Communist Doctrines Blamed For Trouble In Solomon Islands

Wanganui Chronicle, 8 June 1948, Page 4

Communist Doctrines Blamed For Trouble In Solomon Islands

<P-A) Gisborne, June 7 Infiltration of Communist doctrines into the Solomons during the war years were attributed by Mr T. Stuart Mill, a member of the South Seas Evangelical Mission to recent troubles with natives in the islands. Propaganda was introduced by European Communists and American negroes who visited the islands during the war, resulting in a determined stand for bigger wages by plantation workers, who demanded £3 for the same work as pre-war, regardless of the economic aspects of the copra trade. The "Marching Rule” Association, which governed the workers, had created its own spy system and courts to deal with offenders against the embargo created by the "Marching Rule.'’ If these courts led to Government detention of leaders and the showing of the flag by naval flotillas, as a result of a drop in production, Australian shippers ceased regular shipments and the islands were quickly short of European foods.

Conditions, however, were now improving. with the weakening of "Marching Rule" auther ty, of which a tribe at the northern tip of Malaita was the mainstay in. recent months, but its influence seemed to be waning and it was only a matter of time before conditions would be back to norma'. "Marching Rule” influence could not have become important if natives had not been without regular sources of in r ormaticn and guidance in the war years.