Tahiti's Flag
p. 34 · Read in the full issue
They Want
Official
From a Papeete correspondent French Polynesia’s Territorial Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution in mid-July asking that the red and white flag of the old kingdom of Tahiti be declared the official emblem of the ter ritory.
The flag has not been officially in use since France declared a protectorate over Tahiti in 1842.
It made headlines in September last year when Tahiti’s auto nomists raised it outside the Ter ritorial Assembly building during a visit to the island by the French Minister for Overseas Territories, Mr. Henri Rey, to dramatise the urgency and seriousness of their
demands for internal self-govern ment. (PIM, Oct., 1970, p. 17).
Subsequently, French Poly nesia’s Governor, Mr. Pierre Angeli, promulgated a decree forbidding the flying of any flag, other than the French flag, on public buildings or monuments; and there was a wordy fuss after the local police chief wrested a Tahitian flag from a demonstrator at Faaa Airport, broke the staff across his knee and stamped on it (PIM, Nov., 1970, p. 30).
At a meeting of the Territorial Assembly on July 12, the minority parties proposed that the governor should fix the conditions under which the Tahitian flag could be flown, particularly in view of the forthcoming South Pacific Games.
However, Mr. Henri Bouvier, a member of the majority auto nomist coalition, moved an amend ment, which was carried un animously, asking that the Tahitian flag be declared official.