French accuse subversives'

A recent attack upon “leftist” British civil servants in the New Heb rides has now been followed by a French denunciation of the “subversive action carried out by the Presbyterians and Fijians” working among the Melanesian people.

Through the Noumea Press, the French are expressing a growing con cern that they may lose out in the New Hebrides, as the time approaches for the first general elections. Voting for seats on the first municipal councils is scheduled for August 16, while elections to establish the con dominium’s first legislative assembly are expected to be held between Novem ber 15 and December 15.

The latest French claims about “outside interference” concern members of the Presbyterian Church and Fijian political influence. French journalists in Noumea report that the French minority in the New Hebrides is fearful of being tossed out of the islands in view of the campaign currently being waged for local independence.

The Noumea Press refers to the British as “perfidious Albion”, never to be trusted, trying to gain independence “within an English framework”.

In this context, the militant National Party is said to be “supported by the subversive action of the pastors and submitted to a growing Fijian influence”.

The Presbyterian campaign for independence is said to be typified by a recent letter to the Anglo-French authorities, written by Pastor P. K.

Taurakoto. The letter, reportedly, complains that very few indigenous people have been involved in political decision-making, and urges that islanders who have long been prepared to handle their own affairs should have a chance to be politically involved, to be ready for future development.

A more dramatic display of outside political manipulation was detected by the French late in June when a group of demonstrators with cars blocked the runway at Vila airport, trying to stop the departure of an Air Pacific plane scheduled to fly a “Black Power” member out of the country. Twenty sympathisers of this agitator from the British Antilles were subsequently charged by the police over interfering with airport traffic.