THE PRESS TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1387. Helping the Cook Islands

Press, 13 January 1987, Page 20

THE PRESS TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1387. Helping the Cook Islands

Cyclone Sally tbis month caused serious and costly damage to the Cook Islands. It is heartening to see the willingness of many countries to offer aid to the Government and the people of the Cooks. New Zealand has so far sent three Hercules aircraft carrying food and other supplies, Army and Ministry of Works tradesmen, and others who are now assessing the damage. New Zealand’s efforts have gone into immediate relief and reconnaissance. International committees are co-ordinating information on the damage, and New Zealand is awaiting the reports of those committees before deciding the form of further help. The Minister of Customs, Mrs Shields, who has been in the Cook Islands, will also report to the Cabinet on the damage, and on what is being done to rebuild devastated areas.

That France has been one of the countries giving aid has given rise to speculation that the aid is offered to improve French relations in the South Pacific, and if possible to win some influence. France is only one of the countries giving aid — others include Australia, Britain, the United States, and Canada. It would have been surprising if France had not offered help, because French Polynesia includes some of the islands closest to the Cook Islands. Besides that, many Cook Islanders live in French Polynesia, and some of the aid from France which arrived in the first ship came from private sources, no doubt including Cook Islanders living in French Polynesia. France has long been one of the major givers of aid to the South Pacific. French aid has been heavily concentrated in New

Caledonia, French Polynesia, the Wallis and Fortuna group, and the South Pacific Commission. Since France insists oh referring to certain parts of the South Pacific as part of France itself, there is a question over what should be considered aid, and what regional development However the aid given to the South Pacific Commission is undoubtedly multilateral aid by any definition; France has continued aid to Vanuatu, and recently has given aid for cyclone relief to Fiji and the Solomons.

France, like other countries, has certainly been known to use aid to serve its own ends. However, there is no reason to believe that the French aid to the Cook Islands is being offered with ulterior' motives; France has clearly been trying to raise its profile In the South Pacific. Because of the events in New Caledonia, attention was bound to" turn towards French administration in the South Pacific in any case. France’s nuclear testing at Mururoa Atoll attracts attention to France. The election of the conservative Government in France in March of last year was probably the turning point in France’s determination to raise its diplomatic profile in the South Pacific, although the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior had inadvertently done that already. France is surely motivated, as other countries have been, by humanitarian views in extending aid to the Cook Islands. The disaster may also have been acknowledged as an opportunity to exercise a policy already formulated, but France does not have such thinking to itself. There is enough damage in the Cook Islands for the burden of rehabilitation to be shared honourably.