Tuvalu-U.S.

Letters

relations

I read with considerable dis may the letter from David Noland (PIM April 7) regard ing the US State Department’s so-called giveaway to Tuvalu and Kiribati. I am particularly disturbed that such neo colonial sentiments can be ex pressed by a person who is presumably a citizen of a nation which over 200 years

ago gained its independence

from the same colonial power and still proudly every year cel ebrates the event.

Indeed it seems to me that the rights of Tuvalu and Kiribati to the islands in ques tion are more justified than those of a largely immigrant population in the 18th cen tury.

The purpose, however, of my writing is to get some points correct.

Tuvalu is not a republic and is certainly not left-leaning. It is stated government policy that while it is prepared to co operate fully with all friendly nations, diplomatic relations will be established only with non-communist countries. It has no contact with the Soviet Union whatsoever, although such contact is not precluded if we feel it is in our interests.

The Ellice Islands have not been controlled by America since the 1800 s. Our main re source is the sea and we feel ab

solutely justified in protecting

the resource by declaring a 200-mile economic zone, in common with other South Pa cific Forum countries. There can be no justification for referring to this area as ‘American waters’. They are Tuvalu waters.

There is no question of Tuvalu having ‘clout’ with the State Department. It is a ques tion of realism and under standing on the part of the US

Administration and its

preparedness to acknowledge

the sovereignty of a nation, however small.

It is absurd to state that we are anti-America when in fact we have friendly diplomatic re lations with the US Adminis tration. We have in fact made no overtures to Red China but we do have diplomatic re lations with Taiwan. We do, nevertheless, believe in peace ful co-existence.

We are indebted to those Americans who sacrificed their lives in the interests of world peace during the Second World War but we are equally indebted to all those who paid similar sacrifices throughout the world.

In conclusion I would say that small as we are, we are Independent, intend to stay that way and look forward to the ratification of the Treaty of Friendship with the US. Per haps it is attitudes such as Mr Noland’s which force people tc seek friends elsewhere.

I. Ionatana

Secretary to Government Funafuti Tuvalu

Smallpox claim

rebutted

You recently carried an inter view with French anthropol

ogist Jean Guiart speaking

about the New Hebrides (PIM Apr plO). I must take issue with one of Mr Guiart’s state ments, when in speaking of Santo island in the 19th century he said: ‘Two-thirds of the

population died of smallpox.

This was caused by Australian labour recruiters who littered the beaches with articles of clothing which had been worn by smallpox victims in order to close off a whole labour

recruiting area from competi

tors.’

While I accept that a small pox epidemic occurred, it is ridiculous to attribute it to the deliberate actions of Australian labour recruiters. Recruiting from Santo to Queensland went on from 1863 to 1904; during this period over 2000 men and women from Santo participated in the circular mi gratory labour trade. The ma jority of them left Santo in the 1870 s and 1880 s; fewer than

300 left for Queensland after 1890.

Virtually all cases of small pox are found, on investi

gation, to have experienced

close contact with an antecedent case. Where no ani mate source is found, the dis ease has usually been spread from some inanimate object,

like clothing. Such clothing

could remain dangerous for up to about nine months, but the usual period of contagion is less than one month.

Smallpox was rare in Queensland in the 19th cen tury, so contaminated clothes would not have been readily

available. Nineteenth-century

people were rightly terrified of smallpox and did not play games with possible contagion.

Mr Guiart should ask himself

the following questions: What

captain would risk his crew by carrying the clothes aboard?

Had all members of the crew been vaccinated? Or had they

all previously had smallpox?

Where did the recruiters get the contaminated clothes? Did rival recruiters also die from

the smallpox epidemic?

I am not defending the Queensland labour trade it was often an unsavoury affair, which exploited Melanesians.

But to accuse the Queensland recrutiers of such inhumanity,

and of deliberately damaging

their own livelihoods, is incor rect. The Queensland labour recruiters have enough sins to answer for without adding

smallpox epidemics to the

list.

Clive R. Moore

History Department

James Cook University of North Queensland

Nikunau’s

worth

I am much distressed that Mr

Overy (PIM June p 5) should

have believed me capable of

making disparaging remarks

about the beautiful island of Nikunau which, by the way, I had the privilege of visiting in October last, while on the

Lindblad Explorer cruise ship.

When I used the word ‘worth less’ to describe the eight atolls discovered or seen by Commo dore Byron in 1765, I was, of course, simply referring to the opinion of the British Navi gator who, like most of the con

temporary navigators, was on perpetual lookout for new

lands containing precious min

erals and stones or at least fresh water, vegetables and meat.

As for myself, I have over the years with great pleasure lived on and visited a considerable number of atolls (see for instance my book Raroia, the

Happy Island), including

Napuka and Tepoto in the Tuamotu group which, as you know, poor Byron called the Islands of Disappointment, be cause he found them so totally devoid of useful and valuable

things.

Unfortunately, in the 1860 s and 1870 s, some British planters, established here in my adopted country, Tahiti, discovered that the Gilbert Islands, after all, did contain some wealth the islanders themselves who were therefore

kidnapped and brought here

by a succession of blackbirding vessels. Many of these Gilber tese have left descendants in French Polynesia, and I should like to suggest that Mr Overy or some other Gilbertese specialist one day write the his to'ry of this infamous trade and its consequences. If so, I would be very happy to extend my

hospitality to anyone doing

such work and would also gladly put at their disposal re search materials in various languages that I have collected over the years.

Bengt Danielsson

Papehue Tahiti

Trials of Fiji

land dealing

Your article ‘Buying a Fiji island?’ (PIM Apr p 22) was

most interesting.

The project with which I have been associated in Fiji was first commenced three or four years ago, and the sub division plans are only now

being approved, several units

at a time, by the Ministry of Lands and Resources.

All of the 800-odd blocks on the site have been sold at least once, and some have been re sold up to three or more times.

Yet only a few titles have been released, and then only this year.

Despite this situation, a