FRENCH OCEANIA

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 81, 2 October 1940, Page 8

FRENCH OCEANIA

DOMINION'S CONTACT

RESULT OF PLEBISCITE

OFFICIAL'S VISIT

The extent to which the New Zealand Government was interested in French Oceania was outlined last night by the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. IP. Fraser), who denied a suggestion that the territory was under the supervision of New Zealand or any other British Government. The Prime Minister said that as a result of the recent plebiscite held in ! Tahiti and the consequential change of Government in French Oceania, it had been thought, desirable for the New Zealand Government, acting in this matter on behalf of the other Governments of the British Commonwealth, to make contact with the new Administration. "A representative of the New Zed-, land Government has accordingly visited Papeete, when he found the new Governor, M. Edmond Mansard, 'in office on the appointment of Genejral de Gaulle, assisted by the mem-' 'bers of the late Governor's Privy i Council, who had been largely reisponsible for the decision to support the Free French movement," said Mr. Fraser. "The Governor and his advisers appeared to be firmly in conitrol of the situation and to have the !:support of the great bulk of the population, both French and Polynesian, and their collaboration with the New Zealand representative was most j cordial. METHOD OF COLLABORATION. "It was possible at once to make arrangements for the repatriation to France of the late Governor and a few officials with their wives and families, who found themselves unable to support the new Administraj tion, and the opportunity was taken for detailed discussions concerning the method of collaboration between the new Administration and the British Commonwealth. The matters so discussed are now the subject of consultation between his Majesty's Governments in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the Commonwealth of j Australia, and it is intended that the New Zealand Government, as the closest neighbour of French Oceania, shall, maintain contact with that territory." j The Prime Minister added that what purported to be a report on this matter published in a northern newspaper contained a number of inaccuracies, and he particularly. emphasised that there was no truth whatever in the suggestion made in that report that French Oceania was now px'actically a British Protectorate under the supervision of New Zealand. "The Administration of French Oceania under the authority of General de Gaulle, and through his appointee, Governor Mansard, is freely and of its own desire co-operating with the British Commonwealth in the struggle for freedom in which we. are all engaged and is in no way under the supervision of New Zealand or any other British Government," the Prime Minister concluded. ,