Queen's PNG visit, a silent

sermon on independence

Port Moresby, probably the fastest-changing city in the South Pacific today, couldn’t quite make up its mind about the Queen when she made her Jubilee visit to Papua New Guinea.

The crowds were there in their thousands there was no doubt of that and the city had some of the worst traffic snarls it has known. Tree branches broke under the weight of high-climb ing spectators trying to get a be tter view and extra police had to be called in to man some of the roadside barriers.

Children vied with each other to see who could tear up the longest bamboo to use as a pole for flying home-made flags. But frank curiosity rather than warmth was behind it all, and the crowds came to stare rather than to cheer or even smile.

What cheering there was became a pale echo of the sort of noise which a Port Moresby crowd can raise at a football match.

Not until the Queen and Prince Philip flew north-east over the mountains, leaving the sprawl of Port Moresby behind, did the tour really begin to sparkle, showing some of the warmth and colour which new nationhood has tended to damp in the capital.

The four-day visit was spent mainly in Port Moresby, with one day in Popondetta and Milne Bay.

The PNG National Broadcast ing Commission, no doubt want ing to be fashionable, unashamedly canvassed universi ty students for pre-visit com ments relating to the Queen’s position as Head of State. De spite the predictable reactions “an utter farce”, “what does the Queen mean to us?”, “a waste of money” a revealing sidelight emerged.

This was that Paupa New Gui neans, independent for only 18 months, fully accept the reality of their independence.

Their main concern is that the

sovereign head of state ar rangement is pointless, a widely divergent view from that of the minority Australian republican movement which tends to present the monarchy as a sinister in fluence on national freedoms.

Whatever may have been the crowd reaction, however, there was no mistaking the nature of the welcome extended by PNG political leaders, or the depth of the commitment which the Government showed to its mem bership of the Commonwealth and to the Queen as Head of State.

There was even blatant politics in the welcome, with the Prime Minister, Mr Somare, outlining the raw, practical advantages which he saw in his country’s constitutional arrangements.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Sir Maori Kiki, used the occasion to criticise Papua separation politics. The need for unity was an over-riding political problem.

Sir Maori said.

But it was not until the tour was in its third day that the Queen and Prince Philip began to see the real Papua New Guinea the older, warmer Pacific is lands with their long tradition of friendship to visitors.

Since the Queen’s departure, a few voices almost exclusively confined to non-elected rep resentatives of the community have questioned the ap propriateness of the Head of State arrangement.

It is a revival of the argument which occurred when the Na tional Constituent Assembly adopted the Constitution.

But if anything, the political side-issues from the visit have tended to strengthen rather than weaken acceptance of the con stitutional arrangements.

Because of a real belief in the reality of their political indepen dence, Papua New Guinea politi cal leaders are increasingly ac cepting a measure of practical value in the arrangements.