Pacifique Sud

With Helen Rousseau

Top attention in Noumea in re cent months is focused on that col ourful live show the great elec tion spectacular complete with riot squad gendarmes flown in from Tahiti, a top Fijian naval trainee, changes in the joint French UTA- Australian Traveland tourist ven ture, and yet another load of pro mises from Paris and INCO authori ties on a new nickel project. Sand wiched in between these top stars were Japanese honeymooners and a Sydney churchman’s warning of the “rising level of frustration" among the indigenous Caledonians and Hebrideans.

Of course, plenty of drama can be expected in Noumea up until the territorial elections in September.

Now that the show is on the road, it is really the best time for tourists to visit the island and see the fun at first hand. French elections are al ways lively and passionate and the Pacific context gives the added riva lry of Paris and local interests inside the territory and suspect Anglo-Sax on agents all around outside.

After the gathering under the cir cus tent of the pro-Administration forces on April 17. latest act in the carefully-scripted election scenario was a totally new spectacle on June 15 in Noumea’s central square.

Some 100 people gathered for a meeting of the PALIKA (Kanaka Liberation Party) and were greeted by Paris’ latest import, a brigade of gardes mobiles (riot squad gen darmes) complete with helmets, huge shields, truncheons and rifles.

This confrontation over a meeting on land rights around the east coast town of Poindimie was given full press coverage: no one could deny that the scene appeared ideal elec toral propaganda to support the popular Paris argument that the French presence is required in New Caledonia to maintain law and order. From the tourist point of view the central square, bordered by Qantas and the Australian Con sulate, is ideal for watching such

military spectaculars.

The latest nickel episodes can also be regarded as fitting into this pre-electoral drama. For over 10 years, the New Caledonians have been entertained with promises, the big stick and the carrot, to help them vote the right way. And now their newspapers are urging them to have hope “for another five years".

The French love five-year plans, and under the latest agreement sig ned in June, Canadian INCO is to make further feasibility studies for a possible nickel treatment plant among the lateritic ore of the Goro- Port Boise area in southern New Caledonia.

Over the past eight years, the Caledonians have benefited from great French investment for the im portant role that Paris has drafted out for the territory. New Caledonia has been described by one governor as the “aircraft carrier for the beam ing out of French civilisation" into the Pacific. And just what kind of merchandise this “aircraft carrier” it to send out will be interesting to see as French ships step up their calls around the Pacific. New friends are being made in political and defence spheres. It is interesting to note that the Noumea press re cently featured a young Fijian naval trainee, Esala Teleni, whose photo was headed "Fiji; the first com mander" with the explanation that after next March he would com mand a ship in the Fiji Navy. Could this press reference be a veiled hint to Caledonia Melanesians not to count on support from France’s friends in Fiji or does the interest relate to prospective customers for defence deals?

Men who know about these things say it is much more fun to do arms deals with the French rather than the Russians or Americans.

Someone who had another idea of the French military activity in New Caledonia was the Rev John Mavor of Sydney who, in a June submission to the Australian Senate Standing Committe on Defence and Foreign relations, suggested Australia

should try to avoid “a second Timor" in the South Pacific. Mr Mavor sensed a "rising level of frustration" among Caledonian and Hebridean indigenes. He explained that the recent fighting in Timor followed upon the islanders being trained militarily and he saw parallels in the military training going on in New Caledonia.

Also in June, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser visited the French President and Prime Minister in Paris. As Mr Fraser well knows, not least among French in terests in Australia are the develop ment of uranium and the sale of military hardware.

Deals of another kind, in the tourist field, were in progress in late June between the French and Australian partners in the Island Holidays joint venture in New Caledonia and New Hebrides.

While no official statement was forthcoming at that stage from the Australian side, Traveland, Noumea sources reported that after one year’s operation on a 50-50 basis the French side UTH (hotel arm of UTA airlines) was negotiat ing to take back a major share of this partnership. The venture was set up in 1976 to enlist Australian man agerial expertise in boosting tourist traffic to the Chateau Royal hotel and the Isle of Pines.

UTA airlines is also working hard at its Tokyo end, where the Japanese are assembling possible planeloads of young Nippon bridal couples to fly down for a wedding where they would say oui, oui or hai, hai before the Mayor of Noumea. Since all French weddings must be per formed in a civil ceremony, ir respective of what happens in a church, there is quite a stream of marriages performed in the Noumea Town Hall. Amid the multi-lingual stampede, the authorities will have to watch that no Miss Sakuko-san Blossom finds herself unexpectedly married to Leon the lion-hearted from the Wallis Islands.