up Front

with the editor

A passing question in this month’s letters column wantin to know why PIM doesn’t include Hawaiian news in its page deserves more than a brief sentence in reply. The question real!’ invites us to define the South Pacific community.

HAWAII, of course, isn’t in the South Pacific. But if PlM’s coverage followed the strict geographic definition of the South Pacific as being all that part of the Pacific below the Equator, there would be some notable omissions and some irate customers.

We would have to exclude, for instance, many of the Gilbert Islands —including Tarawa, the main atoll of the British Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony—and many of that colony’s Line Islands. We would not mention the island groups of the US Trust Territory—the Marianas, the Marshalls and the Carolines.

Nauru would barely scrape in.

In its 38 years, PIM has always reported on the affairs of these groups, together with those of the islands south of the Equator, from the east coast of Australia to the west coast of South America. Some have had greater attention than others—the US Trust Territory getting less than anybody, because, before the war, those islands were lapanese-held, and secretive about their affairs. And the bigger popula tion groups were, and are, south of the Equator.

Occasional articles

But never have we attempted to give any kind of coverage to Hawaii.

We do have an article on some aspect of Hawaiian life from time to time. (Recently we discussed at length the history of surfing in Hawaii, and an experiment on fish behaviour there. We published not long ago an article on mysterious rocks on Molokai, Hawaii as a tourist resort has occasionally been given on-the-spot treatment by staff writers en route to somewhere else).

I suppose you could say we pay about the same attention to Hawaii as we do to Easter Island (owned by Chile) in the far eastern corner

of the geographical South Pac and to Guam, which is also pari the good old USA, on the no western fringe of the Pacific ba In deciding what is the real Sc Pacific, the South Pacific G mission, too, has been aware difficulties. Although that Gov< ment-sponsored body is a Sc Pacific commission, it included fi its inception in 1947 the Gilbert Ellice Islands Colony in its area operations. It did not at the be: ning include the US Trust Territ of the Pacific Islands, although it cover American Samoa. Am© later asked if she could throw in US Trust Territory, because she those islands had the same kinds problems.

And this is what the definil finally seems to come down to. F concentrates on those islands of Pacific with the same kind problems. Problems are the island community of interest, even thoi no less than six metropolitan govc ments (Britain, America, Austra France, New Zealand and Chile) i one independent government, that Western Samoa, are involved v the solving of those problems, i often adopt different attitudes them.

These, to us, are the Islands, v a capital I. These are our busine; All of these island groups, e' nouveau riche Nauru, are faced v the long-term job of establishing viable economy in order to survi And they have to do it remote fr the rest of the busy world. Haw as an American State, has a gr deal more economic security tl Fiji or Western Samoa have at 1 moment, or are ever likely to ha In the realm of South Pac economics is the question of gett a continuous supply of trail European experts in fields such agriculture, health, and educati

enough of their own people are sd. While Islands economies are Lich a low level how do you :t the right people from better ies and conditions in America, ce or Australia? The State of aii hasn’t got that problem, but JS Trust Territory has.

Loses atmosphere

>u could go on and on with ar examples, brought about by South Pacific’s remoteness and jarth of natural resources. This i flavour of the South Pacific, an island has a pipeline to the Wide World it loses some of its sphere simply because it does idopt the same attitude towards problems. Thus Kieta, on ainville’s east coast, is true i Pacific in its attitude, but Port ;sby isn’t. Most Port Moresby le these days have a direct pipe to mainland Australia (whose ay newspapers come over their fences the same day), lich brings up the question of future of the South Pacific as community of interest. Of course Islands will change. They are »ing. Twenty years ago nobody awaii would have asked us for aiian news. e old atmosphere will go, and ing, and I am unable to convince If that there will always be that able community that PIM has yn a loose net around for nearly years—that community which Zealander R. W. Robson first sd in a practical way when he :hed, hesitantly, the Pacific ds Monthly. iere will, in fact, be more aiian news in PIM as the aiis of this shrinking world come r to the South Pacific com fy, and the South Pacific draws r to the world’s Hawaiis.

Stuart Inder