WELFARE OF PACIFIC ISLANDS

Chronicle (Levin), 24 January 1947, Page 7

WELFARE OF PACIFIC ISLANDS

ISSUES FOR CONFERENCE IN CANBERRA AUCKLAND, Jaii. 23. An authority on Pacilic Island affairs aud managing director aud editor of the Pacilic lslands Monthly, Mr. R. W. Robson, of Sydney, arrived iii Auckland by fiyingboat today. Oommenting on the cont'erence in Canberra next week to forni a regional commission for the youth Pacilic Mr. Robson said while the convening Powers, Australia and New Zealand, emphasised that the conference would be purely advisory, those interested in the welfare of the Pacilic lslands hoped the commission would be given some authority by the United Nations. ' ' It has bcen apparent for the last 2.1 years that there is one thing that is ' urgently needed in the administration of tli5 ISouth Pacilic tcrritorics aud that is some machinery of coordination of poiicy, ' ' he said. "Eor years wcllwishers have pointed out the ridiculoua i'act that there is practically no com municaLibn, let alone excliange of experience or coordination of ideas, betueen the IU or 12 separate territories in the youth Pacilic." In Ihe Western Pacilic there was the absurd position that the mandated territory in New Uuinea and tlie Australlan territory in l'apua wiiich wero ueighbours wcre administered iu Canberra by the same department and yet they wero kept iu strictly separate watertight coniparlnieuts with no excliange of stafts or ideas. it took the Lragedy of the yecond World War and the Japanese invasion lo break down thal wornout system of administration, said Mr. Robson. This was recognised by Australia and New Zealand iu the Anzac I'act of 19*11 und Dr. Evatt has now gathered the represeutatives oi: se\ en countries to Can berra to create a body thal would coordinate policies und pass on practicat experience to the Covernments of the territories in i'uluro. "Western yaiuoa is, without any qualilication, capable of sclf-govern* ment," contiuued Mr. Robson. "It may be dcsirublc to have some protecting- government but they are as capable as the Tongans are in running thcir own sliow. " He considered it just a question of " face-saving" that the Americau and New Zealand Covernments retained eontrol of yaiuoa. If a Regional Commission was set up it would have notliing whatever to do with the disposal of the mandated territories and the possible administrative rearrangements of the 8outh and West Pacilic territories to meet Australian wishes for the defensive perimeter of the islands. This was a matter' for tho United Nations.