GROUP IN PERIL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24827, 29 January 1942, Page 6

GROUP IN PERIL

THE SOLOMON ISLANDS JAPANESE AGGRESSION LITTLE ECONOMIC GAIN Although the Solomon Islands, which the Japanese are believed to be occupying, are o£ importance in the strategy of the Pacific war. their temporary loss will not be a serious matter from the economic point of view, nor will they give Japan much in the way of harbours for naval craft.

The Northern Solomons, consisting mainly of the large island of Bougainville and the smaller island of Baku, form part of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea, and are adminstered by Australia. The British Solomons, extending south-eastward from Bougainville for about 900 miles, form a protectorate under the Colonial Office. The administrator is a resident commissioner responsible to the Governor of Fiji as High Commissioner of the Western Pacific. Tragedies of the Past The group is formed ■ by a double row of large islands, partly volcanic in orisin and rising in places to mountain peaks morvj than 7000 feet high. The total land area of the protectorate, which includes an immense number of small islands, is about 14,600. square miles. The principal islands are Choiseul, Ysabel, Malaita. Guadalcanal, San Cristoval, the New Georgia group, Santa Cruz, and Rennell. These names, with their varied origins, recall the many French, British, Spanish and other navigators who visited the group after its discovery by the Spaniard Alvara de Mendana in 1567 while on a voyage from Peru. Mendana attempted to form a colony on Santa Cruz in 1595, but he was murdered by natives, and his followers left. During the nineteenth century the Solomon Islands had an unenviable reputation for murder, violence and the ill-treatment of natives by " blackbirders." On the other hand, missionaries accomplished much good and a number of them gave their lives, including the French Roman Catholic Bishop Epalle in 1845 and Bishop J. C. Patteson In 1871. The Melanesian Mission and Roman Catholic, Methodist, Seventh Day Adventist and Evangelical organisations are now operating in the group. In 1893 Britain established a protectorate over the Solomons with headquarters at Tulagi, near the island of Florida, in the centre of the group. The recruiting of native labour was gradually brought into order and the last of it for outside destinations ended in 1910. At the same time there was a considerable development of plantations and the pacification of wild tribes was carried on with success.

The natives are mostly Melanesian stock, with a Polynesian admixture in many cases, and some of the smaller islands are peopled by pure Polynesians. The variety of dialects spoken is bewildering. Copra forms the staple export, and the persistently low prices of recent years have retarded economic development. In 1939-40 total exports were valued at £180,860 and imports at £189,772, whereas in 1926-27 exports reached a peak of £452,000. Other commodities shipped are trochus shell, ivory, nuts and some timber. Women and Children Evacuated The European population in 1931 was just under 500, and is now believed to be less. There were in 1931 nearly 200 Chinese and other alien residents and about 100,000 natives. The climate is enervating and few Europeans escape malaria.

The Rev. R. Godfrey, representative in New Zealand of the Bishop of Melanesia, the Rt. Rev. W. H. Baddeley, said in Auckland recently that the mission staffs had been greatly reduced since the outbreak of war, and European women -and children had been evacuated when war with Japan became imminent. The Melanesian Mission motor vessel Southern Cross was now on naval service. Bishop Baddeley, when last heard from, was at his post in the group.