The Second World War had a dramatic impact on the South Pacific. This was not confined to the effect of the experience on the
indigenous people. The War also had a significant influence on those whose policies would determine the post-war arrangements in the
region — the colonial powers. As a direct result of the War* the colonial powers decided for the first time to commit themselves to the promotion of regional co-operation in the South Pacific. This lifted regionalism from the level of private proposals to that of inter governmental action.
Formation of the South Pacific Commission
This new commitment had an important institutional expression. In January 1947, representatives of the six colonial powers with South Pacific territories - the United States, the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand - assembled in Canberra to sign an agreement establishing a regional commission for
the area. The stated purpose of this new organisation, the South Pacific Commission (SPC), was to:
. . . encourage and strengthen international co-operation in promoting the economic and social welfare and advance ment of the peoples of the non-self-governing territories
in the South Pacific . . . .1
Australia and New Zealand initiated the 1947 conference at which the Canberra Agreement was signed.2 They had been proposing the
'Agreement Establishing the South Pacific Commission, Canberra, 6 February 1947', Australian Treaty Series (1948), No.15, Preamble. 2
The South Seas Commission Conference, 28 January-6 February 1947. For a full account of the Conference see: New Zealand Department of External Affairs, Report of the New Zealand Delegation on the Conference Eeld at Canberra 28 January-6 February 1947, for the Purpose of
Establishing an Advisory Commission for the South Pacific (Wellington, 1947), Publication No.26.
establishment of such an organisation since January 1944 when a decision to promote the creation of a South Seas Regional Commission had formed part of the ANZAC Pact.'1' They were delayed in taking their proposal further, first by the War, and then by the creation of the United Nations. It is evident that the South Pacific
Commission would not have been formed without the initiative of the Australasian Governments. The other colonial powers initially played a passive role and were less than enthusiastic about the proposal.^
The evidence suggests that the Australian and New Zealand
Governments were at least partly motivated by concern with promoting development that would assist the indigenous people of the Pacific when they proposed the establishment of a regional commission. This was not, of course, without precedent in the South Pacific. As we have seen, the promotion of 'native welfare' had already been attempted through the Western Pacific High Commission in its early years and through the Central Medical School. The concept was also being promoted publicly in Australia by missionaries and anthro pologists just prior to the Government's decision to initiate the establishment of a regional commission. In 1940, the Reverend M. Frater had called for the formation of a 'South Pacific Confederation' which would have as its purpose the promotion of security and 'the
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conservation and development of the native races'. A similar proposal Australia. Department of External Affairs, 'Australia/New
Zealand Agreement', Current Notes on International Affairs, Vol. XV, N o .1 (January 1944), pp.2-9, Clause 31.
2
See H.E. Maude, 'The South Pacific Commission', Australia's Neighbours (Melbourne, A H A ) , 4th Series, No.5 (June 1963), p.l; and
'South Pacific Commission', Round Table, Vol. XLVIII (December 1957), p.88.
3
See M. Frater, 'Why Not a South Pacific Confederation?', Pacific Islands Monthly, May 15, 1940.
was put forward by the Reverend J.W. Burton, head of the Methodist Overseas Mission.^" In 1943, A.P. Elkin, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Sydney, drawing specifically on the principles of the Atlantic Charter, advocated a 'Charter for the Native Peoples of the South Pacific'. It included a provision for a 'Pacific
Regional Council' to administer the promotion of native interests.2 Such proposals did not necessarily influence the Government's decision in 1944 but they can be seen as products of the same general climate of thought.
The Australian and New Zealand Governments recognised the need to assist the Islanders, not only in economic and social development, but also in political development. This is evident in the wording of
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the relevant clauses of the ANZAC Pact, a document which recorded the decisions of the January 1944 Conference between the two countries. Clause 31(a) of that document provides that the proposed regional commission was to be given the function of recommending:
arrangements for the participation of natives in admini stration in increasing measure with a view to promoting the ultimate attainment of self-government in the form most suited to the circumstances of the native peoples concerned.
And in Clause 31(f) it was to be given the function of: publishing periodical reviews of progress toward the development of self-governing institutions in the islands of the Pacific.
J.W. Burton, Brown and White in the South F a d fie (Sydney: Australian Institute of International Affairs, 1944), pp.62-63.
2
A.P. Elkin, Wanted - A Charter for the Native Peoples of the