No-One Asked Why France

Wants To Stay In Tahiti?

Why does France want to remain in Tahiti? This is the question no one seems to have asked — officially, at least —during Mr Stirn s visit.

France has already announced that it is pulling out many of its people connected with the nuclear testing programme, which initially raised fears that France might be planning to pull out of Tahiti completely. Nevertheless, the dent in Tahiti's economy left by the manpower reductions in the testing programme cannot be repaired immediately, or perhaps not even in the immediate future, by local industry or tourism, which so far this year has fallen off drastically. . ,„ , But France apparently still intends to pump money into French Polynesia s economy as it has in the past. The question remains, “Why?”

A possible answer came from a local French source, who said it could be “for sentimental reasons”. He denied that such sentimentality is an expensive luxury for France at this time of world economic crisis, quickly adding, When you mention Tahiti to someone in France, their eyeballs start to turn as they enter a semi-conscious state of ecstasy, dreaming of Tahiti and paradise . For just that very reason, he said, he feels that France would sooner give up New Caledonia than Tahiti. . . „ Could another part of the reason be one of prestige, with France rep resenting a viable force in the South Pacific with French Polynesia and New Caledonia as Overseas Territories? “Yes, definitely,” he replied.