The Press WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 1962. South Pacific Experiment In Co-operation

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29871, 11 July 1962, Page 12

The Press WEDNESDAY, JULY 11, 1962. South Pacific Experiment In Co-operation

The activities of the South Pacific Commission are not as well known in New Zealand as they should be; yet the Dominion contributes about £35.000 annually to the commission's budget. Since its establishment at Canberra in 1947 by Australia, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand. Britain, and the United States, the commission has attempted—in terms of its mandate —“ to encourage '** and strengthen inter- “ national co-operation in ** promoting the economic “ and social welfare and “advancement of the non- “ self-governing territories “ in the South Pacific ” administered by the founder Governments. The commis-i sion’s two auxiliary bodies are the Research. Council l and the South Pacific Conference, convened every three years as a forum for the islanders whose interests the commission serves. Today about 60 representatives from 18 territories will assemble at Pago Pago, in American Samoa, for the fifth of the conference series.

The occasion is noteworthy because of the continued participation of Western Samoa after its attainment of independence this year. The independent kingdom of Tonga has customarily been represented by invitation at these meetings; but the presence of representatives from the first Polynesian State to achieve autonomy after colonial rule will mark a new and important stage in the development of Pacific peoples. Western Samoa considers itself too small and too poor to seek membership of the United Nations. Its association with the South Pacific Commis-

sion may therefore satisfy, at least temporarily, the country's need for external friendships. Problems of constitutional evolution are nowhere more difficult than among the small, scattered ! settlements of the Pacific. At the Pago Pago meetings will be discernible the start of a change in the basic pattern of regional relationships from that of administering Powers and dependent peoples to an amalgam of small, independent units and others still administered by Europeans but at various stages of political maturity. It is a complex pattern, given cohesion by! common economic and social aspirations. The commission’s area of interest extends over 12 million square miles, only 3 per cent, of which is land, occupied by more than three million people. Public health, economic growth, and social progress are the three main fields of activity. Research into specific medical, sanitary, agricultural, and industrial problems has already proved its worth, ‘though the scope is so tremendous that only a beginning has been made. Educational and cultural programmes are also organised. In all of these the commission may enlist the aid of other international agencies and of the participating Governments’ own resources. It is an astonishing experiment in regional fellowship, and an enlightened endeavour to stimulate the islanders’ enthusiasm for new standards of living, for new contacts among themselves and with the wider world, and for a peaceful, product tive future. New Zealanders should be proud of their opportunity to help.