Dariel Tardieu's

Giscard d’Estaing retained loyalty of French Pacific

Noumea

Notebook

The French Pacific territories as a whole voted for outgoing president Valery Giscard d'Estaing in the second round of the presidential election on May 10. His strongest support came from Wallis and Futuna, where he secured 97.50% of the voles and there are no soldiers or metropolitan officials in this overseas territory.

In Tahiti he scored more than 76%, and in New Caledonia 65.50%. Francois Mitterand, new president of the French Republic, scored only 34.50% in New Caledonia.

Official election results for New Caledonia and its dependencies were: enrolled voters 73 086; blank or infor mal votes 430; valid votes 52 289: Giscard 34 250 (65.5%), Mitterand 18 039 (34.49%).

The Independence Front campaigned for the election of Francis Mitterand.

The atmosphere on poll ing day was calm, and there were no disturbances follow ing the announcement of the result. On the Monday even ing after the poll about 200 people took part in a meeting held in Noumea to celebrate Francis Mitterand’s win. It was addressed by New Caledonian Deputy to the French National Assembly, Rock Pidjot.

The outcome of the elec tion has caused conster nation among supporters of the national majority, even though the game is far from over yet. Francois Mitterand must now secure a parlia mentary majority, without which he cannot implement his programme.

Up to now Francis Mitterand has been very vague on matters concerning the overseas territories and departments, contenting

himself with statements about the ‘right of peoples to self-determination’, a phrase which has never really seemed to mean very much.

Looking only at the vole in the three French Pacific territories, it is clear that they voted, with ample ma jorities, for the maintenance of their links with France.

But there is always the possibility that the philo sophical leanings of the men in Francois Mitterand's entourage will prevail, and that they will be tempted simply to let these bits of ‘the confetti of empire’ go to the four winds hence the degree of anxiety which is being felt in these territories today. Then there is the other possibility that the will of the people of the territories, legally expressed through universal suffrage, will be taken into account in Paris by the new adminis tration of Francois Mitterand.

France’s nuclear policy in the Pacific will be main tained, as the socialist plat form supports the nuclear defence strategy. It should be noted in this respect that France owns the atolls of Moruroa and Fangatofa, which were legally sold to her by decision of the Terri torial Assembly of French Polynesia, and that nothing can prevent France from using these atolls as she sees fit.

The national majority holds power in New Caledonia, which has con trol of its own finances. It is hard to see how the Paris government could legally in terfere in territorial affairs.

However, the pro independence parties have won from socialist circles a promise of reforms to the electoral laws. The thrust of these reforms has not yet

been made clear in much the same way as the social ists have not explained what they mean when they speak of the right of populations to make a free choice. But will it come to pass that the mere fact of being White will be enough to exclude one from the electoral process?

So, for the moment in Noumea, it’s a matter of wait-and-see. Already a new campaign is under way for the election of the territory’s two Deputies to the Paris parliament. The incumbents are Rock Pidjot, leader of the Independence Front, who represents the Loyalty Islands and the East Coast, and Jacques Laflcur, for the island’s other regions, which include the capital, Noumea.

In track of

La Perouse

In April a New Caladonian expedition of two Noumea based yachts journeyed to the scene of the loss of the two vessels of the French explorer La Perouse at Vanikoro, Solomon Islands.

It is known that La Perouse set out from Austra lia where he had moored his two ships, La Boussole and I’Astrolabe, to the south of Sydney, and in the vicinity of land which to this day bears his name. That was in February 1788. The last witness to his presence was Captain John Hunter, an English naval officer.

From that time onwards mystery has surrounded the fate of La Perouse. Al though the place where he met his end is now known, there is little known of the route he followed in gelling there.

The New Caledonian ex pedition to Vanikoro has made a contribution in this respect in that it discovered in fact it was the second such discovery mineral samples which on analysis have been shown to be of New Caledonian origin.

Commandant dc Broussard, who headed an official French naval mission to the site, had already discovered mineral samples which, after analysis in France, confirmed the hypothesis that La Perouse had visited New Caledonia.

Under the guidance of Mr Alain Conan, who led the New Caledonian expedition, an inventory of the objects discovered has been pres ented to the Noumea Mu seum. these objects include fragments of a lightning conductor (the first lightning-conductor had been invented and installed on his house by Benjamin Franklin in 1752, 33 years before La Perouse set out on his ill-fated expedition), a piece of stone slab which had formed the lop of an altar, a copper pot, pieces of measuring equipment, shoe buckles, Russian and Spanish silver coins, pearls of various colours, and a cannon-ball. In all, 134 items arc listed in the inven tory. It is noteworthy that a number of tin plates re covered were intact.

It may be hoped that the expedition has added another stone to the edifice of our historical knowledge about New Caledonia, even if it has not solved the mystery of the disappear ance of the ships of Jeandc Galaup dc La Perouse.