In This Issue

®NG-IRIAN JAVA BORDER A Catholic bishop in *| 2 he border area fears the anti-Indonesian OPM may jecome a terrorist group. Denis Reinhardt reports FIJI FROST THAWS FOR SOVIETS The Soviet 1 5 ambassador accredited to Fiji won a somewhat varmer-than-expected welcome from Prime Minister =latu Sir Kamisese Mara, and they talked about future rade and fishing deals. : RANCE‘S SOUTH PACIFIC COUNCIL With 20 : rench parliamentary elections due on March 16, /larie-Therese and Bengt Danielsson look over the ve-year record of the French Socialists in the Pacific, nd say that only the new-fangled South Pacific Council set up by France is likely to serve as any kind f monument to their period in office.

HE CHANGING U.S. VIEW Under pressure from 27 he troubled situation in the Philippines, a growing >oviet regional military presence, and the nuclear

ships row with New Zealand, new perceptions of the significance of Pacific Island states are making ground rapidly in US official circles.

RIOTS IN MOUNT HAGEN A traditional-style 33 compromise agreement crowned talks held following the most serious rioting anyone can remember in Papua New Guinea’s Western Highlands capital, Mount Hagen.

A CAR FOR A SUGAR CZAR A storm in a cup of 4*| (sweetened) tea brewed in Fiji over efforts to provide Sir Vijay Singh, new chief executive of the Fiji Sugar Cane Growers’ Council, with a motor car befitting his high office.

MICRONESIA: ONE MORE STEP The painfully 47 slow process of ending the US trusteeship in many of the islands of Micronesia took an encouraging step forward on January 14 when President Reagan signed the Compacts of Free Association between the US and the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. For the moment, however, Palau remained a sticking point.