COMMISSION FOR SOUTH SEAS

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25081, 13 January 1947, Page 4

COMMISSION FOR SOUTH SEAS

OBJECT OF CANBERRA CONFERENCE . PROBLEMS OF PACIFIC . ISLANDS The possibility of a South Seas Regional Commission \being established, financed, and set to work on behalf of the dependent peoples of the Pacific would be discussed by six nations at a conference to open in Canberra in about a fortnight, said Dr. Ernest Beaglehole, lecturer in philosophy at Victoria University College, in a broadcast address last evening. Nothing like that had previously been suggested in the whole rather unhappy history of colonial administration the world over. If the conference succeeded—and there was no reason to think it would not—then it would certainly, among other things, succeed in making history by providing a new deal for dependent peoples in the Pacific, and perhaps, by example, for dependent peoples elsewhere in the world. Representatives of New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain, the -United States. France and the Netherlands would attend the conference Dr. Beaglehole said. The overall purpose of the conference was to develop plans for furthering the welfare ana development of all the non-self-govern-ing peoples living south of the equator and east of, but including, Dutch New Guinea. , It had been estimated that there were about 2,500,000 native peoples living on the many atolls and high islands in the area. The total was not large, perhaps, as heads were counted in the worla to-day, but most of them occupied islands or land territories which the war had shown to be vital in one way or another for the offensive or defensive security of at least two of the Great Powers. “It is well, therefore, that we in New Zealand should follow with interest the proceedings pf the Canberra conference” Dr. Beaglehole said. “Perhaps our own defensive security will depend on the outcome of the deliberations. At least the welfare of the Polynesian peoples whom we in New Zealand hold under trusteeship agreement will be affected by what co-operative efforts eventuate from the discussions.” , The setting up of a commission had been proposed in the Australian-New Zealand agreement, 1944, Dr. Beaglehole said. The agreement suggested six means by which the proposed commission could secure a common policy of social, economic and political bettermerit for the Pacific native peoples. It would be the job of the commission to recommend ways in which the natives could participate more and more in their own governments; it would suggest ways in which the material and economic life of the peoples could be improved: it would help in co-ordinating healthj medical and educational services; it would make arrangements for improving native labour conditions and social ser-

vices; and finally it would draw up plans for social and anthropological research as well as publishing reviews of the progress that each member of the commission made in all the fields of native welfare mentioned. Doubtless the conference would proceed in an amicable fashion, but the differing viewpoints of the various countries represented would produce several snags which would have to be cleared away before final agreement could be reached. Dr. Beaglehole said. There was the question of security. It was likely, that the members of the conference would have somewhat differing views about the need for securing offensive and defensive bases among the Pacific islands. As an example, certain strategists in the United States were already thinking of a kind of defensive arc of military, naval and air bases which would be anchored at its northern end in the Aleutians and in its southern end on Manua Island and on the Solomons.

‘‘Perhaps there may be a need for such a defensive arc; but the point that interests us is this—how far can you establish huge military bases of this sort and still allow or encourage the native peoples, whose islands and property you have thus commandeered, to make steps towards self-government and self-determination, when such steps may naturally end up by denying the use of such bases to the superior Power,” Dr. Beaglehole said. “I think this is a real problem that will hav£ to be faced courageously by the conference; naval ana military control of Pacific island bases succeeds admirably to-day where it is enlightened and humane—witness, for instance, ■ American Samoa —but only at the cost of stopping native progress towards self-determination. It means, if you like, keeping the natives as ornamental museum pieces, gracing the landscape perhaps, but quite secondary in importance to the major purposes of the established naval base. With the exception, perhana, of France and New ' Zealand, this problem of strategy is going to worry the members of the conference quite a lot.” A second difficulty would be one of economy. Dr. Beaglehole said. In general, the islanders to-day needed many European trade goods, but were otherwise content to grow only as much food as necessary to support their own needs. Many of the islands, however, could also be made to produce sugar and copra, gold and nickle, chrome and phosphates, products that were all of vital importance in one way or another to the developed economy of the modem world. “The rub of the matter is here—the islanders are not very happy if they have to work as steadily and regularly as the western world demands in order to produce these commodities,” said Dr. Beaglehole. “Second, unless 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 schemes, minimum schooling and education for the peoples, and efficient administration. Yet these things are all needed badly by almost all the south Pacific islands. If the conference can begin to draft blueprints that will enable both natives and governing powers to walk round some of these economic snags, then it wiU have fully justified its existence.”