Many a pygmy-size paradise of late has
attained the badge of nationhood —such as Cyprus, Rwanda, Burundi, Zan
zibar. But all stand as giants beside a midget that last week clamored
to join the gang: the Pacific island of Nauru.A coral-and-palm flyspeck 1,300 miles northeast of Australia, Nauru has
an area of 8 square miles and a population of 2,700. Only 100 years
ago, it was a virtually unknown battleground of savages who guzzled
coconut toddy and sported necklaces of human teeth; in 1852 the
Nauruans inhospitably chopped up the entire crew of the visiting
American brig, India. Since the turn of the century, however, life for
the islanders has been one long enchanted evening.No Taxes. In 1900 a British engineer assayed a Nauru rock being used as
a doorstop in his Sydney office, discovered that the island was richly
overlaid with phosphate. With Britain, Australia and New Zealand
extracting the deposits, royalties have showered down on the Nauruans
to the tune of half a million dollars a year. Today the dark-skinned
natives pay no taxes but enjoy schools, hospitals, running water,
electric lights and movies.A few years ago, it became evident that the phosphate would run out
before long. Nauru's three concessionaires and the U.N., of which the
island is a trusteeship, rushed solicitously to the rescue. Last year
Australia took the natives' head chief, Hammer deRoburt, to look over
Australia's Curtis Island off the Queensland coast, offered to
underwrite a $22.4 million resettlement of the Nauruans there. Curtis
Island is larger than Nauru, has abundant supplies of fish offshore,
and its wildlife would even permit the Nauruans to pursue their
favorite pastime of taming noddies and frigate birds.Color Bar. But last week the deal collapsed, for the Nauruans were
insisting that they get sovereignty over the island in exchange for
moving there. Australia had no intention of giving up complete control
of a territory so close to its shores. An alternative scheme to
resettle Nauru's minuscule populace in Australia was rejected by the
dusky islanders for fear of race discrimination by the Australians, who
frankly practice the color bar.In Canberra, burly Head Chief deRoburt stomped out after conferences
with Australia's Minister for Territories Charles Barnes and Prime
Minister Robert Menzies, vowing: “The whole world will know how you've
treated us!” With that, DeRoburt announced that his people would now
remain on Nauru and seek to have it filled with crop-growing soil, take
over the remaining phosphate deposits—and become an independent state
by 1967. Whether the latter will come to pass remains to be seen. But
clearly what the Nauruans want is just what South Pacific's Bloody Mary
recommended—their own special island.
