COMMUNISM INFILTRATES SOLOMON ISLANDS: LEGACY OF WAR YEARS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22658, 8 June 1948, Page 8

COMMUNISM INFILTRATES SOLOMON ISLANDS: LEGACY OF WAR YEARS

“RECENT troubles with the natives of the Solomon Islands are not attributable to Japanese propaganda during the war. The natives turned against the Japanese shortly after the occupation of their islands, because of the invaders’ attacks on their womenfolk. It is Communistic propaganda which lias created a situation in which little work is being done on the plantations, and white people are reduced to short commons.” said Mr. J. Stuart Mill, a member of the South Seas Evangelical Mission, who reached Gisborne yesterday in the course of a lecture tour of the Dominion.

-* His part in the mission work is to conduct the schooner service which connects the various mission stations in the Solomons, and his absence from the islands at this time is due to unsettled conditions there —conditions which prevent normal activity in the ■ mission work as well as in economic 1 production. 1 Mr. Mill has been connected with the 1 Solomons mission since 1934. and was evacuated in 1942 a short time in advance of the Japanese occupation ut : the islands. i Post-War Wage Boost Demanded Going back in 1946. he found the . natives truculent and delermineu ; to work on the plantations along the | coastal regions unless assured of a weekiv wase 12 times as great as the pre-war standard. In the old days the native indentured worker received 5s per week plus housing, provisioning, medical care, and clothing. Young men worked in the plantations until they had a stake—modest enough from the European point of view but adequate for their own eestablishment as married men—and there was no difficulty in keeping the plantation staffs up to strength.

That picture was vastly changed when efforts were made to recommence production after the eviction of the Japanese. Economic Aspects Ignored

Propaganda introduced among the Solomons natives by European Communists and members of American negro units which visited the Islands during the war had resulted in a determined stand for a bigger wage for plantation workers in particular, regardless of the economic aspects of the copra business Thev demanded a £3 wage for the same work they did be-

fore the war. The "Marching Rule" association which governed the workers had developed its own spy system, and had established courts to real with offenders against the embargo.

There were no known cases of serious violence, but strong persuasion was undoubtedly used to prevent young men taking up plantation work at rates lower than £3 per week. It was the setting up of these courts that led to stern Government action against the leaders of the “Marching Rule.” who are now under detention. The situation was so bad at one time that the Imperial authorities had felt it necessary to fend a strong naval flotilla to cruise along the coasts, as a reminder of where true authority lay. European Goods Not Coming

The failure to get production going on the plantations, and the uncertainty of cargoes, had in the meanwhile dissuaded shipping people in Australia from sending their vessels to the Solomons. and without regular shipping the islands quickly fell short of European foodstuffs.

There are normally about 80 to 100 European people in th e islands, compared with about 100,000 natives of whom 5000 can be absorbed on the plantations. “Things are improving now. with the gradual weakening of the authority of the ‘Marching Rule,’ ” said Mr. Mill. “The Toabita tribe in the northern tip of Malaita Island have been the mainstay of the movement in recent months, and other tribes have hesitated to ignore the example given by the Toabitas. Now. however, their influence seems_ to be on the wane, and it probably is only a matter of time before things return to normal.” The natives of the islands are not far removed from cannibalism, which was associated with their old-time pagan rites: but they are an unsophisticated people who. in the absence of true leadership, easily can go astray. “Properly and usefullyl led, however, they should have a considerable contribution to make to the general advance of the Pacific races,” said Mr. Mill. “The ‘Marching Rule’ influence could hardly have become important if the natives had not been without their regular sources of information and guidance during the war years.”