The PM slept through Fiji

Fiji headlines ran “PM Ignores Suva: Stays in Suite ” and that, on the surface at least, seemed the rather indifferent attitude to the Pacific Islands of Australia’s Prime Minister, Mr. John Gorton.

Suntanned and quietly confident, he returned to Australia, via Hawaii and Fiji, after attending a meeting of the British Commonwealth Prime Ministers m London.

During his few hours’ stopover in Fiji to transfer from a jet to the liner Arcadia for a leisurely return to Sydney, ™* Fiji Times reported that Mr Gorton would not say a word about Fiji, and wouldn’t be interviewed. The PM stayed in his A rcadia suite. t ° n h io t tnya }, m Sydney on January 28 he said at a news conterence, in answer to a PIM ques-

tion, “I got off an aeroplane in Fiji half asleep. I boarded the boat and went to sleep.”

Mr. Gorton said he didn’t meet Fiji’s Chief Minister, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. Australia’s future relations with the colony were not discussed with anyone in Fiji Had the PM, we asked, met Tonga’s King Taufa’ahau during his stay in London, and, if so, had he discussed possible Australian sup port for a Tongan proposal to seek membership of the Commonwealth?

“No. I didn’t meet him,” was the firm reply.