The Cook Islands also wonder about

a 'Night of the Long Knives"

Now that Cook Islands Premier Albert Henry has settled down once more into his seat after a comfortable win in the April general elections, is the “Night of the Long Knives” coming to the Cooks? Are the heads of some civil servants about to roll, their crime—supporting the opposi tion Democratic Party?

During his election campaign, the Premier hinted that certain civil servants had incurred his displeasure for taking part in the election cam paign—on the “wrong” side. He also hinted at later action to clean out the government service because it was costing too much.

In a broadcast speech after the election, Mr. Henry declared: “If one would rather work for the political party that is not the govern ment, and uses his' position as a public servant to influence the down fall of government, then his place is not as a public servant and he should leave the service.”

A team headed by the Premier began the job at the beginning of May of investigating the “staffing expenditure and organisation” of various government departments. Mr.

Henry told PWD employees that he had been wrongly blamed for over spending his budget. It was not his

fault but the fault of the government departments.

Then he threatened, “Any em ployee who is inefficient and unsatis factory in carrying out his duties will be relieved of them.”

Another hint of future action against his opponents came on May 5 at a party for Cook Islands Party candidates.

“The people of the Cook Islands elected the Cook Islands Party to work for them and their votes on April 11 were expressions of faith in the platform of the party,” said Mr.

Henry. “It is time to rid the country of the weeds which have been ham pering the growth of the Cook Islands.”

Mr. Henry then linked his “weed cutting” campaign with the investi gation.

“Committees have been formed,” he said, “to look into the actions of government departments and to find those who are not working for the good of the country as a whole.

Appropriate steps will be taken to deal with those people not carrying out their duties to the best of their abilities as they should. Once this is done the country will move for ward.”

The Premier was an upset man

three days later when he went on the air and tongue-lashed the islanders for “bitter feelings that seem to persist although the election is over.”

He told the people: “Families have been chased off lands or out of homes, and some people have been abused and victimised. While I ex pected a little bitter feeling arising from the intense campaigning by both parties, I certainly did not expect that the feelings of a number of people would be so intense and bitter and persist for so long.”

Naming some of the trouble spots, Mr. Henry said, “Even at this late stage I am informed from Pukapuka, Penrhyn, Manihiki that people are still fighting each other and in some cases there has been physical violence. Surely, there is little need for me to say that nothing good can come about from such behaviour. In fact nothing, absolutely nothing but great harm, unhappiness and shame can come about, not only to those few people who have indulged in such behaviour, but to all people both on the island concerned and throughout the whole group.”

Since he holds these sentiments, of course, the Premier will probably not now lop off the heads of his election opponents!