‘Glib political rhetoric’ won’t

run the Forum Line

The proposed South Pacific Forum Line appears headed for the rocks, just as it is seeking a general manager and other expert staff and after the interim board has ap proved the company’s memorandum and articles of association. The line is to be registered as a company in Western Samoa with head office in Apia. Countries wishing to join the line were to be asked to sign docu ments at a meeting in the Cook Is lands in June.

The ink on a press release cover ing the latest formal developments was still wet when the Western Samoa Minister of Economic Affairs, Communications and Transport, Mr Asi Eikeni, called for some soul-searching by Forum members and the New Zealand Government to help end a “six-year farce”.

Only a week earlier it was learned in Apia that the roll-on roll-off (ro ros) which the line proposed to use, would not be allowed into NZ ports.

It was not clear whether that was the official view of the NZ Government, or the attitude of the maritime unions. It was more likely the latter, for the NZ Government had com mitments in relation to establishing the line, while the intransigence of some NZ maritime unions is well known in the South Pacific.

Mr Eikeni stressed the dependen cy of the South Pacific people on agricultural and industrial develop ment and added that shipping and air links were essential to national development. Seven years ago the Western Samoa Government took the initiative about a regional line, and in 1976, it seemed that prospects were good.

Since then, two countries which were closely associated with the venture, Papua New Guinea and Tonga, had taken another, or ad ditional course. PNG proposed to launch a line which would take over the most lucrative route of the pro posed regional line, while Tonga had indicated it would join Colum bus and other lines in a shipping venture which would take over even

more routes of the proposed Forum Line.

Mr Eikeni said there seemed to be no end to formulae and feasibility reports about the Forum Line. He wanted to know it it was feasible without NZ support. If that support was not forthcoming, false hopes were being raised. Part of the problem was that Pacific govern ment leaders had allowed them selves, either consciously or sub consciously, to gloss over basic issues with glib political rhetoric.

If ro-ros could not operate on a direct route, it would have to be a circular route, which meant cross trading. Would NZ maritime unions allow a cross-trading ship in the Pacific to enter a NZ port?

A ro-ro, used to its full potential, would “pick the eyes” out of the Union Steam Ship Co trade. Was the NZ Government prepared to allow that?

Clearly, the co-operation and goodwill of the NZ wharf and maritime unions were essential to a viable Pacific Forum Line. The main reason for the existence of unions was to promote group action to protect the interests of the little man. The Pacific Islands people were very much in the “little man”

category in the shipping exercise.

Mr Eikeni, however, said his government was prepared to make a last effort to save the project. His government was prepared to acquire a ro-ro, to sub-charter to the Forum Line. He invited the NZ Govern ment to match his government’s in itiative in a positive attempt to end a six-year farce.

“On the other hand, if the NZ Government will not respond positively then I call on the NZ Government and all the other coun tries, who have so far been involved in the establishment of a Pacific Forum Line, to do the decent thing by our people and call it a day,” Mr Eikeni said.

The NZ Minister of Overseas Trade, Mr Talboys, was surprised that Western Samoa should have any doubt about the strength of NZ’s commitment to the Forum line. NZ had made it clear, many times, that she would contribute a suitable ship.

The commitment was reaffirmed as recently as early May to the in augural meeting of the interim board in Apia. On top of that, in ad dition to her shareholding, NZ had undertaken to provide a guarantee for a substantial proportion of the line’s initial working capital.