New Caledonia, Tahiti

Calls for self-government in New Caledonia, Tahiti

• And the Tahitians want foreign scientists to advise on fall-out President de Gaulle was faced with strong pressure from New Caledonia and French Polynesia in January to grant the two territories internal self-government within the French Republic.

In New Caledonia, the Territorial Assembly voted 24 to 9 in favour of a resolution asking for internal self-government. The vote was taken after a four-hour debate.

The motion was proposed and supported by the majority Union Caledonienne party and one indepen dent member. It was opposed by the Entente UNR party and another independent member. Four members abstained.

The motion also asked that the Minister for Overseas Territories, General Billotte, bring the question of self-government for New Cale donia before France’s National As sembly when it meets in April.

Vote on bomb tests

French Polynesia’s Territorial As sembly passed a resolution in mid- January asking France to appoint a six-man international commission to “control radio-active pollution and its fallout” from French atomic tests at Mururoa Atoll this year.

The resolution was proposed by Mr. Francis Sanford, deputy for French Polynesia in the French Parliament. Voting on the resolution was 17 to 7.

The resolution asked that the forth coming nuclear tests be observed by six atomic scientists—three French and three foreigners. The Assembly proposed that the three Frenchmen should be Professors Jean Rostand.

Theodore Monot and Kastler, all hostile to nuclear tests. It was suggested that the three foreign observers should come from the US, New Zealand and Japan.

In a three-hour debate on the motion, a member of the majority parties, Henri Bouvier, said: “It is not a matter of attacking French prestige, but we have no confidence in French scientists who say there is no pollution [from the nuclear tests]”.

French Polynesia’s former deputy, Mr. John Teariki, said: “Nobody has yet seen results from tests on con

tamination after the last bomb experiments. There are plenty of things that are being hidden from us”.

Mr. Nedo Salmon, a member of the opposition, said: “We agree with you [on a commission of inquiry] provided you don’t talk of foreign scientists”.

Sanford resigns

Mr. Sanford said that if the French Government refused the Assembly’s request for an international com mission, “then we can go further and ask for the bomb tests to be stopped”.

Twelve days after the debate, Mr.

Sanford announced that he had resigned from the Independent Republican Party in the French Parliament, thereby depriving Presi dent de Gaulle’s government of its absolute majority. The government had previously had a majority of one—244 supporters to 243.

Mr. Sanford had stated after the Territorial Assembly debate that he would withdraw his support from President de Gaulle if the Assembly’s resolution on radioactivity was ignored, and if the French Govern ment did not take heed of the people’s wish for internal self-govern ment in French Polynesia.

French Polynesia’s senator in the French Parliament, Mr. Alfred Poroi, who is a red-hot Gaullist, strongly criticised the Territorial Assembly resolution on radioactivity in a telegram from Paris. He said he disapproved of the resolution and had “complete confidence in the science of French technicians”. • Mr. R. N. Hamilton, a former Australian Commissioner in Fiji and who is now Australian Commissioner to Kenya, has also been named as Australia’s representative in Ethiopia and Uganda. Mr. Hamilton will be Australian Ambassador to Ethiopia and High Commissioner in Uganda.