This Professor Leans

On Too Weak A Reed

The Philippines, Puerto Rico, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (TTPI), Guam, the Cook Islands, Papua New Guinea (PNG), and the West Indies all have at least one feature in common, all being island countries.

Arnold Leibowitz, Professor of Public Administration at Harvard University and a former adviser to Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands and Jamaica, suggests they share a further characteristic which makes the treatment of such disparate entities in a single work intellectually profitable. The common factor, ac cording to Leibowitz, is the mutual experience of what he calls “com monwealth” or “associated state” status.

This political standing might best be described as semi-independence internal self-government to some degree for the dependency, with metropolitan dominance in such areas as defence and foreign relations.

The idea is a rather intriguing one for two reasons. Firstly, there is relatively little literature on this topic, be it comparative or case study, and, secondly, Leibowitz seeks to compare polities for which this status is a final political solution with others for which it was/is a transitional stage to full independence.

However, as Leibowitz himself ad mits, there is little beyond their in sularity and their shared experience as “commonwealths” to unite the sub jects of his study, and so the coherence of the entire book depends on a very slender and suspect reed.

Unhappily, this reed proves too

fragile.

In the event the significance of Leibowitz’ book derives not so much from his examination of the associated state relationships as from the compilation of information on the countries of his study.

Key issues in the negotiation of the commonwealth status are examined from the perspective of each of the seven island groups’ experience in what amounts to a series of mini-case studies. The issues raised in each chapter range from the obvious defence, foreign affairs, immigration, tariffs and trade to the less obvious taxation, applicability of

metropolitan law, and termination of the associated state agreement.

With the lawyer’s practised eye for detail, Leibowitz clearly and concisely examines the impact such issues have had on the development of each coun try’s negotiations towards associated state status.

In the case of the Philippines, Puer to Rico, the Cooks and the West In dies these topics tend to be treated more as settled historical events which serve as precedents against which to measure the on-going negotiations in Guam, PNG (the book was written before September, 1975), and the

Ttpi.

In all these countries but the Philip pines, however, the continuing legal relationship between the territory and the metropole has necessitated cons tant redefinition of rights and respon sibilities of each participant in the face of changing international cir cumstances. Thus some consideration is given to the implications of on going dependency regardless of how circumscribed this dependence might be.

Leibowitz presents his material in a somewhat flat and legalistic tone.

This can be irksome on occasion.

Lor example, Leibowitz points to the rigidity of the American attitude which allows almost no scope for the termination of some form of dependency relationship for the US territories, and contrasts this with the flexibility of the British experience (including the two Australasian governments) without committing himself to a judgment on this vital issue.

Given the emotive connotations of the phrase “colonial emancipation’’ which appears in the title the reader is justified in finding such hesitancies (and there are others) disappointing.

At best his stylistic technique conveys the impression of over-caution through the rather thin guise of main taining scholarly objectivity. Certain ly, it does not offer any guidance for either the political or moral resolution of the problems involved in a halfway house solution to the ending of im perialism.

This brings the reader back to his initial disquiet regarding the coherence of the study. The detailed

legal and political data which Leibowitz has compiled are indeed useful and will warrant the interest in this work of students in a variety of disciplines. Even the layman with some background in the South Pacific or the Caribbean will find the book worth reading.

Nevertheless, Leibowitz has missed a valuable opportunity in his book. By devoting less than a page to his con clusions, he has failed to justify the common thread to his study. His view of the associated state arrangement as a realistic and viable political option for very small states is offset by his piecemeal approach to the subject.

Neither the Philippines nor PNG contributes to this thesis, while the dismemberment of the TTPI, the militarisation of Guam and the overlooking of American Samoa’s situation suggest little support from the experience of the American territories.

Thus, as the topic stands now, it would seem there is much ground for further debate on the value of semi independence as a model for the few remaining micro-colonies of the world. Leibowitz has opened the debate but he has not taken out the mortgage on it.

Richard A. Herr

(Colonial Emancipation In The Pacific And

The Caribbean; A Legal And Political

ANALYSIS, by Arnold H. Leibowitz. Praeger Publishers, New York, J 18.50.)