Australia Casts A

Wary Eye On Japan

From a Port Moresby correspondent A Japanese parliamentary and economic mission left Papua- New Guinea on June 22 under the distinct impression that the Australian Government either didn’t like the Japanese, or feared infection of Papuan and New Guinean students with radicalism.

The leader of the mission, Mr.

Hideji Kawasaki, of the Japanese Diet, or parliament, said that a request he made earlier this year for 36 Japanese students to visit the University of Papua-New Guinea in August had been turned down, with no reason given.

He said he accepted that it probably was Australia’s fear of Japanese radical students, such as the Zengakuren, which brought the refusal. But he was unhappy enough to say that Papua-New Guinea had lost probable financial aid for intro ducing modern mathematics teaching methods into high schools as a result.

Mr. Kawasaki heads a Diet com mittee which deals with just about anything to do with Papua-New Guinea. Its exact title neither he nor his interpreter could put into English, but that was the gist of it.

The maths section at the Port Moresby campus had asked for the financial aid, and is now turning, I understand, to Canada for help.

Security check

Two Japanese professors had flown to Port Moresby in May to talk about the project (the talks were checked out by an Australian Security Intelligence Organisation man, which may explain Mr. Kawasaki’s miffed attitude).

The impression gained after the professors left, and now since Mr.

Kawasaki has gone, is that Australia is not at all keen on having Japanese aid in Papua-New Guinea.

Mr. Kawasaki made it plain that Japan had money available for developing countries. He also said that as Australia still controlled Papua-New Guinea, it was difficult to decide whether the territory came under this label. Left unsaid was the interpretation that it could swing the territory’s way if Australia were more sympathetic in her treatment of overtures by either donor or recipient.

Instead of the students coming this August, Japan will send 10 tech nicians from the agricultural and fisheries field to look over the Papua- New Guinea situation. Are they coming to contribute something? No, it was explained, to study local con ditions and progress—“you know how Japan is studying everything that may be made use of somehow”.

“Students may come in, perhaps, five years time, with self-govern ment,” Mr. Kawasaki ruminated.

“If the government is worried about a few students, we must be careful about financial aid until then. It could cause misunderstandings also. Now isn’t a good time for aid.”

Nothing specific

Other members of the mission, as well as Mr. Kawasaki, looked at the general investment, mining, forestry, trade and aid situation, without setting out to sign up for any specific project.

One regretted that Japan was “too late” to be right in on the minerals search boom, but he looked forward to the time when some prospecting authorities ran out and Japanese firms could apply to replace them.

Japan has millions invested in the Bougainville Copper mining venture, and the Freeport Sulphur venture on the West Irian side of New Guinea, and is anxious to get into more, quite obviously.

Japan is also looking very hard at various forestry deals, and, depending on the profitability, could engage in more secondary forestry industries here, such as sawmilling and wood c h i p manufacturing.

Already, the voracious appetite of the Japanese for timber in its various forms, and the Australia Admin istration’s anxiety to develop forests beyond the first crop stage and basic logging operations, has meant that Japan owns or exploits the great majority of territory forests being worked on.