Tahitians berate France
pp. 23-129 · Read in the full issue
Pacific Islands Monthly
Tahitians berate France over autonomy
From a Tahiti correspondent
The red and white flag of the long extinct Kingdom of Tahiti was raised in Tahiti again in Sep tember to dramatise the urgency and seriousness of Tahiti’s demands of internal self-government.
The flag, which has not been in use since France declared a pro tectorate over Tahiti in 1842, was raised during a visit to the island by the French Minister for Overseas Territories, Mr. Henri Rey.
The raising of the flag was one of several sensational incidents in an action-packed month, which began in mid-August, with the publication in the Papeete Press of an open letter from Mr. Francis Sanford, in which he bitterly criticised the French Government for failing to take heed of French Polynesia’s frequently expressed demands for in ternal self-government.
Mr. Sanford is one of the leaders of the radical majority coalition in French Polynesia’s Territorial As sembly and a representative of his territory in the French Parliament.
In his letter, Mr. Sanford accused the French Government of treating the Tahitians with contempt over the self-government issue and of making a mockery of their elected repre sentatives.
“For three years,” he said in his letter, “my friends and I have fought to obtain internal self-government for the territory.
“We have sought nothing more than an executive entirely elected by a Regional Assembly which would be competent to handle its internal affairs . . .
“But for three years the Central Government has refused to discuss the matter.”
In referring to the visit that Mr.
Rey was due to make to French Polynesia in September, Mr. Sanford said he hoped the Minister would “have the grace to grant us a few minutes’ interview”.
He went on to say that the Minister might be going to the Marquesas Islands to study the possi bility of carrying out underground nuclear experiments in that group.
“Who knows?” Mr. Sanford said.
“We are so accustomed to being suddenly faced with accomplished facts.”
Mr. Sanford’s letter set the stage for several days of manoeuvering on the part of the majority parties in the assembly to force Mr. Rey to meet them for discussions.
Meanwhile, Tahitians were startled by the sudden expulsion from French Polynesia of one of the territory’s best-known lawyers, Mr. Marcel Lejeune, who had practised in Papeete since 1951 and who recently became a convert to the cause of self-government. Mr. Lejeune was expelled by order of the Governor, Mr. Pierre Angeli, who acted under a decree of 1932 which gives him power to forbid non-native-born people to enter or reside in the territory.
Later, in a news interview, Mr.
Angeli explained that there was a risk that public order in the terri-
tory could not be maintained “in the coming days” if Mr. Lejeune were allowed to remain in the terri tory. A spokesman for the majority parties immediately protested that th e Governor’s action was “a beautiful demonstration of democracy aru * of the French presence” only 72 hours before Mr. Rey’s arrival.
Meanwhile, at a meeting called by the leaders of the majority parties, more than 1,000 people agreed to boycott Mr. Rey’s arrival at Tahiti’s Faaa Airport. They also agreed that during his visit they should parade both the French and Tahitian flags, that m the daytime they should drive Wlth car bghs switched on and that *bey should carry signs demanding in ternal self-government, On the day after these tactics were announced, Mr. Sanford released the text °f a letter addressed to Mr. Rey
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Tahiti trqubjes (continued from p. 17)
in which he said he was returning all the decorations that the French Government had awarded him, in cluding that of the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. In an explana tion to the Press, Mr. Sanford said that because of the French Govern ment attitude over the self-govern ment issue, he now felt ashamed to wear his medals.
Mr. Rey arrived in Tahiti on September 11, and in the few hours he spent on the island before push ing off again for two days in the Marquesas, he announced a French Government plan to create a series of communes in the territory, each of which would handle its own affairs.
This plan was immediately de nounced by the majority parties, which held a meeting in the Terri torial Assembly building while the red and white flag of Tahiti, the UN flag and the French tricolor hung limply in the rain outside. When the flying of the two “foreign” flags was brought to the Governor’s attention he promptly informed the Assembly President that this was illegal under the 1938 decree.
However, when the Assembly man disagreed, the Governor promulgated another one in which the flying of flags, other than the “national colours”, on public buildings was ex pressly forbidden under pain of two years’ imprisonment.
But this decree did not prevent another flag incident at Faaa Airport on the morning of September 18, when Mr. Rey departed for New Caledonia. On this occasion, some 50 vehicles bearing the Tahitian colours and several hundred “autonomists” drove to the airport to farewell Mr. Rey while security forces swarmed everywhere and a helicopter hovered overhead.
When Mr. Rey arrived at the ter minal building, one of the auto nomists unfurled a Tahitian flag while another produced the French flag.
Almost immediately, the Chief of Police pounced on the Tahitian flag, broke its staff across his knee, threw it to the ground, and stamped on it.
Mr. Sanford and another radical leader, Mr. John Teariki, immediately intervened, protesting that “you are not in a conquered country here. . .”
That same afternoon, the Com mission Permanente of French Poly nesian Territorial Assembly unanim ously adopted a motion deploring “this insult to French Polynesia” and demanding the immediate recall to France of the territory’s Chief of Police and Chief of the Intelligence Service.