Tropicalities

"Serious Distortions"

I AM writing to correct serious dis tortions of my country’s policies and actions in the Pacific published by your magazine in its September and November issues. I refer to “Be hind the Celebrations” (September), concerning the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Tonga- United States friendship treaty, and “Invasion, American Style” (Novem ber), concerning the construction of water tanks in Tuvalu.

Your story on the Tongan celebra tion makes the assertion that in July of this year the United States and Tonga

. . sign(ed) a United States-Tonga

Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation”, and goes on to claim that this alleged treaty is a “military agree ment” guaranteeing “transit of nuc lear-armed craft in the Tongan archipelago”. To put it plainly, no treaty was signed at the July com memorative ceremony, dealing with warship transit or anything else. What was signed was a mutual declaration commemorating the centenary of the 1888 friendship treaty and reaffirm ing the spirit of peace and friendship that had led the United States of America and the Kingdom of Tonga to sign the original agreement.

Not only was no treaty signed, but on the contrary it was mutually agreed beforehand that the declaration was not to be taken as a treaty or other binding international agreement. Had your correspondent bothered to check with either this Embassy or the Gov ernment of Tonga, he could easily have obtained the facts.

As to the question of US warship visits to Tonga, the United States has never sought from Tonga or any other South Pacific country a written agreement permitting visits by US naval vessels. In arranging for these visits, we rely entirely on the goodwill of the government and people of the country involved. In keeping with the very close and friendly relationship between the United States and the Kingdom of Tonga, His Majesty’s Government has always welcomed visits by our naval vessels.

Your story on the US Army’s assist ance project to construct water tanks in Tuvalu was also seriously distorted.

The project in question was a success ful test run for a new assistance prog ram being implemented by the IJS Army Western Command in Hawaii.

Under this program, US Army En gineer units undertake construction projects in the region.

As a pilot project, the Tuvalu exer cise was quite successful. In addition

to finishing the water tanks ahead of schedule, the Engineers built a new road along the runway and carried out other road repairs and improve ments, at the request of the Tuvalu Ministry of Works. Also, at the request of the Government of Tuvalu, the US AY Clinger delayed its return to Hawaii in order to deliver medical supplies to the island of Niu, where a flu epidemic was in progress.

Your correspondent seems to have missed the point of the speech made

by Mr Benzinger (not Benzinga) of

this Embassy. Mr Benzinger cud in deed emphasise the importance of the logistical achievement in getting the people and material to Tuvalu across the long distance involved. The main point, however, is that the experience gained from the water tank project makes it feasible to plan more ambi tious projects for the future. We have already invited the Government of Tuvalu to consider what projects they might wish our Army Engineers to undertake now that we all are more familiar with the capabilities involved.

We have every expectation that they will take us up on the offer.

As to the water tank project itself, your reporter’s estimate of the life of the tanks would appear to be based on the life of ordinary sheet iron tanks.

The tanks installed were coated with an epoxy-based rust preventive and lined with corrosion-proof plastic. Our engineers anticipate that the tank should last several times your corres pondent’s estimate. As to the alleged rubber-eating “knicker beetles”, we have verified with engineers that no insect found in the region should rep resent a threat to the synthetic rubber washers used in the Tuvalu tanks.

Your story grossly exaggerates the scale of the exercise. The Engineers set up a small camp on about 100 yards of the unpopulated side of the runway. This was a simple necessity, since Funafuti lacks accommodation for 25 people. The exercise was de signed to be self-contained, so as to minimise the disruption to everyday life on Funafuti. Your estimate or the cost is also absurdly overstated. The project cost a fraction of the figure claimed in your story.

Leonard Rochwarger

US Ambassador to Fiji, Tuvalu, Kiribati and Tonga Mr Rochwarger is, of course, entitled to respond to any story that appears in Pacific Islands Monthly. However,

his own letter contains ‘ distortions' of our coverage that are as ‘serious’ as those he identifies. Ed Rampelfs story on the celebrations for King Taufa’ahau’s 70th birthday made no claim that a ‘new’ treaty was signed; in fact, it stated specifically that die occa sion commemorated and renewed an agreement originally signed in 1888.

As well as a mutual declaration of peace, amity and friendship, both the 1888 and 1988 versions of the treaty contain references to a relationship that could only be construed as of a military nature: indeed, Mr Rochwar ger is himself quoted in the story as

referring to the training of Tongan

military officers in the US and Congresswoman Patricia Saiki refers to die “strategic” nature of Tonga’s

relationship with Washington.

Mr Rampelfs story was a piece of journalism; not an expression of gov ernment policy or an attempt to nave a government s policy perceived in the way that government any govern ment would prefer. Thus Mr Roch warger’s comments about the Novem ber story, ‘lnvasion American Style’ cannot pass unchallenged.

That PIM “missed die point” of Mr

Benziger’s speech is, frankly, an eva

sion. Our correspondent, as an islan der, interpreted Mr Benziger’s words in his own way. That might not have been the way Mr Benziger hoped his speech would be received, but it was nevertheless a legitimate response. In other places the United States’ activi ties would have been interpreted as a display of military might or, if the cor

respondent were of a particular poli

tical hue, as imperialism.

Lastly, Mr Rochwarger is guilty of

obfuscation over the cost of the pro ject. Our story carefully states that the “whole operation is estimated to have cost about . . (emphasis added). No exact figures were quoted because, de spite our enquiries, none were made available. But that is not the point.

Even if the cost of the exercise were reduced by an order of magnitude, to “about” $A500,000, the fact remains that the United States succeeded in in stalling fewer water tanks having less capacity than those installed by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church . . . at almost 20 times the cost!

And that, surely, should have been the real point of the operation: not to demonstrate militarv capability, or to repair some roads, out to provide bad ly needed assistance for a small nation whose fisheries resources are exploited without reasonable recompense by na tions such as the United States. □

The Truth About Joyita?

IN NOVEMBER 1955 I was a 23year-old ship’s writer aboard the Royal Fleet Auxiliary RFA Der wentdale on a passage from Colombo to Suva. At around about the Thurs day Island passage we received a sig nal to keep a lookout for anything un usual on tne remainder of the voyage to Suva. Submarine activity was men tioned but we were not tola the reason and it was not a high priority lookout or that was my impression.

On arrival at Suva we were told the facts of the Joyita as they were known at the time by L/Cdr Peter Trent, the Royal New Zealand Navy Liaison Officer at Suva our cargo of oil was for the Admiralty fuelling station there. Peter Trent took me down to the Customs shed to the roped-off area where the collection of material, personal effects and so on taken off the Joyita was put, simply in a pile.

Nobody was allowed to go near the stuff; I was lucky just to be shown it at all. Among the conglomeration of the material there were some bunk mat tresses all sodden with salt water, but with distinct evidence of charring or burning. Peter Trent told me tnese had been found on the engine, soaked in kerosene or some similar accelerant.

He said it appeared they had been put down in the engine room by some

body and set alignt.

Surely, then, this is evidence of fire.

Of course it isn’t what one normally means by accident caused by fire, but did not the encjuiry come to some con clusion of foul play? 1 still have my diary of that voyage, but unfortunate ly must have been too interested in tne sights of Suva to write it all up we had been at sea for 25 days.

I wo years later 1 went to Fiji again, this time employed by CSR on their sugar estates where I stayed until 19/1. I am still a citizen of Fiji and will always be stirred by any resurrec tion of this mystery. I feel that some one, somewhere, knows the answer.

John Barnes

Auckland New Zealand

Fiji adds 'flesh and

blood' to a turbulent

history

RARYL TARTE, the author of Fiji (Pascoe Publishing), is a member of an old Fiji colo mily and thus has the creden tials to properly flesh out his story which, as he says, “blends facts with

fiction, real life characters with im aginary people”. All this is accom plished with skill to “add dramatic emphasis to the fascinating events . . . and to put flesh and blood on the colourful characters to have contri buted to the evolution of Fiji”.

In his nothing short of epic novel, Tarte covers the history of Fiji from the time of its first European sighting by Abel Tasman in 1643, to 1987’s military coups. Here are all the great names of Fiji history: Ratu Sent Cako bau, the Tui Viti, Maafu, the Tongan who conquered the eastern Fan islands; the ill-fated British Consul, Pritchard; Williams, the American Consul whose greed led to the ceding of Fiji to Queen Victoria; the rip roaring days of the old capital, Levu ka, and the era of the blackbirders.

We are witness to momentous changes, from the inter-tribal feuding and its accompanying orgies of canni balism to the acceptance of law and order under Ratu Beru Cakobau and

on to today’s emphasis on Christianity

among the Fijian people. The strength

and nobility of Cakobau is clearly shown at the Ceremony of Cession on October 10, 1874. As Daryl Tarte paints the scene: “Before finally ced ing this country to Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, the King desires through Your Excel lency to give Her Majesty the only thing he posse* >es that mav interest her. The King gives Her Majesty his old and favourite war club which, un til lately, was the only known law in Fiji. In abandoning club law and adopting the form and principles of civilised societies he laid by his old weapon and covered it with the emblems of peace . . .”

From such beginnings Tarte follows, always faithfully, the broad outlines of

Fiji’s often turbulent, always interest

ing history including the impact of

the British decision to bring in Indian labour for the sugar fields and the growth and power of the sugar com panies. Through it all we feel the con cern of the Fijians for their land, their customs and way of life.

Also threaded through the book is the equally fascinating story of the

pioneering Chamberlain family and

the development of the family estate on the lovely garden island’ of Taveuni. Tarte admits that he used his own family as a model: “'They did settle on Taveuni,” he says. “However, the Chamberlains are intended to rep resent a composite of the pioneer families who settled in Fiji, and who remained involved for generations in the development of the islands.”

The fortunes, both waxing and wan ing, of these pioneers followed the pattern of the crops grown in Fiji, first

cotton, then copra and finally sugar.

But these early settlers were not only attracted by the chance of fortune, nor is the story that of their trading success alone.

They were a lusty lot, and the local maidens were willing. Even the re

spectably married Henry Chamberlain

succumbs to the beauty of Salote, daughter of the powerful Maafu. 1 here are fascinating pen pictures

of outstanding figures in Fiji’s de

velopment, such as the legendary statesman Ratu Sir Lala Sukuna, and of prominent present-day leaders. In fact, all the major figures on all sides of the recent conflicts are there, thinly

disguised by fictitious names.

It is difficult to write recent history as fiction, and much of the dramatic events in Fiji are still ‘news’. As yet they have not had the advantage of time to be put into perspective, but this well-crafted novel adheres to his tory so faithfully that it must be of absorbing interest to all who aspire to some knowledge of the growth of Fiji as a nation and of particular interest to those who have already delved into the country’s turbulent history. It’s re curring theme is one of concern over land: tne needs of the Indian farmers, and the passionate attachment of the Fijian people to their land. The con flict of course, is decades old, and cen tres on the conundrum of land being owned by the Fijians yet cultivated bv others, the Australian sugar giant CS& and the Indian farmers. Earle’s prob ing into the many facets of Fijian life and history is manifested by clever de velopment of the forces responsible for shaping the events that have over

taken Fiji. He provides compelling in

sights into the way of life, the feelings, the history and tne different customs that make up multiracial Fiji, and gives a clear picture of the inevitability of the events of the past two years.

In reference to recent events, Tarte offers his opinion in a publicity release

accompanying Fiji : “Brigadier Rabuka

gave the Fijians the opportunity to voice their feelings, reassert them selves and pursue a course of action

that deposed Western-style democracy.

“The Western world expected, in deed demanded, that Fiji conform with the Western brand of democracy.

But is this suitable for Fiji?”

Fiji is a big book; an absorbing book. Its conclusions and the promin ence, it has given to living people and to recent events will inevitably make it a controversial book, but it is enjoy able reading and to be heartily recom mended. It is sad, however, to see a book of such scope and quality printed on such poor paper!

Victor Carell