Book Reviews

Does independence matter for the Micronesians?

At San Francisco in 1945, Dr Evatt’s determination and skill greatly contributed to the success of efforts to widen the scope of the UN General Assembly, including the setting up of the Trusteeship Council.

But even The Doc could not bring about that all member nations had equal voting strength.

The Big Five were given extra muscle through the composition and voting procedure of the Security Council, and this has been a subject of argument ever since. Micronesia at the Crossroads, written by a Mar shallese who, among other things, has been Deputy District Adminis trator in the Western Carolines, con tains much that is germane.

Do mini-states help or hinder world peace? How many people make a nation, and is political in dependence really the foremost ‘good’ of all, worth any price? De colonisation in the Pacific has so far produced a political situation re miniscent of pre-Napoleonic Central Europe.

About 120,000 people live on 100 of the 2,141 small islands, separated by vast ocean distances, known as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, between Japan and New Guinea Nine different languages are spoken and there are a number of distinctive social structures and prac tices between, and in some cases also within, the districts.

The people on the outlying islands are living very much as their fore fathers have done, but those on the ’.arger islands, particularly in the townships, have been strongly influ enced by 30 years of Japanese ad ministration (1915-1945) and the US presence since then.

The population is increasing at a rate of more than 3 per cent a year, doubling within 20 years, and many islanders do not have enough land for subsistence and/or cash farming.

The author claims that the island ers are being ‘colonised on two fronts’, by their chiefs and by the

US military. ‘The realities of Micro nesian politics are that if you are a commoner and don’t vote . . . for a chief . . . you stand a very good chance of losing the rights to your land”.

Tradition is at loggerheads with democracy, which Heine sees as one of the creditable imports from the US. And Washington certainly does not look like giving up its strategic interests in the area.

The Enola Gay took off from Tinian in the Marianas to make that gigantic mushroom over Hiroshima; early Anglo-American atomic tests were conducted in Bikini Atoll (with some of the Rongelap islanders still suffering after-effects), and the missile base on Kwajalein continues to be operated.

The author does not have to spell out that military considerations have caused the US Congress to provide the highest per capita aid received by any ‘developing’ people, and that they are the joker in the pack held by his people.

For Heine and many of the islanders, the foremost problem right now is to choose between indepen dent nationhood and some form of association with the US. The largest district, the Marianas, has already opted for territorial status, similar to that of Guam and Puerto Rico.

And two district legislatures, in the Marshalls and Ponape districts, want to conduct their own negotia tions.

As Heine rightly points out, the economic realities preclude indepen dence: the people need free access to iobs in the US and continuing large scale aid, with as few strings as possible, is needed if they are not to be reduced to a penurious subsistence level. The only other likely donor, Japan, would demand a heavy econ omic quid pro quo.

The islanders’ problem is, how ever, not merely one of securing a form of political association allow ing them some compromise between coconut and Coca-Cola: it is also

one of finding a consensus among he people of the five districts.

Having worked among Ponapeans, frukese, Palauans, Yapese and Mar hallese in their villages and town hips, and having met leaders like 'oshiwo Nakayama, Lazarus Sali’i, ohn Mangifel and Amata Kabua, I nd it difficul to use the term Vlicronesian’, let alone to see a ation by that name. Perhaps, they dll be no worse off without repre mtation in the UN, and they may rofit from emulating Sir Albert lenry, Premier of the Cook Islands, dio has so far managed to have his lew Zealand cake and eat it, too.

This is a useful book because it ighlights the main problems of one f the potential micro-nations in our eighbourhood, seen by an islander nd not, as is usually the case, by a /esterner. It would have been en anced by better editing: there is )o much repetition; the theme has ot been developed in an orderly, asily readable manner, and basic iformation, eg about population, sources and trade, is lacking.—

tarry Jackman.

(Micronesia At The Crossroads,

7 Carl Heine. Australian National Uni ;rsity Press, Box 4, Canberra. $7.95.)

Aircraft To

Ie Remembered

Aircraft, like some great men, re often remembered for the zhieyements with which they were ssociated. Example: the DC3—the reatest work horse/passenger plane f all time; the Spitfire—the Battle of ritain; etc. But one aircraft brings ) mind two great events—the Desert /ar and the War in the Pacific during ic early 19405, that is, the Curtiss -40 Kittyhawk.

Possibly one of the most handsome f all warplanes to look at, the P-40 as been the subject of many a writer n aircraft, but the latest, by Geoffrey entland (Kookaburra Technical üblications, Melbourne, 55.95) em hasises the role this aircraft played ith the Australians and covers the acific theatre of war in detail ith many famous names and ind ents featured in its 60-odd pages.

Primarily intended for aviation istorian, modeller, etc, the story is )ld in a sensible and easy style and Ithough some technical detail is in luded the general reader, particularly lose who know the Pacific, will find interesting and worth reading.

The book does lack detailed plan nd cutaway drawings and an index, le last being essential in any work

f this kind.-

WT.