DANGER IN SOLOMONS

Evening Star, Issue 18534, 17 January 1924, Page 1

DANGER IN SOLOMONS

PEOPLING AND PRODUCTION NEEDED. UNDEVELOPED STRATEGIC ■ CENTRE. The writer of the following article, Mr G. L. Tacon, a New Zealander, has resided in, and is a recognised authority upon, these Pacific Islands. The grave and urgent national danger which they present to the whole structure of our Empire has impelled him to write the article in the ‘ British Australasian ’:— The strength of a chain is its weakest link. Tho weakest link in tho chain of defence of the British Empire to-day is the Solomon and Bismarck Islands taken conjointly. Upon the speedy.strengthening of this faulty link depends not only the /utility of Singapore as a naval base lor tho Pacific, but also probably the continuance of the very existence of Australia and New Zealand as white communities. The grave position obtaining in these little-known islands calls for urgent and very serious attention. Tlie Solomon Islands extend from New Guinea south-easterly into the Pacific, a distance of about 1,000 miles; tho Bismarck Archipefago continues this line a further 500 miles north-westerly round the eastern extremity of New Guinea. They form a strategic and corporate, whole, with identical interests and conditions:

They are less than 3,000 miles from Japan, and a bare 900 miles from the northernmost Pacific seaports of Australia. They command the shortest routes from Singapore to Eastern Australia or New Zealand. To tho north, 800 miles, Japan is now in possession of the Caroline Islands, with at least two fine harbors. The shortest and safest steamship route between Japan and Australia passes through the Solomons. The islands have a total area of some 36,000 square miles—greater than that of all other islands in the. Pacific combined (excluding Now Zealand). They contain some of the finest natural harbors in tho world for largo shipping and for submarine bases. They have extensive savannas, suitable for .aircraft bases. Tho soil generally is extremely rich and fertile; rainfall is regular and abundant; hurricanes arc unknown. They are, thus - fitted _ for highly intense culture and close peopling; cattle thrive well.

The islands are under British rule; those to tho north (lata German) are administered from Australia; tho balance form tho British Soomon Islands Protectorate, controlled by the Colonial Office from London through the High Commissioner for the Western Pacific at Fiji. The total white population is less than 1,000; owing to the equatorial humid climate, manual labor is impossible for white people. The native population is Melanesian, and is estimated at 250,000; it is decreasing rapidly from various causes, of which the chief are sheer idleness and ennui.

Development throughout the group has been at a standstill for many years, owing mainly to the inadequate available supply of native labor, combined with arbitrary and unsympathetic government. Every effort to obtain labor from outside the islands has been vetoed. Of the 10,000,000 odd acres in tho Solomon Islands alone, after thirty years of British occupation of the greater portion, less than 40,000 acres are in permanent cultivation, and this wholly in cocoanuts,which require a minimum of labor. The reason for this is to be found in the policy of the Colonial Office, in which a sentimental and therefore harmful interest for the native race predominates to the exclusion of the interest of economic development of the territory. Australia has followed a similar policy with its islands. Economic development through taxation provides the means of government, hut the taxpayer in these islands has no decision whatever in the making of the laws which he must obey, nor in the levying of taxes which ho must pay—whereby the cardinal principle of tho British Constitution of “no taxation without representation ” is violated.

As well ns copra, cotton, rubber, rice, sugar, hemp, maize, tobacco, and almost every known tropical product has been proved to do well in these islands, where millions of virgin acres of (he richest land in tho world await their cultivation. Under good government, and with adequate labor, capital for development would bo readily available, attracted by tho wonderful potentialities of tho place. The position, therefore, is' that these extensive islands, with an area all but equal to two-thirds of that of England and Wales, with their unrivalled strategic position and advantages, and with unlimited economic possibilities, are to all practical purpose lying idle and unpeopled as of no account or value under British control, and with no prospect whatever, as matters stand, of any improvement. To continue) with any moral right to hold these rich islands to tho exclusion of other nations, Britain must he able to show effective occupation. Parts of Asia aro over-populated, and its increasing millions must spread. Unlike ourselves, Asiatics thrive in this climate, If the Pacific is to he the battleground of races, as many fear and which Cod forbid, then possession of these islands will be a determining , factor in the struggle. To retain them wc must develop them now. Within recent years Japanese have been systematically penetrating the group, and. ae matters stand,

the process may bo expected to develop rapidly. If tlie-se islands under presentconditions become peopled with a strong admixture of Japanese, their control might, not inconceivably, pass to Japan. Australia and New Zealand would then have at their door a groat maritime power whose people they exclude. Australia lies within two days by steam, and merely a few hours by air. Singapore ns a naval base for tho Western Pacific would be largely neutralised. If the “White Australia’’ policy is to be maintained the Solomon and Bismarck Islands are the outpost lino of the white people in the Pacific, and the key to Australasia. Following upon the removal of Germany from tho Pacific, Australia has taken over the responsibility for- a large part of these islands. She has only been in possession since 1914, and it might he argued (herefrom that she has not yet had a fair chance. But the problem here is rapid, effective occupation; this entails very extensive settlement and a large supply of labor, which, from climatic causes, must be Asiatic. Tills is not practicable under Australian control; her people would not agree to Asiatic settlement. Also, a very large capital expenditure is involved : and Australia needs all her capital fur her own internal development. Australia has given no indication of perceiving tho existence, much less the extreme urgency, of the problem; although her very life as a white people may come to depend upon its solution Australia has her hands full with the peopling of her vast continent; and she cannot, without gravest peril to herself and to others, continue, to attempt the additional burden of directing these distant, far-flung, And vitally important, islands, whose needs and conditions aro so entirely foreign to those of her own people. Furthermore, Australia and New Zealand, for their own security, should not longer sanction the position 'of stagnation obtaining in the British .Solomon Islands Protectorate under the Colonial Office. ,

Tho true interest of Australia and New Zealand lies in promoting, by whatever means, under the British flag the most rapid development of those islands. The British taxpayer, whether he bo Australian or English, cannot afford, and is not likely to pay, the sum required to give any adequate protection against aggression to those far-flung, extensive islands unless they are going to bo worth it.

Because Japan is n, friendly Power is no reason for us to blind ourselves to inexorable fact. Japan needs such land as this for her fast increasing surplus: wove we not there she would have annexed and have begun to people it ere now. How long is tho fact of our merely nominal occupation going to prevent, Japan doing so if and when she pleases? That is the question. If these islands are developed and made valuable they will command protection ; they cannot otherwise.

The setting up of a, separate colony to include the Solomon Islands and the Bismarck Archipelago is indicated as a. possible solution. Such a colony should have some suitable form or representative, government under the Crown in which all sections of tho community and various commercial and similar interests would he represented; and to wide!: Australia and New Zealand could send rep rose ntalives if they so desired. It should be selfgoverning—should control its own revenues and make its own laws: and it should be subjected to as little interference from outside as possible. .Such a. system would provide the ablest and most energetic direction and control available; and a body whose Whole and constant attention could bo concentrated' upbn- uA task with a steady outlook and purpose. Tho readiest and best solution of the population and, labor difficulty would appear to be the colonisation of tho greater part of the vast areas of surplus land remaining after making ample provision for the native population hy suitable emigrants from tho surplus agricultural peoples of India, by arrangement with tho Indian Government. Tho Solomon and Bismarck Islands could offer tho boat possible opening over many years for successful Indian emigration on the, largest scale. The neighboring island of Java, of about one-third larger area, with similar climatic and other conditions, carries a prosperous population of nearly forty millions of people similar in most respects to those of India.

Subject to some such general plan of colonisation and development under the British flag, freedom of opportunity in the colony should be granted to all people, irrespective of nationality.

Probably no British possession can promise such great and immediate material results in trade for Great Britain'and Australia as these rich and important islands, if developed energetically. The present position of inertia in the Solomon Islands and Bismarck Archipelago invites aggression and incalculable harm to the whole British people; it is remediable if tackled now.