New Pacific treaty

Press, 29 April 1981, Page 20

New Pacific treaty

If the American Senate ratifies a treaty signed on December 2 it will bring to an end a history of conflicting claims for islands in the Pacific between New Zealand and the United States. Under the treaty the United States forgoes claims to the three main atolls which form the Tokelau Islands and New Zealand recognises the sovereignty of the United States over Swains Island, which lies between the Tokelau group and American Samoa. In fact New Zealand has never formally claimed Swains Island, though some Tokelauans considered that there were traditional Tokelauan rights to the island. New Zealand, which owns the Tokelaus and has administered them since the 19205, has gained recognition of its claim by the treaty and Swains Island, long inhabited by Americans, is now openly acknowledged by New Zealand to belong to the Americans. The Americans are expected to be accommodating to the Tokelauans who consider that they have traditional rights on the island. , The treaty, was signed for the Americans by the American Ambassador to New Zealand (Mrs Anne Martindell) who travelled to Tokelau in the frigate Waikato supplied by the New Zealand Government. For New Zealand the treaty was signed by the faipule in Tokelau, the local elders.

Because Tokelau is New Zealand territory, the Tokelauans have no authority to sign a treaty other than as New Zealanders. The treaty having been signed, the United States Constitution requires that it be ratified by the Senate. That is the stage which has now been reached. President Reagan has sent the treaty to the Senate asking that it be ratified. It seems highly unlikely that the Senate will not ratify it, though there is always the danger that someone might claim that American territory was being given away. The introduction of 200-mile zones has enhanced the value of small Pacific islands. Fishermen in particular view with disfavour any ceding of territory that might be considered American. However, that has not stopped the final sorting out of competing claims so far. The status of the Cook Islands, which are self governing in free association' with New Zealand, differs from that of the Tokelaus, but the United States had a claim to the Northern Cooks, which has also been dropped. Most of the claims dated from about the turn of the century. New Zealand and the United States have settled their differences over their colonial interests in the Pacific. The lift given to the American Ambassador in a New Zealand frigate is a friendly touch in this footnote to the history of the Pacific.