§ Mr. Hooleyasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs why a fund amounting to A$1 million, accumulated under the leasing agreement 1973 entered into by Her Majesty's Government, is being withheld from the Banaban people, thereby compelling them to borrow at high interest rates for lack of this money.
§ Mr. RowlandsThere is no accumulated fund as such.
The 1973 Agreement provided for an advance lump sum payment to the Bana-bans, to be followed by an 84.88:15.12 division of current revenues between the Gilbert Islands and the Banabans; if by the final year of mining either party has received more than 50 per cent, of the net benefits from the newly leased lands, payments during that year would be so 483W adjusted as to ensure a final 50:50 division.
The Gilbert Islands Government have proposed to the Banabans talks about the operation of the 1973 Agreement.