CONFERENCE ON PACIFIC ISLANDS

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5301, 14 January 1947, Page 2

CONFERENCE ON PACIFIC ISLANDS

TASKS ENTAILED WEjLFARE OF, 2,500,000 PEOPLE TO BE SAFEGU/ARDED In just over a fortnight's time an iinportant conference is to open at Canberra, Australia. It will be attended by. representatives of New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain, the United States, France and the Netherlj&ids, stated Dr. Ernest Beaglehole in a broadcast address on Sunday. New Zealand and Australia have jointly taken the initiative in calling this conference. Its overall purpose is to develop plans for furthering the welfare and development of all the non-self-governing peoples Iiving south of the Equator and east of, but including, Dutch New Guinea. By a rough estimate there are weli over two and a-half millions of these native peoples Iiiving on the many atolls and high islands scattered over the Pacific Ocean. Not many, perhaps, as heads are counted in the world to-day, but a large enough body of peoples, because all of them are at present in some way or othei dependent upon a controlling and administering power for their social and economic welfare. And all, or most of them, occupy islands or land territories that the last war has taught us to think of as vital in one way or another for the offensive or defensive security of at least two of the great Powers. The "Anzac Pact" In January, 1944, the AustralianNew Zealand Agreement, 1944, was ratified. This agreement is sometimes popularly referred to as the Anzac Pact. Articles 28 to 31 oi this agreement relate to the welfare and adVancement of the native peoples of the Pacific. The agreement recognises that the principle oi "trusteeship" is applicable to all thc peoples of the Pacific. It also recognises that it is prettj difficult to apply this principle oi trusteeship in administering the native peoples unless all the differeni authorities get together and worlc out some method for internationa collaboration. Therefore the agreement proposed to set up what it provisionally called a South Seas Regional Commission.

The proposed job of this commis sion would be that of seeuring s common policy of social, economit and political betterment for thc Pacific native peoples. Six means were suggested in thc agreement whereby these ends coulc be secured. It would be the job oi the commission to recommend wayr in which the natives could participatc more and more in their own govern ment; the commission would sugges ways in which the material and economic life of the peoples could bimproved; it would help in co-ordinat ing health, medical and educationa", services; it would make arrangements for improving native laboui conditions and social services; and finally, it would draw up plans foj social and anthro-pological research a> well as publishing reviews of thc progress that each member of thc commission made in all the fields oi native welfare.

New Deal for Islanders If the conference succeeds, anc" there is no reason to think that i; will not, then it will certainly, amonp other things, succeed in making history by providing a new deal foi dependent peoples in the Pacific, anc perhaps, by example, for dependeni peoples elsewhere in the world. For most colonial powers in thc nineteenth century and up to, say the first world war, native people.who occupied islands in the Pacific or elsewhere were thoughi^ of J>? most people as either souls to bc saved, or labourers to he exploited their lands and territories wer visualised as bases and coalin? stations. The welfare of the peopler was more or less .incidental to tlieii role as pawns in a high game of yn perialistic rivalry. Then what he cohies of those two snags of security on the one hand, and economic ex ploitation on the other? Take the question of security firs! of all. How far can you establis1 huge military bases and still allow o • encourage the native peoples 'tc make steps towards self-governmen and self-determination, when sucl steps may naturally end up by deny ing the use of such bases to th. superior power? c. I think this is a real problem tha will have to he faced courageousl.c by the conference: naval and military control of Pacific feland haser succeeds admirably to-day where ii is enlightened and humane (witness for instance, America Samoa) hui only at the cost of stopping native progress towards self-determination With the exception perhaps of France and New Zealand, this problem of strategy is going to worry the members of the conference quite a lot.-Self-Sufficient Life In general, the islanders live a selfsufficient kind of economic life. True, .they need to-day many European trade goods, like knives and cottons and kerosene and soap but they are otherwise content to grow only as much food as is neccssary to support their own needs. ' Many of the islands, however, can also he /madeto produce sugar and copra, gold and nickel, chrome and ph.dsphates, products that are all of vital importance in one way or another to the developed economy of the. modern world.

The rub of the matter here is this : ■ the islanders are not very happyi if they have to work as steadily and regularly as the western Vvorld demands in order to produce . these comlfiodities; and secofldly, urtless these commodities are produced ■ regularly and exported in bulk, it is hard - to find the money with -which to pay for' expensive modern hospitals- 'and health s'chemes, minimupi schooling and education for the peoples,' efficient administratiOn. I think that the conferring Powers

will realise that in the South Pacific there is a tremendous diversity in the social and economic hackgrounds of the islanders.. This diversity ranges all the way from the practically untouched tribal life of many peoples in New Guinea and Papua or the Solomons to the telatively well advanced form ' of parliamfentary democracy practised by the people of modern Tonga. Now you can't ibjpose a standardised form of education or even a standardised form of health, education or medical servjce on people who differ so greatly in their attitudes and values and ways of life. Therefore when the conference comes to- consider common policies, it will have to think of these social and cultdral diversities and be content with formulating broadlyconceived directives only. When the conference reaches jFg conclusions and agrqes on the jobs for the commission, I/ think the commission will lind it will have to know a great deal more than we at pi'esent know about the way of life pf the islanders before policies can b.e mdde to work well. It will find that much social, medical and anthropolcgical research is necessary. i . ' v r . •.