Cooks, Tonga now honest women

Premier Albert Henry of the Cook Islands will not, as he threatened, take his country out of the conference. The South Pacific Commission’s eight memoer countries, at their private session which followed the conference, gave Mr. Henry all he wanted—the legal right to be a member of the conference an f~. r }°^ us^, a Buest. At the same time, they gave the key of the door to Tonga, whwh has held aloof from membership because the kingdom’s position was not defined by the Canberra Agreement. The commissioners’ formal com mumque released on October 8, the day after the session ended, declared, “The question of participation in the South Pacific Conference of territories which ave obtained self-government, notably the Cook Islands, was resolved with the formal amendment of the conference rules and procedures to the effect u i ri §hts of attendance and participation were extended to them .. .

With the formal adoption of this amendment, not only will the Cook Islands be able to participate fully in future South Pacific Conferences, but also the Kingdom of Tonga, which up till now has participated by invitation only, will be able to take its place in the conference as of right”.

Within minutes of meeting, the commissioners had ratified the appoint ment of Mr. Fred Betham as secretary-general, and also appointed a social programme director in place of Mr. deYoung. The new man is Dr. F. Mahony, of the United States, who comes from the University of Hawaii.

During the conference, Mr. Nettre threatened to veto the spending of $6,250 on a contribution to the UNDP’s new rhinoceros beetle control project.

He didn’t. The commissioners adopted the conference’s recommendation and left the French a face-saver by deciding to take the money from the contribution made by Western Samoa, which is just like Johnny going to the shop with 10c for one purchase for his mother and 10c for a neighbour’s purchase and running back home without either because he’s forgotten which 10c was for what purpose.

Mr. Aaron Marcus, of the United States, raised the question of new headquarters for the commission. The present one is nearly 30 years old, having been erected by the United States Army Command as a temporary HQ. Some delegates would like to see the commission HQ shift from Noumea to some where more central, like Fiji. The session asked Mr. Marcus to draw up terms of reference for a future study group. What will be the outcome of that? A new block of buildings, big enough to house both the SPC and the SP Forum?