Pacific Bullies

A Little Flyer

Buzzes Two

The attitudes of Australia and New Zealand in civil avi ation and shipping “often had little basis in logic or morality”, said Western Samoa’s Prime Minister Tupuola Efi in a speech of welcome in Apia to the South Pacific Regional Aviation Council.

He appealed strongly to

larger nations to take into con sideration the problems of the smaller. “The gut of the issue is that we are small,” he said.

“We have to define the rules as we see them to protect our interests.” The Prime Minister gave chapter and verse to back

his charges.

• Western Samoa wanted to take up its agreed right to oper ate two flights a week to Auckland but New Zealand was giving his country the “run-around”, and “selling it short”. • Western Samoa had asked Australia to drop its objections to Continential Airlines flving across the Pacific. Five or six

additional flights through the

South Pacific by Continental

would bring considerable spin

offs to smaller countries in the region. In Western Samoa’s case, they could mean the dif ference between life and death for its hotel and tourist indus try-

He said he was not asking Australia to throw in the towel, but only to take some account of his country’s interests. “If re gional co-operation is to mean

anything, the larger countries

have to take into account the views and concerns of the smaller,” he said. • Western Samoa’s Faleolo airport was built, on the advice of foreign experts, to take Boe ing 7375. Then, again on foreign expert advice, his country had been told tht there were a host of technical reasons why a Boeing 737 could not land there. But, in the final analysis, when it was decided in 1978, after seven years of waiting, to proceed, the tech

nical objections disappeared.

“We wonder if we have been sold short somewhere along the line here too,” Tupuola said. • Most Island countries can only offer one airport when negotiating with other coun tries. It was ironic that when some countries fly to the South Pacific from several exit points at home, the Island countries are allowed access to only one entry point in return.

The Prime Minister said: “In a strict sense, of course, the position of the larger countries is correct. But the other fellow

also has a basic right. We need to define a new morality so that the smaller countries have a role in making the rules.”

The meeting was attended by transport ministers of 11 countries and chaired by President Hammer Deßoburt of Nauru. Its main theme was a proposal for the formation of a South Pacific Regional Airlines Association, similar to regional airline associations in other parts of the world.

The meeting recommended

the setting up of such an associ ation, which should initially concern itself with standardis ation of equipment used in the region, rationalisation of schedules and tariffs, pooling of resources, and joint market

ing.

The meeting was the third held by the aviation council, Earlier, an almost identical group of representatives had taken part in the sixth session of the South Pacific Regional

Shipping Council.

Prime Minister Tupuola Efi - sold short somewhere?