HC Deb 07 June 1967 vol 747 cc1247-58

Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Mr. Harper.]

12.32 a.m.

Mr. Bryant Godman Irvine (Rye)

Having had the opportunity of listening to the detailed discussion in Committee on the Finance Bill of the United Kingdom, I now ask the Chief Secretary and the Financial Secretary to pay attention for a short time to the financial arrangements of a small community of 2,000 people in a small island measuring 29 miles by seven in the Fiji Group in the Pacific. I am sure that they will find that the problems there are of considerable interest to them, as, indeed, they are to the rest of the House.

These people are known as the Banabans. They are the owners of Ocean Island, which is part of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony. About five years ago I had the good fortune to visit Fiji. There I had my attention drawn to, among other matters, the problems of the Banabans by the then Speaker, who is now Sir Maurice Scott. He and his partner have kept me in touch with the developments affecting this community over the intervening period.

In January of this year I had the opportunity of discussing with the Rabi Island Council in Fiji some of the matters which were then in its mind. The Chairman of the Rabi Island Council, Mr. Rotan, and his son, the Rev. Tebuke Rotan, have recently been here in London. I am delighted to learn from them that they feel that they have been greeted with the greatest kindness, that they have enjoyed their visit, and that the discussions that they have had with the hon. Lady, the Minister of State for Commonwealth Affairs and her Department were carried on in a very friendly way. So much so that they have asked me to express on their behalf, in accordance with the Rabi custom, their apologies for any discourtesies which may have crept in during the discussions, owing to the heat of the moment. Knowing the two gentlemen in question, I find it difficult to believe that any such apologies could possibly be necessary; but they have asked me to express them on their behalf.

One of the other things which perhaps distinguishes this debate from some of the events which take place in the House is that these people have come from the Pacific, not asking for any change in their status, nor complaining in any way about the administration, but because they have a firm belief in the justice which they feel certain will be accorded to them when they come to the United Kingdom. I have had the privilege of hearing Mr. Rotan express his great faith in the way he was sure he would be treated when he came to the United Kingdom. He expressed it while I was in Fiji and I heard him do so again in the presence of the hon. Lady. I am glad that he will return from his visit to the United Kingdom reinforced in that belief, and that he has had such a happy visit.

Perhaps I should indicate a little of the history of the way in which this matter comes before the House. It starts in 1900, when the British Government issued a licence to exploit phosphate deposits located on Ocean Island by the Pacific Island Company. The licence stated that it: acquired from the native inhabitants all rights and interests possessed by them in the phosphate deposits.

In September, 1901, the island was formally annexed for Great Britain and brought under the control of the resident Commissioner of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Protectorate. The Banabans were paid £50. By 1905, it was apparent that they were not entirely satisfied with the sum paid, and negotiations went on for a considerable time. In 1913, an agreement was worked out under which the Banabans received their first royalty of 6d. per ton on phosphate extracted. The Colony received an equal sum. Those sums have been altered at various periods.

In 1931, the Banabans' royalty went up to 10½d. per ton and the Colony received the difference between revenue and expenditure plus 6d. per ton. In 1947, the royalties were altered to 1s. 3d. per ton for the Banabans, and the Colony got £A24,000 per annum and 1s. 9d. per ton. In 1952, it went up to £A40,000 per annum for the Colony plus 9s. 9d. per ton, but the Banabans' royalty remained at 1s. 3d. In 1958, the Banabans' royalty went up to 1s. 9d. and the Colony's royalty to 23s. per ton. In 1965, the Banabans' royalty increased to 3s. 8d. and the Colony royalty to 29s. Finally, in 1966, the agreement was that the Banabans had 7s. and the Colony 35s. 1d. of the royalty available.

The Banabans lived on Ocean Island until the intervention of the Japanese, who took the islanders away and used them for slave labour during the last war. That led to the problem of what was to happen at the end of the war— whether they were to return to live on the island or go somewhere else. It was eventually arranged that they should go to Rabi Island in the Fiji group, which was bought for them out of their share of the royalties.

There are five things that I want to bring to the Minister's attention. First, I should like her to look at the annual report for 1914–15 on the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Protectorate. On page 275, not only were certain arrangements set out, but it is stated clearly that The natives also receive compensation for the removal of coconut trees, while a tonnage royalty on phosphate shipped is paid into a trust fund for their use. The Banabans would like to know just what has happened to the trust fund, because they now perceive clearly that when the phosphates are finished in 1979 they must make provisions for the future. They would like to be sure what has been happening. Whatever has happened to the money paid to them, it certainly has not been spent in riotous living. Anybody who has been to Rabi, and seen the way in which these people live, will not feel that they are following the examples of perhaps some of the people who receive oil royalties, who have large numbers of Cadillacs and live very luxurious lives. I was told when I made inquiries that the total amount of vehicular traffic on the island is one truck, seven tractors and one taxi recently acquired for the use of the Council.

Secondly, I refer to the arrangement in 1913 of a basis of 50 per cent. for the Banabans and 50 per cent. for the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, whereby they each had 6d. This has now turned to a position where the Gilbert and Ellice Islands are getting 16s. 8d. out of every £ of royalties received for the phosphate.

As the Banabans no longer live in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, but have moved to Fiji, they get nothing from the Gilbert and Ellice Islands administration and they also believe that this allocation of royalties has enabled the Gilbert and Ellice Islands to make financial arrangements to put aside a reserve fund which will make the position of those who live in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands much more secure man for those now living on Rabi.

The Banabans fully appreciate that the discussions in August and September last year cannot be raised now and that this was expressly agreed during those discussions in London. But they still feel that, when the occasion comes, these matters will be raised on their behalf. Indeed, they hope that, if that event takes place and they are successful in the points they put forward, if there is any deficiency which has to be made up by the British Treasury to the Gilbert and Ellis Islands, the first person who will be arguing with the Treasury on their behalf will be the hon. Lady or any successor in her important and responsible position.

Thirdly, there is the way in which the funds now coming to the Banabans are to be managed. There have been certain difficulties about the arrangements for management of funds in the past and they say that they feel quite confident about any arrangements they may make direct with Her Majesty's Government.

Fourthly, houses have been built on Rabi in the past and doubtless houses will be built in future as a result of this agreement, but some of the difficulties which arise are on the question of the maintenance of the houses and roads because the islanders do not have the resources or the skill to maintain them in the way they would like.

They have another problem in that the cocoanut palms they found when they came to Rabi had been neglected for a long period. They were overgrown with guavos and had been planted about 100 years before. They have been brought back into production, but the useful life of a cocoanut palm is only about 30 years and they feel that the time has come when they will have to do some planting. Then it will be a period of seven or eight years before these cocoanuts come to fruition. These are matters to which the hon. Lady may be able to direct the attention of her right hon. Friend, who may be sending representatives to Rabi.

Finally, there is the question of ownership of Ocean Island. The Banabans would like a clear indication that, when 1979 comes and the phosphate has all been removed, the future of the island will be discussed with them. They hear rumours that it may be required for defence purposes of some kind. However that may be, and whether or not they go back to live on Ocean Island, they would like a clear statement that they are the owners of Ocean Island and that, whatever happens, its future will be discussed with them.

Those are the points that I wanted to raise. I can give an assurance on behalf of a large number of hon. Members on both sides of the House that there is a warm interest here in the problems of the community. Some who are not present tonight have asked me to express their regret at not being here. One, in particular, is my hon. Friend the Member for Plymouth, Devonport (Dame Joan Vickers), who has taken an interest in these visitors not only while they have been here, but also when she has been in Fiji. I am very glad to know that they have enjoyed their visit and that everything has been conducted in such a friendly way, and I ask the two representatives of the community to take my personal good wishes back to the Council when they meet it once again.

12.45 a.m.

The Minister of State for Commonwealth Affairs (Mrs. Judith Hart)

I should like, first, to say how much I welcome what the hon. Member for Rye (Mr. Bryant Godman Irvine) has said about the pleasure that many of us have had in meeting representatives of the Banaban community in London during the last two or three weeks. I know that there have been a number of hon. Members on his side of the House, and I ask him to take it from me that there have been an equal number of hon. Members on my side of the House, who have been most concerned about and interested in the welfare of the Banaban community and who would join with me in saying how sorry they are that they cannot be present at this very late hour.

I am sure that it will be understood by the representatives of the Banaban community that although in the House of Commons at this time of night we may have a relatively small attendance it does not necessarily in any way represent a lack of interest on the part of Members of the House; it is simply that they leave it to one or two of us on both sides of the House to discuss the issue.

Indeed, the Chief Secretary, who was here at the opening of the hon. Gentleman's remarks, has asked me to say how sorry he is that after the long day that he has had on the Finance Bill he has had to depart. But I would tell the hon. Gentleman that the Chief Secretary has been one of the key figures, as he will appreciate, in the agreement that we have been able to reach with the Banaban community, and his departure is certainly not to be represented as lack of sympathy with the issue. On the contrary, he has played a very full part, although an unseen part, in the discussions that we have had in the last two weeks.

I am very grateful to the hon. Member for the very kind things that he said about the atmosphere of the discussions with the representatives of the Banaban community during the last two or three weeks. For my part, they have been among the most pleasant negotiations—if I can use that word—that I have had in my present post, because, clearly, as the hon. Gentleman knows, and as everybody who has met them appreciates, the Banaban representatives are such charming people with a very real point to put to us in London.

During his speech, the hon. Gentleman did not quote the agreement that I told him about in answer to a Parliamentary Question earlier today. It might be as well to put on the record at the beginning what this amounts to. Subject to Parliamentary approval, Her Majesty's Government are prepared to make to the Banaban community an ex gratia special payment of £80,000 in consideration of the effects of phosphate mining upon Ocean Island since 1900. The hon. Gentleman has very rightly outlined, briefly but effectively, the history of phosphate mining on Ocean Island and the effect that this has had on the Banaban community. It is in respect of this that we are making a once-for-all grant of £80,000 to be used under controlled conditions for the economic development of Rabi Island, where at the moment the Banaban community is living.

It is intended that on the basis of the work financed from the grant the Banabans will be able to apply to the best effect the money they receive from the phosphate royalties, and, of course, we shall be offering technical assistance in order to ensure that the very best advice can be available as to the most effective way in which the ex gratia payment can be used for the economic development of Rabi Island.

I recognise what the hon. Gentleman made clear in his speech, that since the early days of this century, a long time ago, the history of our dealings with the Banabans, who were, as he rightly said, the original inhabitants of Ocean Island, over the extraction of the phosphate of the island has been a chequered one. I think that attitudes have changed very considerably since the first agreements were reached and mining first began in the early 1900s. Looking back over those years I must frankly recognise that by the standards of 1967 the Banabans complain with some justification that the return they derived from the phosphate operations was not enough. In the present settlement we have made a gesture in recognition of this, and I think that the Banaban community itself appreciates that.

One of the problems we met is that after the very acute and difficult wartime experiences of the Banaban community it did not seem sensible, when the time came to put matters right after the end of the war, to re-establish the Banabans on the soil of Ocean Island. It was already, by that time, within measurable distance of being wholly physically removed in the form of phosphate to Australia and New Zealand, and the wise and far-sighted decision was taken then, with the complete concurrence of the leaders of the Banaban community, to abandon Ocean Island for the time being as a homeland, since it was rapidly being made uninhabitable, and to use the benefit of the accumulated phosphate funds to purchase the very pleasant and fertile Island of Rabi in the Fiji Group.

Rabi was to be the permanent home for the Banabans. It was to be the place where they could settle down, where they could bring up their children in peace and stability; it was to be the place where they could go forward to the future with full confidence, and with none of the physical uncertainties threatening Ocean Island.

Here, I think, I must describe some of the practical difficulties which confront at present the Banaban community in establishing its new life in Rabi Island on a solid foundation. During the later years of the exploitation of Ocean Island, which is no more than a rough circle three miles in diameter, the phosphate operations began to extend to a point where the normal life of the Banaban community based on village gardens and fishing was made impossible. The land the Banabans had used for crops was taken for phosphate mining, and, while the community still maintained its great skills in the art of fishing, it began to derive its sustenance more and more in money terms from phosphate, and less and less from what, in another context, might be called subsistence agriculture.

At present, there are no wages to be earned on Rabi except in a small number of jobs which are provided by the Banaban community itself and financed from its phosphate income. Indeed, the Banabans have had to get back to living off the land and cultivating the main cash crop, copra. This, not surprisingly, the Banabans have found very difficult. Our main aim in reaching the present settlement has been to provide them with technical advice of the highest calibre so that they may be able to organise the economy and establish the agriculture of Rabi on the best possible basis for the future, and this is what we intend to be achieved by the technical assistance which is associated with the grant which we are now providing to them.

At the same time, we aim to provide an easily accessible source of funds from which the first essential development works can be carried out. The cash grant will be devoted not simply to agricultural and economic improvements, but also to the working out of a viable social system so that the community can be helped to come to terms with the new environment of Rabi without undue stresses and strains—in other words, to make its adjustment to the new phase of economic development on Rabi.

I am convinced that in making this provision for the Banabans the Government are taking a really far-reaching step which will do a great deal to remove uneasiness among the Banaban community and to provide it with new hope and new objectives, so that in Rabi Island the Banabans can build up for themselves a full and satisfying life.

The hon. Gentleman has raised several specific points, one or two of which I have already covered. May I deal with one of them, first of all? He raised the question of the division between the Gilbert and Ellice Islands and the Banaban community of any additional benefits arising from future negotiations with other governments on the benefits from the phosphate industry. In fact, the agreement which we have reached says that the Secretary of State undertakes to take fully into account as sympathetically as possible all the considerations which the Banabans have represented to him during the course of the meetings in London, including in particular the need for development of Rabi to the optimum advantage of the Banabans both now and in the future.

The Banabans accept, in principle, that the division of the phosphate benefits should remain as it is pending a further determination by the Secretary of State after the next round of discussion by the partner Governments, but they reserve to themselves the right to argue for changes in the basic ratio of the division of the totality of the phosphate benefits between the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony and the Banabans and not solely in respect of any additional benefits which may become available.

The Secretary of State accepts that at future negotiations the Banabans would be at liberty to present their case in this way, but it should be understood that this carries with it no implication that the Secretary of State would agree to any division which would lead to a reduction in the present rate of tax received by the Gilbert and Ellice Islands Colony.

This is a very difficult problem, and I quote to the hon. Gentleman the nature of the agreement—which I think is a reasonable one—which has been reached between the Banaban Government and my right hon. Friend.

The hon. Gentleman raised another point, which was the question of the Banaban Trust Fund. In fact, royalties are paid on every ton of phosphate exported from Ocean Island straight into the Banaban Trust Fund, established under the Fiji-Banaban Fund Ordinance. The Banaban community puts up projects for expenditure from the Fund which require the approval of the Fiji Government before they can be put into effect. That is an inevitable proviso because, by the nature of both geography and history, the Banaban community and Rabi Island have to come under the framework of one of our colonial spheres of government, and it is inevitable that they should come under the Fiji Government.

What it is important to realise is that, in respect of the Banaban Trust Fund and in respect of the special grant which we are now making, there has always been and will be full consultation with the Banaban community. Although the grant and the money is canalised through the Government of Fiji, because this is an area of which Rabi Island is a part, nevertheless this does not mean that there are any particular Fiji Government controls over the expenditure which the Banaban community would not be prepared to accept.

As regards the ex gratia grant of £80,000 which we have made in respect of the past of Ocean Island, I would emphasise that my right hon. Friend and I will be maintaining a close interest and concern in the recommendations of the Banaban community itself. The technical assistance which is suggested for the Banaban community on Rabi Island will be a matter for full discussion between the Banaban community and ourselves, and although, for technical reasons, the matter is assigned to the Government of Fiji, I can tell the hon. Gentleman with complete assurance that the steps taken to canalise the money will be a matter for consultation between the Banaban community, the Fiji Government and ourselves here in London.

One of the additional points which the hon. Gentleman raised concerned the continuing Banaban ownership of Ocean Island. I know how important this is to the Banaban community itself. They rightly feel tremendous concern about this particular point. Now it has been made abundantly clear, in official correspondence with the Banabans, that when the phosphates are exhausted, Ocean Island will remain theirs, and that at any time now, and equally after the phosphates are exhausted, the Banabans are at liberty to visit the island. They have told us that they wish ultimately to achieve the political separation of Ocean Island from the Gilbert and Ellice Islands although Rabi Island is part of Fiji and comes under the administration of the Government of Fiji. But the Banaban community have recognised that as a practical matter nothing can be done about this until the phosphates are exhausted.

I must place on record my appreciation of the good sense shown by the Banabans about this. They have appreciated very fully, I think, the realities presented by the situation. At the same time, I hope that we, for our part, have shown our appreciation of their sentiments and their undoubted emotions and feelings about the whole position.

As they leave London I would like to give them a complete assurance that we will continue to maintain the closest interest in their affairs, as I know hon. Members on both sides of the House will do, including the hon. Gentleman, and we shall do all in our power to ensure that everything possible is done to develop on Rabi Island a full and fruitful life for the Banaban community and for their children's children in the future.

What matters enormously is that the Banaban community, with the aid of the ex gratiapayment we are making to them and the technical assistance that will go along with the grants, will be able to make successful the task of developing Rabi Island itself, whatever the future of Ocean Island may hold for the people of the community.

The Question having been proposed after half-past Nine o'clock on Wednesday evening and the debate having continued for half an hour, Mr. DEPUTY SPEAKER adjourned the House without Question put, pursuant to the Standing Order.

Adjourned at two minutes past One o'clock.