Pacifique Sud

With Helen Rousseau

The French have been engaged in a few lively sparring matches in re cent weeks. Besides the New Caledonian territorial elections, there were verbal tussles with Fiji and New Zealand, indirectly in volving the Japanese. The French insist they intend to remain in the Pacific to “contribute to the main tenance of peace” in the area. It seems it’s a help to get some battles started so that you can keep the peace.

In the first verbal war, the French were quick to protest at the “Fijian hue and cry against France” at the recent meeting of the South Pacific Forum in Port Moresby. The French press, reHecting facets of official opinion, rejected the Fijian attacks on “French colonialism”. They warned that Fiji has more to lose than to gain in such attacks, where “few States have got out of it very easily”. The French point out that

under-developed Fiji is dependent

on overseas aid, particularly from Europe, where France is a deter mining force. Moreover, they claim, France’s advanced technology has much to offer the Pacific through the BRGM (mining exploration) and ORSTOM (marine research).

At the same time, the French have welcomed decisions at the recent Forum meeting which they see as allowing France to participate in the new South Pacific fisheries agency “which will be responsible for polic ing the zones concerned”. In anti cipation of the creation of the 200mile sea limit the French have begun building up the strength of their Maritime Gendarmerie in Tahiti and New Caledonia. In an August visit to Noumea from Paris, Lt. Col. Jean Le Bastard inspected the local services. He indicated that just as in France and Tahiti so in New Caledonia also the Gendar merie Maritime might use a navy patrol boat to police territorial waters. As with other military hard ware, France could well be looking for a market for its patrol boats around the Pacific.

In the meantime, the French press reacted with “surprise” and was quick to denounce New Zealand’s unilateral announcement that it would extent its sea limits to 200 miles from October 1 (without con sulting anyone). Could it be that New Zealand has jumped the gun on France which was planning the very same action and now sees herself justified?

The French also deplored the “commercial blackmail” they claim the Kiwis are applying to the Japanese in pressing for more export sales in exchange for fishing rights.

Of course any Kiwis who remember French mining deals in the 60s might rightly wonder whether one has to be nickel-plated in order to try economic blackmail on the Japanese. Those were the days when Paris put export quotas on nickel ore supplies to Japan in a bid to force Japanese investment in a new nickel factory planned for Poum, northern New Caledonia. No doubt there will be some interesting wheeler-dealer games ahead over the exploitation of the marine resources around under-developed Pacific islands. We may even get back to those glorious days of gun boat diplomacy.

While empires are being carved out in the sealanes, there is increas ing activity in the airways, and numerous lures are being offered to Japanese tourists. Actually it pays to be able to read Japanese if you are flying around the Pacific these days.

On a flight from Auckland to Nadi one time the Air New Zealand

France is the latest country to woo Western Samoa with offers of aid. The offer, through the French Ambassador to Western Samoa, Mr de Shonner, who is based in Wellington, involves medical services, agriculture and fisheries. Most of the aid will be through sending ex perts.

In agriculture the French are ready to

help improve production of copra, cocoa

and coffee. They are prepared to help to set up aquaculture projects to breed prawns, bait fish and commercial fish.

luncheon menu included “kumaras”, which was unfamiliar to some travellers. However, by look ing at the Japanese section of the menu, written in phonetic katakana script, one could decipher “su-ii-to po-te-to”. So brush up your Japanese; it could help you identify sweet potato in New Zealand.

Actually the increase in Japanese overseas tourism has been phenomenal, considering it was only 15 years ago that the Japanese foreign currency laws were relaxed to allow private overseas trips for pleasure. The recent upsurge in the numbers of Japanese tourists visit ing the Pacific has meant that for New Caledonia, for example, the Japanese this year represent the sec ond largest group of visitors, after the Australians. For the first six months of 1977 the Nihon-jin jum bered 2 368, i.e., 13% of total stay ing visitors. At the same time in the New Hebrides provisional figures show 1 299 Japanese, more than 10% of total arrivals.

At the Turtle Club on He Ouen, off Noumea, enterprising resort owner Kolka Muller has performed several “kekkon-shiki” (marriage ceremonies) for young Japanese. As Kolka explained in Sydney recently, the couple exchange vows in a Melanesian-style thatch bungalow.

They are then treated to French champagne, a Melanesiam bougna feast and the tall French wedding cake of cream puffs.

Anyone who has seen the elaborate dressing of Japanese brides at such wedding mansions as Nihon Kaku in Tokyo, involving or nate head-dress and several layers of Kimono, can appreciate the con trast of a south seas wedding. At He Ouen, in place of the solemn Japanese Nakodo-san (match makers) the young couples are at tended by resort guests and mem bers of the island’s Melanesian tribe. The honorary Japanese consul in Noumea, Mr Georges Tsutsui, assists with translations and official documents.